Microsoft Migration Accelerator Preview Now Available
One of the biggest difficulties for development teams is figuring out how to port their legacy apps into the cloud seamlessly. If you use Azure to host your public cloud, you can begin using the free preview of the Microsoft Migration Accelerator. Srinath Vasireddy, the Principal Lead Program Manager at Azure, wrote a blog yesterday announcing the new release. Vasireddy goes on to talk about Microsoft’s acquisition of InMage which gives end users the ability to move physical, Hyper-V, AWS and VMware workloads into Azure.
Vasireddy writes, “It automates all aspects of migration including discovery of source workloads, remote agent installation, network adaptation and endpoint configuration. With MA, you reduce cost and risk of your migration project.”
This addition found inside Azure could be the feature that serves as the tipping point for those looking to jump into the world of cloud services hosting. Although others compete for this same type of business, Microsoft is expected to take a large chunk of the existing market because this functionality will be baked into Azure versus having to incorporate a third party solution.
The Microsoft Migration Accelerator is somewhat self explanatory in terms of actually using the program. You would install the guest agent in your environment which maps out the apps you have available to migrate. The guest agent installs a server that acts as a facilitator between your environment and Azure. A configuration server that contains your app will exist within Azure at the end of the process.
While Microsoft is the first IaaS provider to embrace this type of technology, other cloud providers are expected to follow suit with migration tools of their own. The end result in the migration tools sprawl is that it will ultimately be easier to move enterprise apps from cloud to cloud based on the needs of the organization. This increases your organization’s flexibility while giving administrators complete and seamless control of their apps within the cloud.
