Microsoft Azure is a public cloud platform for building, deploying, and managing apps or services using Microsoft-managed data centers’ capabilities. Numberless integrations, outstanding flexibility, as well as a bunch of valuable features rightly make Azure one of the most popular Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) solutions in the world.

Still, like any complex software, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution; moreover, the process of migration to Azure carries certain risks. Therefore, companies should carefully consider both benefits and pitfalls of Azure migration and only then decide whether the game is worth the candle.

Why Enterprises Consider Azure Migration

Azure offers enterprises a robust infrastructure accessible via flexible licensing options, which allows covering diverse business needs. Regardless of what enterprises might want to delegate — handling storage, servers, or networking, Azure helps teams focus on more high-level business initiatives. Apart from this, here are some more reasons that may prompt enterprises to migrate to Azure.

Flexible App Development and Hosting

When it comes to application development, Azure capabilities are impressive. For example, do you look for a single platform for developing, testing, and hosting a mobile or web app? Here it is. Do you want autoscaling or autonomous patch management? Here it is, too. Need a system that supports PHP, Java, Python, and a whole range of frameworks, devices, and databases? Azure is here at your service.

Reliable Backup Capabilities

Azure is also highly flexible as a backup tool — users can configure their daily, weekly and monthly backup schedules. Even if data loss ever occurs, the system can restore data almost from any location, in any language, and on any OS. 

The data backup mechanism helps companies ensure that not a single byte of their data is lost: Azure saves three data copies on its servers and then copies the same data to its remote data centers. At the same time, infrastructure fault handling and automatic synchronization allow teams to ensure continuous data availability. 

Together with minimal operational costs and onsite maintenance required, all of the above makes Azure one of the most valuable, convenient and cost-effective enterprise backup solutions on the market today.

Advanced Security

If security and data safety are of the highest value to an enterprise, moving to Azure can be an appropriate and reasonable choice. Smart access control and automatic encryption help Azure users protect sensitive information, and hundreds of Microsoft cybersecurity experts work daily to make these and other security features more powerful and effective.

Should Any Enterprise Migrate to Azure?

Of course, no. First, not every enterprise needs to change its existing infrastructure, and second, Microsoft Azure is not universally applicable; moreover, the platform has some disadvantages that may limit the range of its potential users:

• Despite the high Azure security standards, there are no 100% guarantees. Hackers do attack Azure and come up with new approaches to access sensitive user data.
• Azure is not very easy to learn, so non-technical team members may experience difficulties using the platform, and that may cause the slowdown of its acceptance.
• Complex activities and tasks may require advanced knowledge, so enterprises may have to spend extra resources on hiring and training technical employees.
• If not appropriately managed, Azure may show a low ROI and become too pricy, resulting in decreased business value.

So if one of the above points is critical for your company and Azure cannot meet these needs, it may be worth choosing other options. For example, enterprise management may consider migrating to Amazon Web Services or choosing a hybrid approach when the Azure shortcomings are compensated by additional software. Even establishing a private cloud instead of implementing public solutions sometimes may be the most appropriate choice.

We’ve Decided to Migrate to Azure, Are There Some Risks?

Transferring a large volume of data to another platform cannot but carry certain risks, and Azure migration is no exception. Here are some of the examples:

• Data losses

During the migration process, some data may be damaged or lost. Therefore, the data must be backed up before starting the migration so that it can be restored later. 

• Excessive migration costs

When migrating to another cloud platform, an enterprise will have to cover the cost of storing and transporting data. Given that Azure offers various flexible plans, inadequate management may lead to choosing the wrong pricing option, leading to unnecessary expenditures later on. Optimizing costs and enterprise workloads along with autoscaling may help avoid this risk.

• Security issues

Security risks are something that always accompanies the process of migrating data to the cloud. Accidental errors, compliance violations, and misconfigured servers are just a few of the potential problems that may put enterprise data at risk. One of the ways to avoid this is to clearly formulate and validate each procedure that will be carried out during the migration.

This, in turn, implies many additional nuances and pitfalls, so it isn’t easy to give one all-embracing recommendation here. Ideally, enterprises should rely on Azure consulting to understand if they require migration and come up with an Azure migration strategy.

Wrap-Up

Microsoft Azure is one of the most powerful and flexible IaaS platforms on the market, allowing enterprises to store and back up data and develop and maintain mobile and web apps. Despite its advantages, Azure is not universally applicable, and the migration process carries certain risks. Therefore, before the start, it is essential to consider all available options and alternatives, develop a comprehensive strategy, and only then begin the migration.

Author

Roman Davydov is a Technology Observer at Itransition. With over four years of experience in the IT industry, Roman follows and analyzes digital transformation trends to guide businesses in making informed software buying choices.