Cloud Modernisation on Microsoft Azure

The Azure assessment combines tooling output with the commercial context that tooling cannot see, including licence entitlements, contract dates and which applications the business will not tolerate any downtime on.

• Azure Migrate discovery and dependency analysis across servers, databases and web applications, reconciled against your asset register and the people who support each system.
• Licence position review covering Windows Server and SQL Server entitlements, Software Assurance, and reservation or savings plan options, so the run cost in the business case reflects what you can actually claim.
• Target sizing per workload from observed utilisation rather than existing specification, with the on-premises comparison stated in the same units.
• Landing zone gap analysis against the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, covering identity, management groups, network topology, policy and logging.
• Recovery objective workshop per workload, translating business tolerance into a backup frequency, replication design and expected failover behaviour.
• A wave plan with cut-over windows, rollback triggers and the acceptance criteria each wave must meet before the next one starts.

The Azure build starts with the structure that is hard to change later, then adds workloads. We keep the platform layer separate from the applications so that either can evolve without forcing a rebuild of the other.

• Landing zone deployed as code with management groups, subscriptions, Azure Policy assignments, Azure Virtual Network topology, Azure Private DNS zones and diagnostic settings configured before the first workload arrives.
• Hybrid connectivity established with Azure ExpressRoute or site-to-site VPN, with routing, name resolution and failover behaviour tested against the applications that will cross the link.
• Server migration through Azure Migrate with test cut-overs into an isolated network, so application owners validate their own systems before the production window opens.
• Application replatforming onto Azure App Service, Azure Container Apps or Azure Kubernetes Service based on isolation, scaling and operational skill requirements, with the reasoning documented per application.
• Data tier moved onto Azure SQL Database or Azure Cosmos DB where the access pattern fits, with schema assessment, performance baselining and a rehearsed cut-over.
• Ingress standardised through Azure Front Door, Azure Application Gateway and Azure API Management so certificate handling, web application firewall policy and routing are managed centrally instead of per application.

Azure gives you platform-level controls that are much cheaper to apply before workloads land. We set the guardrails at management group scope so they apply to subscriptions that do not exist yet.

• Azure Policy initiatives assigned at management group scope covering allowed regions, allowed resource types, mandatory tags, encryption requirements and diagnostic settings, with a compliance dashboard reviewed on a set cadence.
• Microsoft Entra ID role design with least-privilege built-in roles, separate identities for administrative work, and time-bound elevation for privileged operations.
• Private endpoints and service endpoints for platform services, so database and storage traffic stays on the virtual network rather than traversing public addresses.
• Azure Monitor diagnostic settings sent to a central Log Analytics workspace with retention agreed against your record-keeping obligations.
• Backup and replication policy enforced through Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery, with protection status reported as a compliance metric rather than checked manually.
• Control mapping showing how the deployed Azure configuration supports the Essential Eight or ISO 27001 controls you are working towards, and which gaps remain a process responsibility.

Your team needs to be able to add the next workload without us. Enablement is built around the operations they will perform in the first six months, using the environment we have just built.

• A subscription and workload onboarding guide covering naming, tagging, policy exemption requests and the approvals each step needs.
• Hands-on sessions in the real environment covering scale operations, restore from Azure Backup, failover rehearsal and reading Azure Monitor alerts back to a root cause.
• Cost review training for application owners using Azure Cost Management views built for their scope, not a single tenant-wide dashboard.
• Documented escalation paths distinguishing platform issues, application issues and Microsoft support cases, with the information required for each.
• A joint dry run of the first post-go-live change, executed by your engineers with us observing rather than driving.
• Source environment decommissioning checklist covering data retention, licence release, backup retention and the sign-off needed before hardware leaves.

After go-live we can continue operating the Azure platform with you under an agreed service schedule, keeping the governance and cost discipline in place once the project team has moved on.

• Azure Monitor alert tuning and triage, with noisy rules retired and coverage extended as new workloads land, reported at each review.
• Azure Policy compliance and drift reporting, including resources created outside the standard pattern and exemptions approaching expiry.
• Scheduled restore tests from Azure Backup and periodic Azure Site Recovery failover rehearsals, with results and any remediation recorded.
• Monthly Azure Cost Management review covering spend by business unit, reservation and savings plan coverage, idle resources and specific right-sizing actions.
• Patch and update coordination for Azure Virtual Machines, container images and managed service versions against an approved maintenance calendar.
• A prioritised improvement backlog covering resilience gaps, cost actions and modernisation candidates still on virtual machines.