The document outlines the journey of modernizing legacy database-heavy applications to Azure cloud architecture, highlighting the motivations behind this transition, including scalability, cost reduction, and innovation. It details Azure's offerings like managed databases, machine learning integration, and tools for data governance, as well as the shift in technology decision-making during the migration process. It also emphasizes the importance of adopting cloud-native applications to enhance operational efficiency and customer engagement across industries.

1. George Walters
Data and AI Specialist
george.walters@microsoft.com
@geo_walters on twitter
https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgewalters/
Modernize your old database-heavy
application to cloud architecture

2. George’s Microsoft History
2
2006: Proactive support (Field Engineer, PFE)
2012: Tech presales in SQL Server
Demos, techie
2018: Partner Tech strategist
Help partner ISVs build on Azure
2020: Data and AI Specialist
Data and AI Sales on Azure Cloud
Ninja Cat holding a
Microsoft Flag, riding a
fire breathing Unicorn

3. From Legacy to the Cloud!
3
1. Why would someone give up on-premises SaaS
infrastructure for Azure?
2. Technology decisions behind this conversion
3. Proposed Architecture
4. Changes to Azure during planning and rollout
5. Futures: Alternate architecture open discussion

4. The customer
4
Tier 1 custom application supporting time-
tracking
Financial application for midsize businesses to
log labor
Other applications (not in scope) surrounding
employee payments etc.

5. The customer stated (in 2013)
5
Money: “We were told to buy No More SANs”
Resources: “We’re doing 80-hour work weeks
just keeping the lights on”
Revenue: “We cannot deploy this application
to the rest of our customer base”
Disruption: Wanted to get ahead of the
competition

6. Top reasons for modernizing databases on Azure
Scale up
or down on
demand
Run BI dashboards,
reports, and advanced
analytics
Establish
multi-layer
security
Achieve business
continuity
Reliability, scalability, and security
Increased innovation
Respond
to changes
faster
Business insights

7. Cloud & IT Strategy
Your Data Center
SaaS
(Software as
a Service)
Public Cloud Platforms
IaaS
(Infrastructure Services)
PaaS
(Platform Services)
Can we STOP doing
some things?
Reduce load on IT staff
Virtualization – there must be more..?
It’s cheaper – isn’t it..?
My DC is “constrained”..!
My Business Groups are using it..!
Your Datacenter Infrastructure
Physical
Virtual
?

8. Customer-centric apps are transforming our world
79% of financial
institutions believe AI
will revolutionize how
banks interact with
customers
86% of
consumers say
personalization
has an impact on
what they
purchase
62% of
manufacturers are
forging ahead with
digitizing factories,
increasing by 20% in
2021
84% of healthcare
leaders think
artificial intelligence
will be used to
transform the
industry

9. Operational databases
Analytics
Data governance
Today’s
data realities
What data do I have?
Is it trustworthy?
Can people access the data needed
to make the right decisions?
How can I enable faster
business insights?
What’s my compliance
exposure?

10. Operational databases | Analytics | Data governance
Microsoft Cloud
Dynamics 365 • Microsoft 365
Power Platform
Transform with the
Microsoft Cloud
Microsoft Intelligent Data Platform
SQL Server • Azure SQL • Azure Cosmos DB • Azure Synapse Analytics
Power BI • Microsoft Purview • Azure AI

11. Data integration across the Microsoft cloud portfolio
Data
modernization
Azure is the best
destination for all
your data
Cloud native
applications
Ultra low latency at
any scale with
CosmosDB
Analytics
and insights
Fastest time
to insights
Governance
AI powered discovery,
catalogue, and
protection
Dataverse
Common Data Service
Data
science
Responsible,
powerful AI
on your terms
6 6 6
Interoperability
Ingest, enrich and
convert data, with built-
in connections across
the portfolio
Microsoft Cloud Data Portfolio

12. The right database makes it easier
to differentiate your apps with data
Migrating inventory databases to the cloud provides
lower TCO and seamless scalability
Integrating multiple data sources allows healthcare
providers to develop a holistic patient view
Running ML/AI models with core system data helps
financial institutions create new intelligent services
Instantly scaling compute and storage capacity enables
retailers to cost effectively meet seasonal demand
Processing industrial IoT data and applying ML models
near the source reduces incident response time
Data
Apps Database

13. Modernize data and innovate your apps with Azure
Migrate data
to take
advantage of
reduced cost,
enterprise
security, and new
technologies
Modernize
your existing
applications and
databases to
provide new
experiences and
innovate faster
Build a modern
application
development
practice on fully
managed, cloud
databases for real-
time experiences
and responses
The journey to unlocking value and potential of the cloud

