Use Azure SQL Migration to Accelerate Cloud Modernization

Create urgency and define the Business Case

Technology needs might trigger a migration project, but to gain the momentum needed to turn it into a broader modernization effort, it should be clear how the new technology will bring business value. 

To create urgency, you should be able to communicate bottom-up technology challenges, such as mapping out the services that are soon to be EOL and what happens to key business functionality if these services fail. As well as the top-down business benefits, like potential improvements to the customer experience (e.g. increased speed of an application to keep users engaged and avoid churn) or opportunities to explore new business models. 

And don’t forget: a capability might have a low technology priority but might be high on the business’ wish list, and presenting a roadmap that considers both needs is likely to win more support.

Focus on Packaged Business Capabilities

Another way to drive cloud modernization is to make the case for a smaller set of business capabilities (or “packaged business capabilities”) instead of making the “large case” that aims to modernize the whole business.

A Packaged Business Capability (PBC) is a set of applications that supports a specific domain like search, catalog, inventor, promotions, etc. PBCs can be managed and scaled independently and communicate to one another via APIs. 

In the short term, PBCs allow organizations to step off legacy solutions one capability at a time (e.g. using the Strangler Fig Pattern) while having usable results all along the way. In the long term, PBCs make updating, modifying, or replacing applications easier without a waterfall of dependencies.

Define Technology Modernization

In some cases, a lift-and-shift of existing architecture to a cloud platform can be a useful stopgap solution. For instance, Microsoft does offer 3 free years of Extended Security Updates to migrate SQL Database to Azure as-is to run on virtual machines.  

In most cases, however, the expectation is that an application will be modernized to allow it to use the cloud effectively. 

There are many ways to modernize an application, from making data available via services and APIs to completely replacing parts of the application to meet new needs. Deciding on the best path for each PBC requires looking at it from the perspective of technology, time, resources, and business impact.

Optimize Cost

A pragmatic cost-benefit analysis will be needed to get the green light for any major project.

This should include the overall cost of migration, including the time and resources it will take to understand and mitigate the project’s impact on existing systems and business functionality. To help with this, Microsoft, for instance, offers financial assistance for organizations to work with select partners, like Mindcurv, to assess the architecture needs and cost estimates of a cloud migration project.  

The cost calculation should also include the expected running costs of the migrated application. Every additional megabyte comes with a cost in the cloud, and part of modernizing an application is removing unused data, workflows, features, and other tech debt. 

Lastly, there should be a cost-saving plan for scaling resources, such as planning where it makes sense to use Reserved Instance vs On-Demand Capacity Reservation. Or in the case of Azure Database, in particular, setting up your SQL data migration to take advantage of shared elastic pools.

Partner with Experts

There are a lot of moving pieces to take into account with cloud migration and modernization. Partnering with an experienced service provider can help tap into additional funds provided by cloud providers. They can help kick-start a modernization initiative, help maximize project value, and minimize the project timeline. They can also provide access to domain expertise that most companies don’t have in-house. 

For organizations exploring the next steps in their cloud strategy, Microsoft offers, for instance, significant financial assistance through its Azure partner program, to work with Mindcurv for a Cloud Audit & Review. This includes: