With the growing demand for scalable and agile IT solutions, businesses are reevaluating their infrastructure strategies to stay ahead. Gartner predicts that by 2025, over 85% of organizations will adopt a cloud-first approach to harness operational flexibility and drive innovation. For enterprises migrating VMware workloads to the cloud, the Azure VMware Solution (AVS) Migration Service stands out as the optimal choice, offering the fastest path to the cloud.

AVS enables businesses to integrate their VMware workloads seamlessly with over 200 native Azure services while being available across 33 regions. Customers can also establish disaster recovery capabilities in other regions, ensuring operational resilience. This fully managed VMware private cloud in Azure minimizes the need for refactoring, allowing IT teams to leverage existing VMware expertise while seamlessly scaling into the Azure ecosystem. With managed infrastructure, on-demand scalability, and reduced IT costs, AVS empowers businesses to optimize their cloud transition.

However, achieving this level of seamless migration requires a trusted and expert partner who understands the complexities of cloud transformation. This is where Aptly Technology steps in.

As a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner and a recognized leader in cloud migration services, Aptly provides unparalleled expertise and support with our Azure VMware Solution (AVS) Migration Service, delivering a smooth, efficient, and secure migration journey. In this blog, we will outline Aptly’s step-by-step process for migrating VMware workloads to Azure.

In this initial phase, we conduct a thorough assessment of your existing VMware environment to create a strategic migration plan.

Discovery & Analysis:

• We use tools like Azure Migrate to analyze your on-premises VMware infrastructure, assessing key metrics such as CPU, memory, storage, and network utilization.

• Our team performs a comprehensive analysis of your VMs, applications, and dependencies to identify potential challenges and opportunities.

Move Groups Creation:

• Servers are logically grouped based on application interdependencies, which helps in planning and executing a smooth migration.
• This grouping minimizes the risks of application downtime during the migration process.

Assessment Report:

• You receive a detailed Assessment Report outlining readiness, potential bottlenecks, recommended AVS configurations, and cost estimations.
• This report serves as a roadmap for your migration, ensuring a well-planned and risk-mitigated transition.
• Modern enterprises face the challenge of managing diverse data types such as transactional logs and security information across multiple cloud deployments. This distributed data landscape hampers holistic analysis and decision-making.

Before fully committing to a large-scale migration, we conduct a Proof of Concept (POC) to validate the process, ensuring alignment with your business goals.

3-Step POC Plan:

Planning:

• A tailored migration strategy is developed based on your specific requirements.
• We set up connectivity with Azure services like Active Directory, security protocols, and backup solutions.

Deployment:

• Deploy an AVS environment on Azure to replicate your current VMware setup.
• Configure private cloud resources and establish secure connectivity with on-premises infrastructure.

Testing & Validation:

• Conduct rigorous tests to ensure seamless integration of workloads.
• Validate all applications and services against your defined use cases to ensure they function correctly.

Outcome:

• A successful POC confirms the feasibility of your migration, reducing risks associated with the full-scale transition.
• It helps in fine-tuning the migration approach, ensuring alignment with performance and security requirements.

Once the POC is approved, we move on to full-scale migration, leveraging Azure tools and best practices for a smooth transition.

Detailed Planning & Execution:

• Our migration specialists use the data from the assessment phase to create a detailed migration plan.
• The plan includes prioritizing VMs for migration, scheduling downtime (if necessary), and optimizing workloads for the cloud.

Automated Migration:

• Utilizing Azure tools like Azure Site Recovery and Azure Migrate, we automate the lift-and-shift migration process.
• This reduces manual intervention, minimizes human error, and accelerates the migration timeline.

Governance & Security:

• We enforce best practices for governance using Azure Policy and Azure Security Center.
• Continuous monitoring is conducted using Azure Monitor, ensuring optimal performance and security.

Testing & Go-Live:

• After migrating your workloads, we conduct comprehensive testing to validate performance, security, and compliance.
• Once everything is verified, your VMware environment goes live on Azure.

The migration doesn’t end once your VMware environment is live on Azure. We ensure continued support during the post-migration phase to optimize your cloud operations.

Hyper-Care Support:

• A dedicated team is available to provide Hyper-Care Support for an agreed-upon period to ensure all systems are stable and performing optimally.
• We address any teething issues, ensuring a smooth transition to your internal support teams.

Ongoing Optimization:

• Regular performance assessments are conducted to optimize your cloud environment.
• We offer cost management solutions to help you maximize your ROI by leveraging Azure’s cost-saving benefits.

Workshops & Training:

• Post-migration workshops are conducted to upskill your IT team on managing the new AVS environment.
• We provide training on best practices for using Azure services, enabling your team to make the most of the cloud infrastructure.

Migrating VMware workloads to Azure can be a complex journey, but with Aptly Technology’s expert guidance, the transition becomes seamless and efficient. Our structured 4-phase AVS Migration Service ensures that every aspect of the migration—from initial assessment to post-migration support—is meticulously planned and executed. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Aptly leverages industry-leading tools and best practices to deliver optimized cloud solutions tailored to your business needs.

By choosing Aptly, you not only minimize migration risks but also unlock new levels of scalability, agility, and cost-efficiency in your cloud operations. Ready to transform your IT infrastructure? Contact us today to get started on your Azure VMware Solution migration journey!

Looking to migrate your VMware workloads to Azure for greater agility and scalability?

Let Aptly guide you through every step of the way, ensuring a smooth, efficient, and cost-effective migration.

Contact Us Now to schedule a free AVS Migration Assessment and unlock the full potential of your cloud journey.