14. Azure provides the building blocks for digital transformation
A.I.
Intelligent by default,
Azure ML and Cognitive Services
Hybrid
Operational
freedom, Azure Arc
Infrastructure
Linux and Windows
VMs
Tools
Developer productivity,
Azure DevOps
Data
Choose the
database that
meets your
workload’s
needs
Azure
PostgreSQL
Azure MySQL
& MariaDB
Azure
Cosmos DB
Azure Cache
for Redis
Azure
SQL Family
Apps
App Service, Azure
Kubernetes Service (AKS)

15. Azure database services offer the best of the cloud
Managed cloud databases
Azure
SQL Family
Azure
PostgreSQL
Azure MySQL
& MariaDB
Azure
Cosmos DB
Azure Cache
for Redis
Fully managed
Focus on your applications,
not your infrastructure with
fully managed and intelligent
database services
Limitless scale
Build for future growth with
near-limitless, dynamic
scaling plus guaranteed high
availability around the world.
Open and flexible
Choose the engine,
deployment, resources
languages and offers that
fit your needs.
Intelligent security
Develop secure apps in the
cloud with policy-based
security and compliance from
the world’s most trusted cloud.

16. Choose the Azure database service right for any scenario
Azure
SQL Family
Azure
PostgreSQL
Azure MySQL
& MariaDB
Azure
Cosmos DB
Azure Cache
for Redis
Migrate
Best TCO and price for
performance while
maximizing current licenses
with Azure Hybrid Benefits
Achieve scale and
performance for MySQL,
PostgreSQL and MariaDB with
optimized TCO
Cloud scale and full
database management to
MongoDB, Cassandra, and
Redis cache data
Modernize
Modernize .Net Applications
with fully managed SQL
database with includes
serverless compute, AI-
powered features
Highly available, secure,
fully managed MySQL and
PostgreSQL databases for
enterprise-ready Java apps
Elasticity and agility to
business-critical
applications powered by
non-relational data
Build new
Bring limitless scale and
performance to modern
applications and support multi-
tenant SaaS applications
Build cloud native
transactional apps with AKS
and PostgreSQL and enable
massive scale with Hyperscale
(Citus)
Enable real-time
personalization and
streaming telemetry at scale
with cloud-native applications

17. Comparing manageability
SQL Server
on Azure VMs
Azure SQL
Managed Instance
Azure SQL
Database
Azure SQL
Edge*
Datacenter management
Hardware
Virtualization
Operating system
Database provision/
Patch/Scaling
Data
Applications
High Availability /DR/Backups
SQL instance-level features
Database
Data
Applications
Datacenter management
Hardware
Virtualization
Operating system
Database provision/
Patch/Scaling
High Availability/ DR/Backups
Intelligent performance/security
SQL instance-level features
Database Database
Applications
Datacenter management
Hardware
Virtualization
Operating system
Database provision/
Patch/Scaling
High Availability/ DR/Backups
Intelligent performance/security
Data
Database
Applications
Hardware & Operating System
Container Platform
Operating system (container)
Database provision/
Patch/Scaling
High Availability/ DR/Backups
Intelligent performance/security
Data
Device management (IoT Hub)
*in connected scenario
Managed by customer
Managed by Microsoft
Machine learning
capability

18. Microsoft Fabric, a Modern Analytics SaaS
Platform
Data
Factory
Synapse Data
Engineering
Synapse Data
Science
Synapse Data
Warehouse
Synapse Real
Time Analytics
Power BI
Data
Activator
AI Assisted
Shared Workspaces
Universal Compute Capacities
One Security
OneLake
Intelligent data foundation
Single…
• Onboarding and trials
• Sign-on
• Navigation model
• UX model
• Workspace organization
• Collaboration experience
• Data Lake
• Storage format
• Data copy for all engines
• Security model
• CI/CD
• Monitoring hub
• Data Hub
• Governance & compliance

19. Microsoft Responded
20
Microsoft said:
Let’s have a deep dive learning session
Let’s allocate resources to review code in
Application
Let’s have you spend money to lift and
rework and shift to Azure!

20. The agreed-upon actions became (2013):
21
Code review and Proof of Concept of single
strand – funded by Microsoft
Compare finances of moving to Azure versus on-
premises
If the finances are comparable, it would be a win
in terms of reduced maintenance, improved
speed of deployment, etc.
Customer would do majority of work

21. Summarizing cloud migration strategies
Redeploy as-is to cloud
• Reduce Capex
• Free up datacenter
space
• Quick cloud ROI
IaaS
Minimally alter to take
better advantage of cloud
• Faster, shorter, updates
• Code portability
• Greater cloud efficiency
(resources, speed, cost)
Containers
PaaS
Materially alter/decompose
application to services
• App scale and agility
• Easier adoption of new
cloud capabilities
• Mix technology stacks
PaaS
Serverless
Microservices
New code written with
cloud native approach
• Accelerate innovation
• Build apps faster
• Reduce operational cost
Description
Drivers
Technologies
Rehost Refactor Rearchitect Rebuild

