We Need to Get Our Servers Into Azure Without Breaking the Business

Azure Migrate is Microsoft's own hub for discovering, assessing and moving servers into Azure, and Microsoft does not charge for its discovery and assessment. We deploy it against your VMware, Hyper-V or physical servers and let it collect what is actually running: CPU and memory use over time, disk sizes, installed software and which servers talk to each other. The assessment produces a recommended Azure size and an estimated monthly cost for each server. We read it critically: a server sized from a quiet week will struggle at month-end close.

Since Broadcom completed its acquisition of VMware in 2023, VMware licensing has moved to subscription bundles, and many businesses are re-evaluating their hosts as renewals come up. Moving those virtual machines to Azure is one answer. Moving them to Hyper-V on hardware you already own is another, and so is staying put. Azure Migrate can replicate VMware machines without installing an agent inside each one. We lay out all three options with their trade-offs before you sign anything.

The server closet is where most of our Azure projects start: a domain controller, a file server, an accounting or ERP application server, a SQL instance, and a box nobody wants to reboot. Hyper-V machines can be replicated without agents. Physical servers use agent-based replication, which means a small install on each one and a maintenance window to remove it later. Not everything should go to a virtual machine; file shares often belong in SharePoint, OneDrive or Azure Files instead, and we say so during assessment.

Businesses move from AWS to Azure for practical reasons: they standardized on Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, an application vendor supports Azure better, or licensing works out more simply on one bill. EC2 instances are replicated with the agent-based method, the same way a physical server is. The bigger work is around the servers: security groups become network security groups, IAM roles become Entra ID identities and role assignments, and managed services such as RDS map to an Azure equivalent or a re-platform. Data leaving AWS is billed as egress, so we size it up front.

Before a single server replicates, the destination is ready: subscriptions and resource groups named so the bill makes sense, a virtual network with address ranges that do not collide with your offices, a VPN or private link back to any site that keeps equipment on-premises, identity tied into Entra ID, Azure Policy rules, and logging switched on. It is what separates an Azure environment you can run from one that grew by accident.

If you own Windows Server or SQL Server licenses with active Software Assurance, or qualifying subscriptions, Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you apply them to Azure virtual machines instead of paying for the license again inside the VM price. Eligibility depends on how the licenses were bought, so we check your agreements rather than assume.

Replication runs in the background while your servers stay in production. Before the real cutover we run a test migration: a copy of each replicated server is started in an isolated Azure network, where we log in, check services start, confirm the application opens and run the checks your staff agree to. Problems found there cost an afternoon instead of a business day.

SQL Server can move with its virtual machine, or it can move to a managed Azure SQL service with Azure Database Migration Service, depending on the application vendor's support and how much database administration you want to keep. On cutover night the source servers are shut down cleanly, a final replication runs, the Azure machines start, DNS records and firewall rules are switched, and staff test before the source is retired. The originals stay powered off and intact until you accept the move.