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Workshop Prep

Contoso Bakery is a growing artisan bakery and wholesale supplier based in Dublin, Ireland, known for their premium sourdough breads and pastries sold to cafés and restaurants across the region.

AttributeDetails
IndustryFood & Beverage (Wholesale)
Employees65
Revenue€10M annually
LocationsDublin, Ireland (single site)
IT Staff3 (IT Manager + 2 support)

Contoso Bakery operates from a single facility with a small server room that hosts their business applications. The infrastructure is aging, and the company faces several challenges:

  • Hardware refresh due — Servers are 6+ years old and out of warranty
  • No redundancy — Single points of failure everywhere
  • Skills gap — IT team stretched thin, no dedicated infrastructure specialist
  • Business continuity — No proper disaster recovery plan
  • Growth pressure — New B2B customers require online ordering capability

The Managing Director has approved a “Cloud Migration” project with the goal of moving all workloads to Azure within 6 months. This workshop focuses on planning and executing that migration.


Your simulated on-premises datacenter (represented by ArcBox) contains:

Server NameOperating SystemRoleBusiness Criticality
ArcBox-Win2K22Windows Server 2022Application ServerHigh
ArcBox-Win2K25Windows Server 2025File ServerMedium
ArcBox-SQLWindows Server 2022 + SQL Server 2022Database ServerCritical
ArcBox-Ubuntu-01Ubuntu 22.04 LTSWeb ServerHigh
ArcBox-Ubuntu-02Ubuntu 22.04 LTSMonitoring ServerMedium
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CONTOSO BAKERY │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ [B2B Order Portal] [Internal Apps] [Monitoring] │
│ Ubuntu-01 (Web) ←→ Win2K22 (App) → Ubuntu-02 │
│ ↓ ↓ │
│ └──────────→ [SQL Database] ←──────────┘ │
│ ArcBox-SQL │
│ │
│ [File Shares] │
│ Win2K25 (Files) │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
ApplicationDepends OnNotes
B2B Order Portal (Ubuntu-01)SQL Database, App ServerCustomer-facing, business hours
Inventory & Ordering (Win2K22)SQL DatabaseCore business app
Monitoring (Ubuntu-02)All serversBasic uptime monitoring
File Server (Win2K25)N/ARecipes, invoices, HR docs

“We’re a small team and I need this to be simple. I can’t afford for the bakery systems to go down during our busy morning rush. Just make it work reliably.”

Priorities: Keep it simple, minimise disruption, reliable systems.

“We’re a small business — every euro counts. Show me that cloud makes financial sense and won’t blow our budget.”

Priorities: Clear predictable costs, stay within budget, understand ongoing monthly spend.

“Our B2B customers trust us with their order data. We need to make sure we’re handling it properly — I’ve heard about GDPR but we’ve never had a formal compliance review.”

Priorities: Data protection basics, GDPR awareness, security fundamentals in Azure.

“I manage the bakery floor and rely on the ordering system every day. If it goes down, we can’t fulfil orders. Keep it running!”

Priorities: System availability, simple handover, quick support when issues arise.


ConstraintDetails
Downtime windowWeekends only (Sat 18:00 – Sun 12:00)
TimelineComplete migration within 3 months
Budget€15,000 for migration (tooling, any consulting)
Data residencyCustomer data should stay in EU (GDPR)
SkillsIT team has limited Azure experience

The migration will be considered successful when:

  1. All 5 servers migrated to Azure (or managed via Arc)
  2. Applications functional with same or better performance
  3. GDPR compliance requirements met and documented
  4. Monitoring operational with comparable visibility
  5. IT team trained on Azure operations
  6. Total cost of ownership reduced by 15% or justified

As the migration consulting team, you will:

  1. Discover and assess the current environment using Azure Migrate
  2. Design a migration strategy aligned with Cloud Adoption Framework
  3. Plan migration waves with proper sequencing and dependencies
  4. Address compliance requirements including GDPR
  5. Optimise for cost and design governance controls
  6. Present your plan to Contoso Bakery leadership

As you work through the challenges, think about:

  • Which workload is the best pilot candidate?
  • How do you handle the SQL database migration?
  • What happens if the web server migration fails on Sunday morning?
  • How will you address GDPR for customer order data?
  • What’s your recommendation for the monitoring server?

ComponentCurrent State
VirtualisationHyper-V
Active DirectoryNone (workgroup)
BackupUSB external drives (manual)
MonitoringBasic Nagios
Network500 Mbps fibre broadband
DayHoursNotes
Monday–Friday04:00–18:00Bakery production starts early
Saturday05:00–14:00Reduced hours
SundayClosedBest maintenance window