AWS to Azure

Migrating from AWS to Azure involves more than just moving workloads—it's about understanding service equivalencies, planning for differences, and ensuring a smooth transition for your teams and applications. This guide provides actionable steps, real-life examples, and best practices for a successful migration.

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Quick Comparison: AWS vs Azure Services

AWS Service	Azure Equivalent	Notes
EC2	Virtual Machines (VMs)	VM sizes and images differ
S3	Blob Storage	APIs and access models vary
IAM	Azure Active Directory	RBAC models differ
RDS	Azure SQL Database	Migration tools available
Lambda	Azure Functions	Triggers and bindings differ
CloudFormation	ARM Templates/Bicep	Syntax and capabilities differ
CloudWatch	Azure Monitor	Metrics and logging integration varies
VPC	Virtual Network (VNet)	Subnet and peering models differ
EKS	AKS (Azure Kubernetes)	Cluster management differs
Route 53	Azure DNS	Record types and automation differ

Tip: Microsoft's official service mapping is a great reference.

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Pre-Migration Checklist

1. Inventory Your AWS Resources

   • Use AWS Config or AWS CLI to export a list of resources:

     aws resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources > aws-inventory.json

2. Map Services to Azure Equivalents

   • Create a mapping document for each AWS service in use.

3. Assess Application Dependencies

   • Identify hardcoded endpoints, region-specific services, and OS dependencies.

4. Plan Identity and Access Migration

   • Prepare to migrate IAM users/groups to Azure AD.

5. Network Planning

   • Design Azure VNets to match (or improve) your AWS VPC topology.

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Migration Checklist

• Inventory AWS Resources Use AWS CLI: aws resourcegroupstaggingapi get-resources > aws-inventory.json

• Map AWS Services to Azure Equivalents Create a mapping table for all services in use.

• Assess Application Dependencies Identify hardcoded endpoints, region-specific services, and OS dependencies.

• Plan Identity and Access Migration Prepare to migrate IAM users/groups to Azure AD.

• Network Planning Design Azure VNets to match or improve your AWS VPC topology.

• Translate Infrastructure as Code Convert CloudFormation templates to ARM/Bicep or Terraform.

• Migrate Data Use AzCopy or Azure Data Factory for storage migration.

• Migrate Identity Set up Azure AD, and test user access.

• Refactor Applications Update code/configs to use Azure SDKs and endpoints.

• Test and Validate Use Azure Monitor and Application Insights for validation.

• Update DNS Point domains to Azure endpoints (Azure DNS).

• Monitor and Optimize Use Azure Cost Management and Azure Advisor.

• Decommission AWS Resources Confirm all data is migrated and backups are complete before deleting.

• Update Documentation Revise runbooks and architecture diagrams.

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Migration Steps (with Examples)

1. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Translation

• Example: Convert CloudFormation templates to Azure Bicep or ARM templates.

  • Use Former2 to export AWS resources to Terraform, then adapt to Azure.
  • Example Terraform snippet for Azure VM:

    resource "azurerm_virtual_machine" "example" {
      name                  = "example-vm"
      resource_group_name   = azurerm_resource_group.example.name
      location              = azurerm_resource_group.example.location
      # ...
    }

2. Data Migration

• Example: Migrate S3 buckets to Azure Blob Storage using AzCopy:

  azcopy copy "s3://mybucket" "https://<account>.blob.core.windows.net/<container>" --recursive

3. Identity Migration

• Example: Sync AWS IAM users to Azure AD using Azure AD Connect.

4. Application Refactoring

• Update code/configs to use Azure SDKs and endpoints.

• Replace AWS Lambda triggers with Azure Function bindings.

5. Testing and Validation

• Use Azure Monitor and Application Insights for post-migration validation.

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Post-Migration Tasks

• Update DNS: Point domains to Azure endpoints (e.g., Azure DNS).

• Monitor and Optimize: Use Azure Cost Management and Azure Advisor.

• Decommission AWS Resources: Ensure all data is migrated and backups are complete before deleting.

• Documentation: Update runbooks and architecture diagrams.

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Best Practices & Common Pitfalls

• Start with Non-Production Workloads: Validate migration steps before moving critical systems.

• Automate Everything: Use Terraform/Ansible for repeatable deployments.

• Watch for Service Limits: Azure and AWS have different quotas.

• Security Review: Reassess security groups, NSGs, and IAM/RBAC policies.

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Cloud Hopping Humor

Why did the DevOps engineer bring a parachute to the cloud migration?

Because you never know when you’ll need to drop out of AWS and land safely in Azure!

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References

• AWS to Azure Service Comparison
• Azure Migration Center
• Terraform Azure Provider Docs
• AzCopy Documentation