Smarter Recommendations and Conversational Guidance for Your Cloud Migration Decisions
Introduction
Data migration is critical, yet it is one of the most complex tasks in any cloud adoption journey. Whether you’re moving workloads from on-premises environments, consolidating hybrid deployments, or transitioning from other cloud providers, the migration process involves multiple tools, intricate planning, and risk management.
What’s New in Azure Copilot
With the new “Storage Migration Solutions Advisor” capability in Azure Copilot, Microsoft is transforming this experience into a conversational, AI-driven workflow that accelerates decision-making and reduces operational friction.
Why This Matters
Traditionally, customers faced challenges such as:
- Weeks of advisory time spent choosing the right migration tool amongst the many (Azure Storage Mover, AzCopy, Data Box, File Sync etc., and various Partner solutions).
- High support overhead due to missteps during migration if a sub-optimal tool or service is used.
The Storage Migration Solutions Advisor feature introduces:
- Conversational Guidance: Share your migration needs with Copilot, like talking with an Azure advisor.
- Scenario-Based Recommendations: Tailored suggestions based on transfer data size, protocol, and bandwidth.
- Expanded Coverage: Supports on-premises to Azure, cloud-to-cloud (AWS/GCP to Azure), and hybrid scenarios.
- Native and Partner solutions: Copilot can recommend Microsoft-native (1P) solutions and third-party (3P) tools for specialized scenarios —ensuring flexibility for enterprise needs.
User Workflow: Step-by-Step
- Initiate Migration: Start with a prompt like “How can I migrate my data into Azure?” or “What’s the best tool for moving 1 PB from AWS S3 to Azure Blob?”
- Provide Details: Copilot will guide you by asking for details about your requirement, such as source type (e.g., NAS, SAN, AWS S3, GCS), protocol (e.g., NFS, SMB, S3 API), target (e.g., Azure Blob, Files, Elastic SAN), data size, and bandwidth.
- Azure and Partner Solutions: Based on your requirements, Copilot recommends the best-fit Azure solution. If a partner solution is better suited to your requirement, Copilot will also select and recommend the appropriate solution with links to its documentation and/or its Azure marketplace page.
Examples
- Copilot generates recommendations for migrating an on-premises file share to Azure Files.
Figure 1 Prompt from user invokes Copilot Migration recommendation workflow
Figure 2 Copilot understanding protocols that customer environment has access to
Figure 3 Copilot asking user's target Storage type
Figure 4 Copilot gathering inputs on data size, network bandwidth availability and transfer direction
Figure 5 Copilot recommendation for user scenario
- Copilot recommends Partner solutions for specialized migration scenarios
Figure 1 Prompt from user invokes Copilot Migration recommendation workflow
Figure 2 Copilot understanding protocols that customer environment has access to
Figure 3 Copilot asking user's target Storage type
Figure 4 Copilot gathering inputs on data size, network bandwidth availability and transfer direction
Figure 5 Copilot recommendation for user scenario
Pro Tips
- Run a small proof-of-concept migration to estimate throughput and timing, especially for large datasets or small file sizes.
- Combine Copilot’s recommendations with Azure Storage Discovery for visibility into your storage estate after migration.
Getting Started
- Navigate to Azure Portal → Copilot.
- Try prompts like:
o “Help me migrate an NFS share to Azure Files.”
o “What’s the best tool for moving 1 PB from AWS S3 to Azure Blob?”
- Explore Manage and migrate storage accounts using Azure Copilot | Microsoft Learn for detailed guidance.
Ready to simplify your migration journey? Start using Azure Copilot’s Storage Migration Solutions Advisor today and experience AI-driven efficiency for your cloud transformation.
Microsoft