Forum Discussion
Explaining to Customers the move to Azure if they have already spent Capex on a new data center
I may say, there are many action items to consider in order to argument that move. The cloud infrastructure is not free. You may want to do the sizing that will give you some understanding around the initial spend. Aside from that, you gonna need to add the 'lift-and-shift' efforts by the implementation team.
Here's the resource that will help to size the deployment:
https://blobeater.blog/2019/03/20/sizing-your-azure-sql-database/
Also, as you know, the cloud-based ver. of SQL Server utilizes so-called DTUs. To figure how all this fit in to the CPU/Memory/Disk, please use the following article: http://dtucalculator.azurewebsites.net/
Other benefits to consider:
- Managed SQL Server instance
- No licensing hassle
- Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model
- Flexible scalability & cost management
Some caveats:
- Most of the clients I've been working with were reluctant to move due to the security concerns. You'll need to learn compliance model more carefully and see if it fits/satisfies the client (I had no issues with that so far, but this is another world, though)
- Even though we're talking about managed instances, some maintenance will be required anyway
- Database migrations may not be straightforward. They may need to be adjusted before transferring to the cloud
Command0r thats all great. thank you both of you.
One thing I said was that they have to do a lot of work when moving to new On Prem servers (This is a move from 2012 to 2019)
I said that once you have migrated to Azure and done the work there, servers are simply updated and you don't have to have the pain of migrating to new SQL Servers any more.
Am I correct in that assumption?
That is correct. At the same time, please keep in mind two different deployment models related to SQL Server. 1st, you can use Managed SQL Server instance and support of the underlying infrastructure is on Microsoft (this does not include database maintenance, even with all that automation in place, this will be on you anyway). 2nd, you can deploy to SQL Server VMs (PaaS offering). In this case, architecting resiliency and scalability as well as updating those VMs will be entirely on you.
Command0r Thank you so much for your advice on this