22. On-Premises
To Azure
23
Application
Architecture
changes
Azure
User PC
Internet
Clock
Admin UI (.NET and COM)
Web Page
Business
Logic
Data
Access
Service Layer (VB/COM)
Business
Logic
Data
Access
LOB.
Data Layer
HRO
HRIS
HRIS
Tablet
Current State Proposed Future Architecture
User PC
Internet
Clock
LOB.
Data Layer
HRO
HRIS
HRIS
Tablet
Client UI (.NET and COM)
Web Page
Business
Logic
Data
Access
Service Layer
.NET
Business Logic
Data Access
Client UI
Web Roles
Admin UI
Web Roles
Worker
Roles
Client DB 1..
SQL Azure
Client DB N
SQL Azure
Master DB
SQL IaaS VM
Firewall
Firewall
Master DB Client DB 1..Client DB N
Racked and Stacked
On-Premises
SQL EE
SANs
Patching

23. What were the recommendations to migrate to Azure?
24
Infrastructure as a Service limited
Less Maintenance!
Platform as a Service maximized
Lower operational effort ongoing
Faith in future features to be delivered
Remediation required
COM and Data Access
Rework priced at about 300,000 USD
Manual Auto-Scale initially for Web Tier

24. So what actually happened?
25
Customer bought a newer version of their own SaaS product
Easier to migrate to Azure
Called Microsoft back after they decided to do this
Lots of manual labor on their part, and a slow migration
Tightly coupled feedback to product group on timeline of features needed
before rollout
Point in Time Backup and Restore
Elastic Pools
SQL Database V12 (99% compatibility with on-premises SQL database code)
Larger database sizes and throughputs
Estimating real throughput from on-premises to cloud

25. What happened, part 2
26
Money Equation
Hardware plus license plus employee effort versus Azure
Creative licensing to help get to Elastic Pool
Rework of interconnected systems
Testing for each step before deployment
New Deployment model
Currently thousands of databases deployed in Azure!
Moving goalposts: Azure Resource Manager versus Classic resource
model. (easier management, different code to do so)
Now you can use Terraform or Bicep

26. Paychex scales elastically
to handle explosive
growth
Challenge
Paychex’s Flex Time app handles millions of timecards with no
margin for error. A single outage could impact thousands of
clients. Paychex needed an always-on solution that would
scale with the business and guarantee customer privacy.
Solution
Azure SQL Database delivered:
Elastic scale to meet any demand with elastic pools
Resource sharing with elastic pools to optimize costs
across varying performance needs
Built-in intelligent features like automatic tuning optimize
to database performance
Automated tools for database management that free
engineers from managing infrastructure
“Our goal was to offer a world-class, cloud-enabled time
and labor application. It needed to scale quickly without
having performance or availability bottlenecks due to
capacity.”
Dave Wilson
Sr. Director of IT Infrastructure and Architecture

27. In 2024, what would I do?
31
ANY Application rationalization:
Can I do SaaS? PaaS? IaaS? Containers? Cloud-Native? Open Source!
SCRIPT IT!
Data Layer:
Lift and shift? -> Azure SQL Database Managed Instance or VMs
Refactor -> Azure SQL DB plus Web Apps
Use Azure SQL DB DTU Calculator!
Advanced Refactor -> CosmosDB! (Planet-scale multi-write auto-indexing)
APIs: Graph, SQL, Table, Gremlin, MongoDB, Cassandra
Data Warehouse -> Databricks Delta Lake, Azure SQL DB or Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools
Reporting -> Power BI
Embedded lets end-users see reports in iFrame without license
Cubes -> Power BI Premium

28. In 2024, what would I do? Part 2
32
Probably mostly the same thing
Databases can now be 100TB as PaaS, no worries
Kubernetes? AKS
Analytics – Microsoft Fabric, Azure Databricks
Cloud Adoption Framework
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/application-modernization/
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/application-and-database-modernization/#updates-
announcements
E-book: Cloud Migration and Modernization with Microsoft Azure
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/data-migration/

29. Azure has the deepest and most comprehensive compliance coverage in the industry
https://aka.ms/AzureCompliance
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/compliance/

30. From Legacy to the Cloud! - Review
34
1. Why would someone give up on-premises SaaS
infrastructure for Azure?
2. Technology decisions behind this conversion
3. Proposed Architecture
4. Changes to Azure during planning and rollout
5. Futures: Alternate architecture open discussion

31. @geo_walters
george.walters@microsoft.com
Resources:
BUILD May 2024 https://build.microsoft.com/
IGNITE coming Nov 2024 https://myignite.microsoft.com/
Microsoft Documentation (Pretty good nowadays!) https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/
Learning via docs: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/
In-Person events: https://events.microsoft.com/
SQLSaturday (Centered around Microsoft data platform): http://www.sqlsaturday.com
Azure Data Saturday events https://datasaturdays.com/
EdX has tons of material: https://www.edx.org/course?search_query=microsoft
Thank you!