Are you tired of the challenges associated with moving your workloads to the cloud? Most enterprises share your concerns—it can be expensive, time consuming, and complex. NetApp® BlueXP™ copy and sync and Azure NetApp Files can change all that: You can seamlessly migrate your application data to a secure, reliable, and high-performing storage service on Azure, all while reducing TCO by up to 30%.
Cloud-native services are a key part for most organizations’ cloud strategy. But if your data and applications are still on premises, you need to get them to the cloud to make that strategy a reality. The fastest way to do that is with a “lift-and-shift” migration, because it prioritizes moving to the cloud without making any complex changes to your applications or data. And BlueXP copy and sync working with Azure NetApp Files from Microsoft can help you do it.
In this blog, we’ll look at the benefits of migrating your workloads to the cloud, and the role BlueXP and Azure NetApp Files can play to simplify your lift-and-shift migration.
Are there really benefits to moving to the cloud?
Short answer: yes! Migrating your applications and data to the cloud offers several advantages that can help you improve your overall IT operations. Some of the most significant benefits include:
- Cost savings. One of the main reasons organizations migrate to the cloud is to reduce their IT costs. Cloud migration can help businesses eliminate the need for costly on-premises hardware and software, as well as reduce maintenance and energy expenses. With cloud computing, organizations can adopt a pay-as-you-go model, which allows them to pay only for the resources they use.
- Scalability and flexibility. Cloud migration allows organizations to scale their IT infrastructure up or down as needed. This flexibility enables businesses to quickly respond to changing market conditions and customer demands. With the cloud, organizations can easily add or remove resources, which gives them the agility to stay competitive in today's fast-paced business environment.
- Business continuity. Cloud migration can help organizations maintain business continuity if a disaster or disruption occurs. By hosting your applications and data in the cloud, you can quickly recover from an outage and resume normal operations. This helps minimize downtime and the potential loss of revenue.
- Enhanced security. Cloud service providers invest heavily in security measures to protect their clients' data and applications. By migrating to the cloud, organizations can take advantage of these advanced security features, such as data encryption, intrusion detection, and multifactor authentication. Moreover, cloud providers continually update their security measures to address emerging threats, ensuring that your data and applications remain secure.
How do I migrate my applications and data to Azure?
The fastest method to accomplish migration is the IaaS rehosting, aka “Lift and Shift” approach. With this approach the application and data are moved to Azure without making any changes to your applications or data. Azure NetApp Files offers a managed file storage service in Azure that supports NFS and SMB protocols so that workloads migrated to Azure can benefit from enterprise-grade data management features without compromising performance. Azure NetApp Files is delivered as a Microsoft first-party service directly from the Azure portal. Built on NetApp’s trusted ONTAP storage solution and the Azure platform, the service offers high reliability.
When it comes to Azure migrations, moving the data from NetApp ONTAP on-premises to Azure NetApp Files tools such as NetApp BlueXP copy and sync can help move the data quickly and securely. BlueXP lets you move data between different storage systems and services across your data estate, whether on premises or in the cloud. With copy and sync, you can create data copies, move data to your Azure NetApp Files volumes, and continuously sync data between your on-premises systems and the cloud. This allows you to carry out a variety of data mobility projects such as cloud migrations, data protection, archiving, data consolidation, and cloud bursting for processing and analytics.
Would you like to see for yourself how BlueXP copy and sync moves data quickly and reliably from a NetApp ONTAP® on-premises system to Azure NetApp Files in the cloud? You can—give this guided demo a try.
