Planning on-prem to Azure migration

2 days 14 hours

Day 1: Governance, Networking & Storage (7h)


1. Foundation, Landing Zones & Naming

  • Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF): Management Groups and Subscription topology.
  • CAF Naming Convention
  • Immutability rules (resources that cannot be renamed) vs. Tagging strategy (CostCenter, Owner, Env).
  • Hybrid Identity: Entra ID Connect vs. Cloud Sync.
  • Azure Policy: Enforcing naming patterns, mandatory tags, and allowed SKUs/regions.
  • Do’s & Don’ts:.

2. Hybrid Networking & Load Balancing

Topology: Hub-and-Spoke vs. Azure Virtual WAN (vWAN).

  • Connectivity: Site-to-Site VPN vs. ExpressRoute (SLA, bandwidth, gateway costs).
  • Load Balancing Matrix:
    • Azure Load Balancer (NLB):
    • Application Gateway (ALB):
    • Front Door vs. Traffic Manager:
  • Private Link / Private Endpoints vs. Service Endpoints.
  • Do’s & Don’ts:

3. Storage Architecture Deep Dive

  • File Storage: Azure Files vs. Azure NetApp Files
  • Blob Storage:
    • Access Tiers: Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive (retrieval latency vs. early deletion penalties).
    • Lifecycle Management: Automated rule-based tiering and auto-expiration.
    • Redundancy: LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS—matching redundancy to workload SLA.
    • Security & Access: SFTP support, Immutable Blobs (WORM), Shared Access Signatures (SAS) vs. Entra ID RBAC, disabling public anonymous access.
  • Block Storage (Managed Disks): Standard SSD vs. Premium SSD v1/v2 vs. Ultra Disk; VM-level vs. Disk-level IOPS limits.
  • Do’s & Don’ts

Day 2: Migration, FinOps & Global Operations

5. On-Premises to Azure Migration

  • Azure Migrate: Agentless vs. Agent-based discovery, dependency mapping, performance-based sizing.
  • Migration Strategies (5 Rs): Rehost (Lift & Shift) vs. Refactor (PaaS, Containers).
  • Database Migration: SQL Server on IaaS VM vs. SQL Managed Instance vs. Azure SQL DB.
  • Cutover execution: Sync replication, DNS TTL reduction, rollback planning.
  • Do’s & Don’ts:

6. FinOps – How to Save Money

  • Licensing: AHB. Licensing cost reductions
  • Commitments: Reserved Instances vs. Azure Savings Plans
  • Compute & Storage Optimization: Right-sizing, SKUs
  • Orphaned Resources Cleanup
  • Log Cost Control: Log Analytics Commitment Tiers, Basic/Auxiliary table plans, pre-ingestion filtering.
  • Cost Governance: Budgets, Action Groups, Cost Anomaly alerts.

7. Global Logging, HA/DR & Best Practices

  • Global Logging Architecture: Centralized Log Analytics Workspace vs. regional workspaces.
  • Log Collection Pipeline: Azure Monitor Agent (AMA) and Data Collection Rules (DCR) with KQL transformations.
  • Telemetry Tiers: Entra ID Audit/Sign-in logs, Subscription Activity Logs, Resource Diagnostic Settings, and VNet Flow Logs.
  • Retention & SIEM: Interactive retention vs. low-cost Archive
  • HA/DR
  • Do’s & Don’ts:

  • 8. Final Architecture & FinOps Challenge exercise