Azure migration services to guide your move to the Microsoft cloud
Azure migration services from Content+Cloud will ensure your move to Microsoft’s cloud environment is seamless, secure and on schedule.
With expertise in Azure Virtual Desktop, Windows and SQL migration, and more, we apply world-class Microsoft expertise and our step-based, methodical approach to understand your readiness and needs. We’ll work with you to assess, plan and migrate your workloads at a speed that suits you.
Why migrate to Azure?
Merged with another organisation and need to unify your systems? Datacentres, hosting or software at the end of contract or life cycle? Need to bolster regulatory compliance or cyber security? For organisations looking for a futureproof, flexible answer to their biggest computing infrastructure and platform challenges, Microsoft Azure is ideal. You’ll be able to scale up at pace to meet rising demand, achieve a step change in the availability of your services and free yourself from technical debt.
Compared to other cloud IaaS and PaaS solutions, Azure is more compatible with hybrid environments, giving you more flexibility as you plan your migration. What’s more, according to Microsoft, it’s five times cheaper than AWS for running Windows Server and SQL Server.
Whether you want a platform on which to develop innovative applications or simply need to reduce the cost of your infrastructure, Azure’s cloud-based architecture and services can help you achieve your goals.
How our Azure migration services help organisations succeed
Content+Cloud’s Azure migration services help all types of organisation to successfully move to the cloud. Why? Because our starting point is always you. We dive deep into your challenges, motivations and expectations, and work with you to establish quick wins and long-term goals.
Whether you’re seeking an ambitious rethink of data models and modernisation of your applications, or a simpler lift and shift of existing workloads into the cloud environment, we’ll set out the milestones to work to and manage minimise any disruption as your migration is completed.
The right Azure fit for you
Our in-depth assessment scans your current environment to evaluate your workloads. We’ll use these findings to plan the ideal migration strategy, setting out any considerations for cost reductions, security and backup, application mapping and more.
Methodical and managed
Our tried and trusted methodology has been developed and refined across years of working in partnership with organisations across private, public and third sectors. As a leading Microsoft partner, we’ll guide your project in line with Microsoft’s principles and using the most appropriate Azure migration tools.
Technical and business expertise
Content+Cloud is a leading Microsoft partner with more awards than any other in the UK. Our highly accredited Azure centre of excellence will ensure you have access to leading expertise. We’re also at the forefront of consultancy in business change and adoption, helping you make your new technology part of your working culture.
Our Azure adoption methodology
Our four-stage Azure adoption methodology (Assess, Propel, Evolve, Excel) is designed to take organisations from a standing start with Azure through to modernisation and continuous optimisation.
The process is designed in accordance with Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework and Azure Well-Architected Framework. As you move towards continuous cloud adoption, you may use services from stages 3 and 4, modernising and optimising with the support of our fully managed service.
All activities are delivered through our Azure Cloud Centre of Excellence.
Assess
Assessment
- Cloud strategy and outcomes
- Sustainability goals
- Tools-based discovery
- Azure immersion workshops
Preparation
- Application discovery and dependency mapping (5 Rs of Migration)
- Cloud native/hybrid architecture design
- Skills readiness plan
- Azure infrastructure review (existing Azure tenant)
- Eligibility review for Microsoft programmatic benefits
New to Azure?
Propel
Migration
- Azure Landing Zone
- Azure technical delivery and consultancy
- Migrate to IaaS, PaaS or SaaS
Evolve
Modernisation
- Data migration and modernisation
- Application modernisation and rearchitecture
- Virtual desktop infrastructure modernisation
- Containers
Using some Azure?
Excel
Managed service
- 24×7 support and monitoring
- Service management portal
- DevOps and SecOps
- Cyber Security Operations Centre
- Governance, Risk and Compliance services
- Continuous service improvement
- Architecture reviews
- Microsoft CSP billing management
- Strategic roadmap
Optimisation
- Right-sizing and Reservations
- Cloud Security Posture Management
- FinOps
- Performance and capacity management
- Self-service resource provisioning
Azure mature?
The steps towards your successful Azure migration
We’ve delivered migration projects of all scales and complexities, from simple environments with minimal downstream systems and few external interfaces to vast infrastructures with old operating systems, high availability requirements and clustered database management.
We begin every project by reviewing your assets to establish where they’d be best hosted. We do this using the five Rs of rationalisation approach – helping us to determine whether to re-host, re-platform, re-architect, rebuild or replace. This informs the vision for your Azure environment, our strategy for getting there and the activities we’ll deliver to build and hand over your new cloud infrastructure.
Here are some of the typical stages and activities we’ll provide to ensure your smooth transition.
Azure migration assessment and discovery
- Workshop to understand your business and technical requirements
- Assessment of on-premises and datacentre environments to map on-premises capacity to Azure Virtual Machine instances, using an Azure migration tool such as Azure Migrate
- Identify application and server dependencies
Understand and plan
- Design for your cloud operating model
- Project plan, timeline and statement of work that outlines roles, responsibilities, risks and deliverables
- Comprehensive costs analysis report and model for ongoing use of Azure services
- High-level and low-level design documentation to set out architectural recommendations and detail for building the environment
- Stakeholder engagement
Build and test
- Environment built by skilled engineers using our infrastructure-as-code methodology – with speedy, secure and scalable deployment available through our Azure Landing Zone solution
- Migration from Windows and open-source workloads, as well as from physical and virtual servers
- Migrate from public and private cloud providers and outsourced data centres
- Hybrid connectivity through ExpressRoute or VPN
- IT health check and functional, penetration and deployment testing
Switch on and hand over
- Documentation for risk assessment, migration groups and runbooks for user-acceptance testing
- Series of handover workshops
- Warranty period
- Optional early-life support to ensure compliance, governance and best practice
- Continued support available through our additional cloud transformation, app development, data modernisation and our ongoing Azure managed service
Move securely and at speed with our Azure Landing Zone
If you need a secure, compliant Azure environment as quickly as possible, then our Azure Landing Zone is for you. Using a pre-defined set of migration artefacts, we can deliver you a live hub-and-spoke Azure environment – or review an existing Azure configuration – within days.
Learn more about our Azure Landing ZoneAzure migration services built on technical and service excellence
Content+Cloud is a partner in Microsoft’s Azure migration and modernisation programme, meaning we’re trusted to help organisations adopt and modernise their cloud infrastructure, platform and applications.
We’ve developed a true centre of excellence that allows us to deliver Azure services to every type of organisation.
- Streamlined billing through our Cloud Solutions Provider licensing
- 100+ accredited Azure experts
- Microsoft Sentinel powered Security Operations Centre service
- Global 24/7 Azure managed service
Organisations we’ve helped migrate to Azure
At Content+Cloud we have a long track record of helping ambitious organisations achieve digital transformation. We’ve worked with small businesses ranging from property developers to employment agencies, and large enterprises from retail giants to multinational broadcasters. And in the public sector, we’ve helped universities, local councils and government departments successfully move to the cloud.
For a flavour of how we work in partnership to help you succeed with Azure, take a look at our case studies.
Helping insurance broker Tysers to digitally transform Transforming IT to meet the needs of Impellam’s global workforce Overcoming complexity and scale challenges in the public sector
As a business, we’re very Microsoft 365-oriented and rely on the tools within it, such as Outlook, Teams SharePoint Online, Yammer and Delve. As an extension of this, Azure was the logical choice for our cloud migration, and Content+Cloud has helped leverage our investment in this technology and driven us forward on our digital transformation journey.
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