Azure migration planning: Integrate your workloads for high performance

Azure migration is a multistep process. By evaluating your current environment to determine your strategy, you set up your migration for success. 

A critical part of the migration process is integration. In this phase, you’ll make choices that smooth your Azure workload migration. These choices will create an environment for deploying file workloads in the cloud without sacrificing performance, reliability, or business-critical data management.

NetApp is here to help with those crucial decisions. Through our portfolio of solutions, you can build the ideal environment for running your workloads. NetApp partners with Microsoft Azure to provide integrated solutions that bring familiar on-premises functionality to the cloud.

Cloud file storage solutions are central to this process because they provide consistency between environments—both existing and new—to make Azure workload migration seamless. NetApp offers two storage solutions to choose from, depending on your needs. Azure NetApp Files is a fully managed Microsoft cloud file storage service, and NetApp^® Cloud Volumes ONTAP^® software offers self-service cloud storage.

Azure NetApp Files is an Azure-native, high-performance file storage service for core business applications. It helps you migrate faster and optimize operations while achieving higher levels of data protection and availability. This first-party service is co-developed and sold directly by Microsoft—and it’s the file structure that Azure itself uses. Azure is a fully managed service that you can provision within the Azure console, with Microsoft handling all billing, implementation, and support.

Azure NetApp Files was designed to provide the performance and availability you need to run high-performance workloads, such as mission-critical databases, in the Azure cloud. Azure NetApp Files offers high-performance computing and file shares, submillisecond latency, and default 99.99% availability, plus reliability, speed, scalability, integrated data management, and virtual desktop infrastructure.

According to IDC, security and compliance are among the top drivers for migrating business-critical workloads to the cloud, and they’re also among the top benefits of Azure workload migration. The security and compliance capabilities of Azure NetApp Files, including FIPS-140-2–compliant data encryption at rest, empower you to confidently migrate and securely run applications in Azure, even when you have sensitive data.

Azure NetApp Files also provides advanced data protection features for backup and quick recovery of Azure workloads. NetApp Snapshot^™ software lets you automatically create frequent point-in-time copies of data without affecting performance, regardless of the amount of data. You can recover these copies almost instantly to keep operations running smoothly.

If you’re looking for a self-service experience, you’ll want to use Cloud Volumes ONTAP, a software-only storage subscription service running NetApp ONTAP data management software. Cloud Volumes ONTAP allows you to provision data services across your hybrid cloud by using the same simple interface as on-premises storage. Its storage efficiencies enable you to reduce your storage footprint, which means you can lower network bandwidth costs during migrations and accelerate data transfers.

NetApp provides several tools that work with Cloud Volumes ONTAP to help you automate, synchronize data faster, and keep data secure during your Azure workload migration.

Cloud Volumes ONTAP works with NetApp SnapMirror^® replication software, which uses Snapshot technology to transfer data and workloads between on-premises and cloud installations, with scheduled continuous synchronization—during and after migration. SnapMirror replicates data at high speeds, offering you high availability for business-critical applications.

NetApp Cloud Backup provides simple, secure, and cost-effective backup and restore capabilities for protection and long-term archiving of both cloud and on-premises data. Cloud Backup provides total automation and orchestration to back up data to encrypted, durable archival storage.

NetApp Cloud Sync is cost-effective software as a service (SaaS). It automates data migration processes on premises or to the cloud. Cloud Sync provides fast, secure data synchronization for all kinds of files between any source and target.

With NetApp Cloud Tiering, you can automatically migrate data to your tier of choice. Cloud Tiering manages the storage pool of your ONTAP based clusters, taking advantage of low-cost object storage and placing data at the right tier at the right time for more efficiency and cost savings.

Azure migration isn’t just about moving operations to the cloud; it’s a chance to move into the future with new capabilities and technologies that create opportunity. As you plan your Azure workload migration, you need to envision long-term prospects and choose tools to create the environment that will help you reach your future goals. NetApp offers a suite of solutions that can help you realize your organization’s mission through Azure migration and beyond.

Interested in learning more? See our Azure migration guide.