Smooth Web App migration to Azure. What is the process?

2022 08 09 · 4 min read

A great customer experience is essential to any business’s sustained growth. Especially when we talk about digital consumer engagement.

In our previous blog post about improving customer experience with Azure App service, we discussed arguments for why it is essential to have a fast and interactive Web App as well as why we should revoke barriers for customers to get the full experience with the help of Azure cloud services.

If you have ever encountered cloud migration, you probably know that assessment reports, readiness reviews, and set-ups can be associated with a struggle. So, this time, we want to dive deep into the complete process of Web App migration to Azure.

Read the blog post to answer the common questions as well as learn more about what it takes to ensure a smooth and straightforward migration process.

What are the main stages of the migration process?

The Web app migration to Azure has three main stages: assessment, migration and optimisation. The key elements of these stages are presented below:

Assessment. First, determine whether the app is compatible in its current state or needs some adjustments through a custom assessment report;
Migration. Second, bringing the application to Azure by lift-and-shift through cloud migration tools, bringing the code, or bringing a container;
Optimisation. Lastly, setting up monitoring and automating deployments for further releases as well as pushing innovative capabilities for an enhanced experience.

Assessment: a good start is half work done

To begin with, you need to prepare a custom assessment report for your migration. You can do it for free by providing a public endpoint of your site on the Azure platform.

Your site will be scanned, generating a uniquely accurate assessment report with a detailed list of technologies used and their compatibility with Azure App Service.

Migration: choosing the right route

Once everything is ready for migration, we can bring the web application to Azure through three different paths:

Automating the process with the App Service Migration Assistant tool for .NET and PHP apps;
Redeploying the existing code by setting up a CI/CD pipeline with App Service as the destination for deployments;
Containerising the existing application and deploying it to App Service.

Get to know the main benefits Azure App Service offers for each path, presented in the paragraph below.

App Service Migration Assistant tool

The App Service Migration Assistant tool provides an automatic path to migrate .NET and PHP apps to Azure.

After the initial assessment, the customers need to download a tool that performs readiness checks by running on the current host of the app. The tool also offers some recommendations for remediation steps before migrating if needed. Afterwards, the tool guides the migration through a step-by-step wizard for automatic migration.

Redeploying

Azure App Service offers flexibility in choosing technologies for development and deployment for customers who want to redeploy their existing codebase.

Azure App Service supports:

The most common programming languages and frameworks, such as .NET, PHP, Node.js, Python, Java or Ruby;
Development tools, such as Visual Studio, VS Code, IntelliJ or Eclipse;
Source code repositories, such as GitHub, Azure DevOps, Git and BitBucket;
CI/CD tools and engines include Azure DevOps, Kudu, Jenkins, or Maven.

For a more practical deployment experience, App Service provides several deployment slots for the same site. It enables customers to have different environments for production, staging, testing, etc., with a specific deployment pipeline for each.

Azure App Service has integrated monitoring and logging through Azure Monitor with Application Insights to identify and resolve issues more effectively. Moreover, it provides detailed information about different metrics and usage as well as a chatbot-like experience that points to the root cause of problems and possible solutions.

Containerising

App Service supports Windows and Linux containers for containerised web applications, fully integrated with container registry services for deployment, such as Docker Hub and Azure Container Registry. Customers can still enjoy the rest of the benefits of this fully managed platform when deploying their containers, including built-in DevOps, integration with dev tools, intelligent monitoring by default, and multiple deployment slots.

So far, we have covered how to migrate the application layer to Azure, but every application has a data component, right?

Now, customers can use the Azure Database Migration Service to make it easier to migrate the existing database of the application to Azure. Azure Database Migration Service, similarly, to the App Service Migration Assistant tool, automates the movement of SQL Server, MySQL, and PostgreSQL databases to their respective managed services in Azure.

Find more details of all the different options and recommendations by visiting the Azure Database Migration guides.

Optimisation: unlock your powers

As we mentioned in the beginning, offering a superior customer experience is key. Our customers can fully realise the benefits of their cloud migration by enhancing their applications with different tools and services in Azure. Here are a few of them:

Customers can benefit from the intelligent Azure Monitor’s analytics, set up their deployment pipelines with GitHub and Azure DevOps for more effective deployments as well as monitoring;
For a more advanced experience, customers can easily integrate Artificial Intelligence capabilities into their applications using pre-built services, such as Cognitive Services and Bot Service. It helps to incorporate more natural and innovative ways to engage with their end users through conversational chatbots, real-time translation, custom recommendations or face recognition;
Finally, our customers can quickly integrate new functionality by using serverless technologies, expanding the capabilities of an existing application with a very productive event-driven approach. Using Azure Functions and Logic Apps, existing applications can integrate with hundreds of services with a low-code/no-code experience for faster and simpler innovation.

The migration to Azure is just the first stage of bringing your business to the next modernisation level. After this, you have endless resources that can be scaled up in winks to develop your innovative solutions. Learn more about our provided managed cloud services.

Easy steps to start

You can start your cloud migration journey by following three simple steps:

Sign up for a free Azure account;
Get a free assessment of the target website;
Use our free migration tools for a faster move.

If you still have doubts about the process or possible benefits, the Baltic Amadeus team is ready to discuss your case.

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