Azure Migration for Webservers, Apps and Database
Budget: $15 – $25 USD
We currently have dedicated hosting and are planning to move to Azure. We are looking for an Azure-certified consultant to help us determine the best solutions, and to help us set up and configure the environment. Below is an overall description of what we have and what we’re looking at. We don’t know all of Azure’s offerings, so we are looking for recommendations and best practices suggestions.
We find that we get a lot of automated responses, so in your response please make sure you tell us your Azure qualifications, and mention our company name, which is BookingBuilder. We want to focus on people who have read our requirements instead of automated responses.
Current Environment / Azure Questions
Database
We currently have a sql server cluster with approximately 500 gigabytes of data. We use multiple databases and have several scheduled tasks.
• For Azure, do we use a managed instance (where we still have to administer database functionality) or use Azure SQL and update our applications to use a single database, and move the scheduled tasks somewhere else (such as Azure Functions)
• We will need a development database as well. This can be low priority (spin up as needed)
• We also have an archive database. Serverless is probably ideal for this
Web Servers
• We currently have 2 production web servers, load balanced
• Azure cache for Redis seems to be a good solution for asp.net session state across multiple instances. We currently use sql server.
• We have 1 development web server and 1 staging web server
• We feel that moving to App Service is probably much better than individual servers. We would like some additional servers – for examples 1 staging server pointing to dev database, and 1 staging server pointing to production database
• What are best practices for connection strings and storing external passwords?
DevOps/TFS
• We currently have a dedicated server running TFS. We have multiple builds as well as internal applications that run on that server. We need suggestions on where to run these app on Azure – Functions may be the right place.
VPN
• We must have a vpn for access
Firewall and other Security
• Firewall is required, as well as intrusion detection, data loss prevention
Failover/Backup Location
• We have customer requirements for a failover location. We want to understand the most cost-effective way to do this on Azure
Windows Forms App
• We have a windows forms app we would like to run on Azure if there is a way. In the long run we can move to be web-based, but it would be ideal if Azure to run it now
Migration Plan
• We plan to start with our development database and development servers. These do not need to be behind a firewall or have intrusion detection, etc.
• Once the dev has been migrated to Azure, we plan to move our production web servers. They could point to our existing database, or we can migrate the existing database at the same time. Best practices to be determined.
We find that we get a lot of automated responses, so in your response please make sure you tell us your Azure qualifications, and mention our company name, which is BookingBuilder. We want to focus on people who have read our requirements instead of automated responses.
Current Environment / Azure Questions
Database
We currently have a sql server cluster with approximately 500 gigabytes of data. We use multiple databases and have several scheduled tasks.
• For Azure, do we use a managed instance (where we still have to administer database functionality) or use Azure SQL and update our applications to use a single database, and move the scheduled tasks somewhere else (such as Azure Functions)
• We will need a development database as well. This can be low priority (spin up as needed)
• We also have an archive database. Serverless is probably ideal for this
Web Servers
• We currently have 2 production web servers, load balanced
• Azure cache for Redis seems to be a good solution for asp.net session state across multiple instances. We currently use sql server.
• We have 1 development web server and 1 staging web server
• We feel that moving to App Service is probably much better than individual servers. We would like some additional servers – for examples 1 staging server pointing to dev database, and 1 staging server pointing to production database
• What are best practices for connection strings and storing external passwords?
DevOps/TFS
• We currently have a dedicated server running TFS. We have multiple builds as well as internal applications that run on that server. We need suggestions on where to run these app on Azure – Functions may be the right place.
VPN
• We must have a vpn for access
Firewall and other Security
• Firewall is required, as well as intrusion detection, data loss prevention
Failover/Backup Location
• We have customer requirements for a failover location. We want to understand the most cost-effective way to do this on Azure
Windows Forms App
• We have a windows forms app we would like to run on Azure if there is a way. In the long run we can move to be web-based, but it would be ideal if Azure to run it now
Migration Plan
• We plan to start with our development database and development servers. These do not need to be behind a firewall or have intrusion detection, etc.
• Once the dev has been migrated to Azure, we plan to move our production web servers. They could point to our existing database, or we can migrate the existing database at the same time. Best practices to be determined.