Azure Database Migration Service

There’s never been a better time to start migrating on-premises apps to the cloud. While organisations have built new apps in the cloud, many older projects still remain in data-centres. Some of these apps can easily be moved to the cloud to help lay the foundation for a modern data estate.

The Azure Database Migration Service is the quickest and easiest way to move to the cloud. Whether you’re migrating from SQL Server or moving from Oracle, Sybase, DB2, or MySQL, this fully managed migration service uses a guided, easy-to-implement process to streamline tasks.

If you feel the answer is yes to any of these of these questions, moving to the cloud may be the tool to help you move closer to your goals:

• Do you need to start exploring cloud opportunities without a lot of effort?
• Do you want to optimise operational costs?
• Do you need global distribution with defined SLAs on performance, consistency, and latency?
• Do you need a platform that can enable hybrid scenarios and provide built-in artificial intelligence (AI) and business intelligence (BI)?
• Are you dissatisfied with alternative solutions such as Oracle, Sybase, or DB2?

“The solution we created with Azure runs faster, is more appealing, costs less to run, and provides a better mobile experience. That’s competitive advantage.”

—Shane Davis, Senior Director of Enterprise Architecture & Innovation, SGS. Read the story.

Gain more time for business enablement and innovation

Migrate seamlessly: Using the fully automated Azure Database Migration Service, migrate seamlessly at scale. Move your existing databases to Azure with customer isolation and easier migration—with no code changes. As a result, you can position your organisation to modernise across SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB.

Managed Instances is a deployment option that enables you to lift and shift SQL Server data to an Azure managed instance.  A full SQL Server programming surface area removes the need to re-architect apps, saving time and resources.

SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines. For those who want performance at an even lower total cost of ownership, run your SQL Server in an Azure virtual machine tuned by the team that built SQL Server. Set up and manage your SQL Server deployments in minutes, and then scale up or down on the fly.

Automate administration: Running your data estate on Azure SQL Database is like putting it on autopilot. Azure SQL Database is a fully managed, intelligent relational database service that delivers predictable performance at multiple levels. With near-zero administration, you gain dynamic scalability with minimal or no downtime, built-in intelligent optimisation, global availability, and advanced security options.

Build your business: Taking advantage of migration services and benefits can speed modernisation. Azure capabilities allow you to focus on innovation and rapid app development, accelerating your time to market. As a result, you minimise time and resources for managing virtual machines and infrastructure.

Reasons one should consider moving to the cloud:

• A consistent and seamless hybrid experience.
• Unprecedented speed with in-memory OLTP, for a powerful hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) platform.
• Machine Learning Services that let customers access both scalable R and Python for machine learning and data science needs.
• Support for massively scalable applications with Azure Cosmos DB, including turnkey global distribution.
• Reduced Capex and Opex, self-tuned performance, business-transforming intelligence, advanced security, and dynamic scale.

“Elastic pools are a perfect fit for our SaaS offering because we can dial capacity up and down as needed. Provisioning is easy, and with our setup, we can keep utilization at a maximum.”

—Morten Christensen, Technical Lead, Umbraco. Read the story.

Let’s meet to assess your data estate requirements. Work with Microsoft and partners such as Movere, Cloudamize, and DB Best to determine what you need to do to support your organization’s data types.

By taking the first steps to transforming your data estate—with the ultimate goals of faster performance, reduced time to value, cloud-first innovation, and enhanced analytics—you help your IT department contribute concretely to business growth.

Need more reasons to move data to Azure? Here are a few:

• Try Azure SQL Database for free!
• Familiarise yourself with Cloud Transformation Agreement (CTA) discounts that might be available for your organisation, including commercial licensing mechanisms and pricing to adoption of Microsoft cloud services such as Office365 and Azure.
• Take advantage of $200 in Azure credits!

Plus, get more value from your existing license investments:

•  Use License Mobility through Software Assurance to extend the value of your server applications by deploying them on premises or in the cloud, and to take advantage of the lowest-cost computing infrastructure for changing business priorities.
• Save up to 40 percent on Windows Server virtual machines with Azure Hybrid Benefit for Windows Server.