Assess Everything
Strategy gave us direction. Now we need evidence. Azure Migrate provides a comprehensive, automated assessment of the entire estate — infrastructure, applications, and databases — so we can make informed decisions about what moves, how it moves, and in what order.
MCEM Stage 2 — Inspire and Design
This is MCEM Stage 2: Inspire and Design. We show the customer what is possible and begin shaping the solution. The assessment transforms abstract modernization goals into concrete, workload-specific recommendations backed by data — setting the stage for modernization path design.
Decide, Plan, and Execute Evidence
Azure Migrate supports the decide, plan, and execute story for migration and modernization. Discovery creates the inventory. Business cases and assessments turn that inventory into readiness, right-sizing, cost, dependency, and target recommendations. Wave planning then converts those recommendations into an execution plan. Use the official Azure Migrate overview and migration planning guidance as the source for assessment scope and readiness interpretation.
Three Dimensions of Assessment
Azure Migrate assesses the estate across three dimensions. Each dimension produces findings that must be reviewed with application owners and platform teams before the roadmap is approved.
%%{init: {'theme':'neutral'}}%%
graph LR
classDef step fill:#0078d4,stroke:#005a9e,color:#fff
DISCOVER(["<b>Discover</b><br/>Agents scan the<br/>on-prem estate"]):::step
ASSESS(["<b>Assess</b><br/>Readiness, sizing,<br/>dependencies"]):::step
CATEGORIZE(["<b>Categorize</b><br/>Group by migration<br/>path and complexity"]):::step
RECOMMEND(["<b>Recommend</b><br/>Target service,<br/>estimated cost"]):::step
DISCOVER --> ASSESS --> CATEGORIZE --> RECOMMEND
Infrastructure
- How many VMs are running, and what are their actual utilization patterns?
- Which VMs are right-sized, which are oversized, which are idle?
- What operating system versions are in use — and are any end-of-support?
- What are the network dependencies between servers?
Applications
- What .NET Framework versions are the applications built on?
- Which applications are IIS-hosted web apps vs. Windows services?
- What are the application-to-database dependencies?
- How complex would it be to modernize each application?
Databases
- What SQL Server versions and editions are running?
- What features are in use (CLR, linked servers, Service Broker)?
- What is the database size and performance profile?
- What is the compatibility level with Azure SQL targets?
What the Assessment Reveals
A good assessment replaces assumptions with explicit migration evidence:
| Evidence area | What to use it for |
|---|---|
| Azure readiness | Identify workloads that are ready, conditionally ready, or blocked |
| Right-sizing | Compare as-is sizing with performance-based sizing |
| Cost estimation | Build customer-specific run-rate and TCO projections |
| Dependency analysis | Group systems that must move together in the same wave |
| Target recommendations | Compare Azure VM, SQL MI, Azure SQL DB, and modernization options |
| Retirement candidates | Remove idle, redundant, or ownerless assets from the plan |
From Assessment to Modernization Paths
The assessment data feeds directly into the next phase: designing a Two Modernization Paths roadmap that matches each workload to the right level of change — whether that is Stabilize for lower-disruption migration or Transform for deeper cloud-native modernization.