Explaining to Customers the move to Azure if they have already spent Capex on a new data center

Debbie_Edwards 

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