AZ-305 Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions Exam

Recommend a Solution for Migrating Workloads to Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service

Analyze Workload Migration Strategies for IaaS and PaaS

Migrating workloads to Azure involves choosing between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) based on workload requirements and architectural constraints. Common migration patterns include lift-and-shift, replatforming, and refactoring, each with different trade-offs for downtime, cost, and effort. Lift-and-shift moves applications to Azure Virtual Machines with minimal changes, while replatforming targets services like App Service. Refactoring involves deeper changes, such as containerizing workloads for Azure Kubernetes Service.

To automate the relocation of Azure resources, you can use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) or Azure Resource Mover. With IaC, you export ARM templates or convert them to Bicep, then redeploy in the target region, enabling parallel resource provisioning. Note that IaC does not move data, so you must plan separate data migration steps. Azure Resource Mover simplifies the transfer of supported resources and their dependencies across regions, subscriptions, or resource groups.

When you need to relocate stateful services, select an appropriate data-relocation automation tool. Options include:

• Synchronous data replication: Near real-time copy for hot relocation with minimal downtime.
• Geo-replication: Built-in for services like Azure SQL Database and Cosmos DB, but behavior varies by resource.
• Azure Site Recovery: Supports warm and cold migrations for both services and data.
• AzCopy, Azure Storage Explorer, and Azure Backup: Command-line and GUI tools for moving files or backups across storage accounts.
• Azure Data Factory (and Synapse pipelines): Orchestrates large-scale data movement and transformation.

Choosing the right strategy means assessing application dependencies, performance profiles, and compliance requirements. For simple migrations, a lift-and-shift to VMs may suffice, but building in scalability and managed services often points to App Service or AKS. Always align the solution with security, cost, and operations goals by matching migration patterns to workload characteristics and ensuring that the target Azure services support required features.

Conclusion

Migrating workloads to Azure requires a methodical approach to achieve the best balance between effort, cost, and operational efficiency. By analyzing workload characteristics and selecting the appropriate migration strategy—whether lift-and-shift, replatforming, or refactoring—you can ensure that your applications are optimized for performance and compliance in the cloud. Tools like Infrastructure as Code, Azure Resource Mover, and various data-relocation tools help streamline the process. Always align migration strategies with your specific workload needs, considering dependencies, performance requirements, and compliance to choose the best Azure services like Virtual Machines, App Service, or Azure Kubernetes Service.