WHY MOVE WORKLOADS TO AZURE!!!

This Article explains as why business should start thinking in moving their workloads to Microsoft Azure.

The Management overhead and reducing the Cost of IT Infrastructure has always been the business drivers in reducing the Capital and Operation Expenditure (CAPEX and OPEX).

Here goes the breakdown as how this can be achieved if you plan to move your workloads to Azure –

1. AHUB - Azure Hybrid Use Benefit –

Azure Hybrid Use Benefit is where you can bring your own on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses; and Windows OS Sysprep image covered with Software Assurance to license Azure hosted Windows Server virtual machines (IaaS), Azure SQL Database (PaaS) and SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machine (SQL on IaaS).

More on AHUB –

2. Microsoft offers 3 Pricing models –

Pay as you go – Monthly invoice of services used in Azure.
1 Year Reserved Instance (RI) – 1 Year Upfront commitment for Azure services
3 Year Reserved Instance (RI) – 3 Year Upfront commitment for Azure services

For Predictable workloads, reserved instance is a great choice and we can reduce the cost by 72%.

3. Remove Management Overhead with SQL PaaS by delegating below operations to Azure –

Patching the underlying the Operating System on which Database is hosted.
Manage Database.
Apply Patches to Database.
Upgrade to latest Database Engine.
Perform Database Backups.

4. End of Support (EOS) – Windows and SQL Server 2008

Windows 2008 and 2008 R2 EOS – January 14th, 2020
SQL Server 2008 (Standard and Enterprise) – July 9th, 2019 [No More Applicable]

End of Support means END OF REGULAR SECURITY UPDATES.

This means more prone to Cyber attacks, Data on unsupported version increasing the Security and Compliance risks.

EOS is an ideal time to upgrade Application and Infrastructure to latest version of SQL and Windows Server but we also have to understand that it is very difficult to upgrade everything before EOS deadline.

Hence Microsoft announced that Extended Security Updates will be available for free in Azure for 2008 and 2008 R2 versions of SQL Server and Windows Server to help secure your workloads for three more years after the end of support deadline. You can rehost these workloads to Azure with no application code change. This gives you more time to plan your future path, including upgrading to newer versions such as SQL Server 2017 or Windows Server 2016

5. Lower Oracle Licensing Cost for Oracle Workloads with Azure Constrained Core Virtual Machines.

6. Azure VMware Solutions by CloudSimple –

Run VMware Workloads natively on Azure.
Redeploy and extend your VMware-based enterprise workloads to Azure with the Azure VMware Solution by CloudSimple.
Keep using the VMware tools you already know to manage workloads on Azure without disrupting network, security or data protection policies.
Run native VMware environments at any scale with unified management of Azure and VMware resources, Azure networking services and security tools.