# Azure Migrate

> Chapter 132 of the Courseiva AZ-900 curriculum — https://courseiva.com/learn/az-900/azure-migrate

**Official objective:** 2.1 — Describe cloud computing and Azure's architectural components

## Introduction

This chapter covers Azure Migrate, a hub for assessing and executing migrations to Azure. AZ-900 tests this under objective 2.1, connecting to the broader migration concepts covered earlier in this guide.

## A Site Survey Before Moving Day

Before moving a business to a new building, a sensible first step is a site survey: cataloging what exists, estimating what it'll cost to replicate elsewhere, and identifying anything that needs special handling. Azure Migrate serves that role for cloud migration — assessing existing on-premises infrastructure and helping plan and execute the move to Azure, rather than migrating blindly.

## Core explanation

### What Azure Migrate does
Azure Migrate is a centralized hub of tools for discovering, assessing, and migrating on-premises servers, databases, and other workloads to Azure. It helps organizations understand what they have before deciding how to move it.

### Discovery and assessment
Azure Migrate can discover existing on-premises servers and their configurations, then provide assessments — including estimated Azure costs and compatibility considerations — to help inform migration planning, connecting to the lift-and-shift-versus-refactor decision covered in an earlier chapter.

### Migration tools
Beyond assessment, Azure Migrate provides tools to actually execute migrations for supported workload types, coordinating the move from on-premises to Azure.

### Why this matters
Migrating without first understanding what exists and what it will cost or require in Azure risks unpleasant surprises. Azure Migrate's assessment capabilities support the "assess before you migrate" principle covered in the cloud migration overview chapter.

## Real-world context

Before migrating, a company uses Azure Migrate to catalog its on-premises servers and get cost estimates for running equivalent resources in Azure, informing a more confident, planned migration rather than moving workloads without first understanding what they'll require.

## Exam focus

Objective 2.1 expects recognition of Azure Migrate as the tool for discovering, assessing, and executing migrations to Azure, connecting to the migration-strategy chapters covered earlier.

A common wrong answer is treating migration as something done without any assessment tooling — Azure Migrate specifically exists to inform that planning process with real discovery and cost data.

Stable terms: **Azure Migrate**. Memory trick: Azure Migrate = discover what you have, assess what it'll take, then migrate — not moving blind.

## Step by step

1. **Discover existing infrastructure** — Azure Migrate catalogs on-premises servers and workloads.
2. **Assess for Azure readiness** — Assessments estimate Azure costs and flag compatibility considerations for each workload.
3. **Plan the migration approach** — Based on the assessment, an appropriate migration approach (lift-and-shift, refactor, or otherwise) is chosen per workload.
4. **Execute the migration** — Azure Migrate's tools support carrying out the actual migration for supported workload types.

## Common misconceptions

- **Misconception:** Azure Migrate only executes migrations without any assessment step. **Reality:** It provides both discovery/assessment capabilities and migration execution tools — assessment is a core part of what it offers, not migration alone.

## Key takeaways

- Azure Migrate is a hub of tools for discovering, assessing, and migrating on-premises workloads to Azure.
- Discovery catalogs existing infrastructure; assessment estimates Azure cost and compatibility.
- It supports informed migration planning, connecting to the broader lift-and-shift-versus-refactor decision.

## FAQ

**What is Azure Migrate?**

It's a centralized hub of tools for discovering, assessing, and migrating on-premises servers, databases, and other workloads to Azure, helping organizations plan migrations with real data rather than guesswork.

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Interactive version with quiz and diagrams: https://courseiva.com/learn/az-900/azure-migrate