Reflecting on the first year and future of The Azure Storage Migration Program

On February 8^th of 2021 we launched a program with our partners Data Dynamics and Komprise to help address the complexity of migrating multi-terabyte file shares, exports, and object stores to Azure Blob Storage, Azure Files, and Azure NetApp Files. As we approach the anniversary, it is time to address how the experience has been to date, the most common questions we have received, and what the future holds.

Looking back

We launched this program because we heard from customers that they needed help automating, simplifying, and accelerating the migration of large file and object stores to Azure. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and validated the need for this program. Customers from the construction, energy, healthcare, insurance, legal, public sector, and retail industries have completed successful migrations thanks to the tools and expertise of our partners. I hear every day from our cloud solution architects, solution integrators, and customers how the program has made lives easier and led to rapid returns. As an example, Ahmed Said - Infrastructure Planning Engineer at Becton Dickinson, shared his experience:

“A big thank you to the [Data Dynamics] StorageX support team, they helped us to onboard and successfully migrate around 80TB to Azure File Shares. Challenges encountered along the journey were referred to StorageX product development team and resolved in time to meet our migration deadline. It helped us plan and implement our cutovers much easier and successful. Now, StorageX has become our tool of choice for major data migration to Azure.“

What has surprised us in the first year?

A few things. I have addressed most of them in the FAQ below. For example, the disbelief in how easy it is to take advantage of the program and how comprehensive it is. It has been a lot of fun sharing that there are no forms to fill out and really is no licensing cost.

The biggest surprise, however, has been how extensively the data analysis and assessment capabilities are being leveraged BEFORE migrations start. As a customer and a solution architect I have experienced, and seen others experience, struggles with “right sizing.” The timelines surrounding migrations and the inherent complexity in coordinating migrations have combined to make it impossible to take advantage of the right price/performance combination to meet the needs of the applications and business. As a result, migrations have remained like-to-like with no opportunity to put the right data in the right place.

These solutions have broken that paradigm and customers are using them to use their migration as an opportunity to reduce costs. As an example, David Passamonte - IT Manager at Molecular Pathology Lab Network, Inc, found that the simplicity of Komprise’s SaaS solution and inherent data assessment capabilities allowed MPLN to quickly understand their data estate and automate a migration that distributed the source data between different tiers of Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage through simple migration policies. What was once labor intensive and risk prone became simple and safe.

“Komprise made our data migration to the cloud as seamless as possible.  While researching ways to move large amounts of data, we were confronted time and time again with limitations that made us believe the migration would never happen.  Komprise was a sigh of relief for our entire team.”

Looking forward

More of the same in 2023 and beyond. The program and partnerships continue. Files and object flow. Risk and man hours decline.  Unstructured data from all industries will continue to move to Azure Storage thanks to the Storage Migration Program. It will continue to fuel digital transformation and be used by virtual servers and desktops, containers, analytics, machine learning, and more. Value is unlocked and costs are saved by migrating the right data to the right platform and tiering with confidence. We are not only continuing the program, but adding partners to address even MORE scenarios and help you migrate any application to Azure!

Here's to 2023 and beyond!

FAQ

Q: How long will the program continue? What about Azure Storage Mover?

A: We will continue the Azure Storage Migration Program for at least two more years. Microsoft is committed to our relationships with Data Dynamics and Komprise and have received tremendous feedback. Storage Mover is a maturing service and the supported source/target pairings will increase over time, but our partners have robust offerings today that have supported each and every combination of migration scenarios we have encountered and their robust features have helped customers save money by selectively moving data from a single source to multiple targets based on business value (ex. Older, untouched files/objects migrated to Azure Blob Storage Cool or Archive tier while active data is migrated to Azure Files, Azure NetApp Files, or Azure Blob Storage Hot or Premium tier).

Q: Is the program really free?

A: Yes, the software IS free. Komprise and Data Dynamics software is free to use for migrations to Azure Storage. However, if your need is continuous replication for disaster recovery or perpetual tiering of on-premises or Cloud-based data, you will need separate licensing from either partner. We have also found that migration performance is often fastest when the data copy engines are running as Azure VMs – so there may be a small monthly cost for the VMs while the migration is underway.

Q: What paperwork or approvals are necessary?

A: None. Reach out to [email protected], [email protected], or select the Data Dynamics or Komprise offer in the Azure Marketplace.

Q: Does participating in the program mean I am no longer eligible for other programs like the Azure Migration and Modernization Program (AMMP)?

A: No. The Storage Migration Program (SMP) is complimentary and additive to AMMP. You can use AMMP to migrate databases and VMs and use Komprise or Data Dynamics to migrate the shared file or object store used by the same application. SMP does not impact the scope of your AMMP engagement at all.

Q: What if my source files and objects are on another cloud?

A: You can leverage the program and tools to move the data from either on-premises or another cloud to Azure Storage. CIFS/SMB, NFS, and S3 compatible sources outside of Azure are all eligible.

Q: I am concerned that bandwidth will be a problem and migration will impact day-to-day business. How can I be sure the copy activity will not be disruptive?

A: Each partner has the experience and the tooling to help guide a non-impactful migration. Komprise developed a tool to identify bottlenecks and use that data to tune migration parameters and windows accordingly and Data Dynamics experts have helped customers do the same. If bandwidth and project windows are a problem, each can use Azure DataBox for initial seeding and has done a tremendous amount of work to continuously improve copy performance and efficiency as Komprise illustrates with HyperTransport.

Resources

Komprise and the Azure Storage Migration Program

Data Dynamics and the Azure Storage Migration Program

Learn more from these videos

Migration Solution Details

Data Dynamics and Azure Storage Quick Start

Komprise and Azure Storage Quick Start

Komprise HyperTransfer White Paper