Azure Migrate – End-to-End On-Premises to Azure Migration Strategy

1. High-Level Migration Workflow Diagram

2. Migration Strategy Overview

A complete Azure migration generally follows:

Phase	Purpose
Phase 1	Assessment & Planning
Phase 2	Discovery
Phase 3	Dependency Mapping
Phase 4	Readiness Assessment
Phase 5	Replication
Phase 6	Test Migration
Phase 7	Production Cutover
Phase 8	Optimization

3. Step-by-Step Azure Migrate Strategy

PHASE 1 — Environment Assessment

Step 1: Understand Existing Infrastructure

First identify:

Infrastructure Inventory

VMware hosts
Hyper-V hosts
Physical servers
Linux servers
Windows servers
SQL servers
Web applications
Storage systems
Active Directory
Networking
Firewalls

Collect:

CPU usage
RAM usage
Disk utilization
Network traffic
OS versions
Application dependencies

PHASE 2 — Prepare Azure Environment

Step 2: Create Azure Subscription

You need:

Azure subscription
Billing account
Resource organization

Step 3: Create Resource Groups

Example:


RG-Production
RG-Network
RG-Migration
RG-Backup

Step 4: Configure Networking

Create:

Virtual Networks (VNET)
Subnets
NSGs
VPN Gateway or ExpressRoute

Example:

On-Prem → VPN/ExpressRoute → Azure VNET

PHASE 3 — Create Azure Migrate Project

Step 5: Create Azure Migrate Project

Inside Azure Portal:

Azure Portal
→ Azure Migrate
→ Create Project

Choose:

Geography
Subscription
Resource Group

PHASE 4 — Deploy Azure Migrate Appliance

Step 6: Download Appliance

Depending on environment:

VMware appliance
Hyper-V appliance
Physical server appliance

Step 7: Deploy Appliance VM

VMware Example

Deploy OVA file:

CPU: 8 cores
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: 80–100 GB

Step 8: Configure Appliance

Inside appliance:

Configure internet access
Time sync
DNS
Register with Azure

The appliance now connects securely to Azure.

PHASE 5 — Discovery

Step 9: Connect to vCenter / Hyper-V

Provide:

vCenter credentials
Hyper-V credentials
Windows/Linux credentials

The appliance performs:

Agentless discovery
Metadata collection

Step 10: Inventory Collection

Azure Migrate collects:

Machine names
OS versions
CPU/RAM
Installed software
Performance metrics
Dependencies

PHASE 6 — Dependency Mapping

Step 11: Application Dependency Analysis

Azure maps:

App servers
Database servers
Web servers
Inter-server communication

This is critical because:

Applications often depend on multiple servers.

PHASE 7 — Assessment

Step 12: Azure Readiness Assessment

Azure checks:

OS compatibility
VM sizing
Storage requirements
Unsupported configurations

Step 13: Cost Estimation

Azure estimates:

Monthly VM cost
Storage cost
Network cost
Licensing

PHASE 8 — Migration Planning

Step 14: Wave Planning

Wave	Systems

Wave 1

Test servers

Wave 2

Internal apps

Wave 3

Production apps

Wave 4

Critical systems

PHASE 9 — Replication Setup

Step 15: Enable Replication

Azure Site Recovery begins:

Continuous replication
Disk synchronization
Incremental updates

Data flows:

On-Prem VM → Azure Replication Storage

PHASE 10 — Test Migration

Step 16: Perform Test Migration

Azure creates:

Temporary test VM
Isolated network

Validate:

Boot success
App functionality
Database connectivity
Performance

PHASE 11 — Production Migration

Step 17: Schedule Cutover

During maintenance window:

Stop applications
Sync final changes
Shutdown source VM

Step 18: Final Migration

Azure performs:

Final replication sync
VM creation in Azure
Network attachment

Step 19: DNS & Routing Changes

Update:

DNS records
Load balancers
Firewall rules

PHASE 12 — Post-Migration Optimization

Step 20: Optimize Azure Environment

Implement:

Azure Backup
Monitoring
Defender for Cloud
Cost optimization
Auto-scaling

4. Typical Migration Architecture


On-Prem Datacenter
     │
     ▼
Azure Migrate Appliance
     │
     ▼
Azure Migrate Project
     │
     ▼
Assessment & Dependency Mapping
     │
     ▼
Azure Site Recovery Replication
     │
     ▼
Test Migration
     │
     ▼
Production Cutover
     │
     ▼
Azure Virtual Machines

5. Important Migration Considerations

Network

Latency
VPN bandwidth
ExpressRoute

Security

RBAC
NSGs
Encryption
MFA

Identity

Azure AD sync
Hybrid identity

Backup

Pre-migration backups
Recovery testing

6. Recommended Enterprise Migration Order

Priority	Workload
1	Dev/Test
2	Internal apps
3	Web apps
4	Databases
5	ERP/critical apps

7. Common Azure Services Used

Service	Purpose
Azure Migrate	Discovery & assessment
Azure Site Recovery	Replication
Azure Backup	Backup
Azure Monitor	Monitoring
Azure Defender	Security
Azure Arc	Hybrid management

8. Final Enterprise Best Practice

Never migrate everything at once.

Always:

Discover
Assess
Test
Pilot migrate
Validate
Cutover gradually

This minimizes:

downtime,
application failures,
dependency issues,
and business disruption.

Step by Step