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.


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.


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.


Migration Checklist


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

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.


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.


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.


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!


References

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