Why Migrate?
If your ageing private cloud feels more like a second job than a strategic asset, you’re not alone. Managing racks, fighting with legacy virtualisation platforms, and babysitting on-prem workloads can leave even the best ops teams wondering: is there a better way to brew this?
Spoiler: there is. Microsoft Azure offers a modern cloud platform that scales with your needs, cuts down on undifferentiated heavy lifting, and unlocks access to a wide range of PaaS and security services that simply weren’t built for on-prem.
In this post, we’re kicking off the series with a reality check. Why do so many teams get stuck in private cloud purgatory and what’s making Azure the platform of choice for enterprises exiting the server room?
What is “Private Cloud” Anyway?
Private cloud generally refers to infrastructure environments where your team owns (or leases) the hardware but uses cloud-like tools often things like VMware, Hyper-V, or Nutanix — to build and manage virtualised resources.
Key characteristics:
- Still operates from your data centre (or co-location providers like Equinix, NextDC etc)
- Offers some automation and self-service, but limited elasticity
- Requires boots-on-the-ground support from physical installation, firmware to firewalls
- Big upfront costs, ongoing maintenance, slower innovation cycles
In contrast, Azure delivers infrastructure, platform, and software services at global scale without the overhead of owning the kit.
How Azure Changes the Game
Here’s how Azure flips the traditional private cloud model:
| Capability | Private Cloud | Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity & Scale | Bound by available physical hardware | Global capacity, scale-out in minutes |
| Elasticity | Manual provisioning, slow to adjust workloads | Autoscale with resource-level granularity |
| High Availability & DR | Build and maintain your own redundancy and backup stack | Built-in redundancy across zones and regions, automated backup & recovery |
| Operating Responsibility | You manage and maintain hardware, hypervisor, networking, storage all end to end | Shared responsibility: Microsoft manages the infra, you manage the workload |
| Cost Model | High CapEx with sunk infrastructure and licensing costs | Pay-as-you-go, optimise with reserved instances and auto-shutdown |
| Speed to Innovation | Limited to vendor upgrades and internal cycles | Immediate access to new services: AI, serverless, PaaS, security tooling |
| Security Baseline | Often ad hoc, reliant on third-party tools and patch cycles | Cloud-native security (Defender for Cloud, Sentinel) with global threat intelligence |
| Tooling & Automation | Tooling varies, often heavily customised or manual | API-first design, ARM/Bicep/IaC + deep DevOps/GitHub integration |
Azure reduces operational overhead and unlocks capabilities that are often impossible or cost-prohibitive to implement in a private environment. Things like:
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud for built-in workload protection
- Azure Machine Learning and OpenAI integrations
- Services like Cosmos DB (global databases), Azure Front Door (geo-routing and performance), and Azure Machine Learning give you tools to build modern, resilient applications not just run legacy ones in the cloud.
Real-World Impact: 300 VMs, 3 Months, One Deadline
Let’s look at a not-for-profit organisation based in Sydney. They were facing two major pressures:
- An urgent co-location exit with the hosting agreement ending in 90 days
- A looming VMware licensing renewal that would significantly bump up their operating costs
These combined constraints lit a fire under their modernisation plans. Over 300 virtual machines needed to find a new home — fast.
Their Approach
- Phased migration: Started with dev/test workloads to validate the patterns
- Controlled cutovers: Production workloads were grouped logically to minimise risk
- Hands-on engagement: Internal teams led change coordination, comms, and testing
- Tooling: They used Azure Migrate for discovery, dependency mapping, and lift-and-shift execution
- Landing zone prepared in advance: With networking, identity, monitoring, and cost governance in place
Outcome
- All 300+ VMs were successfully moved to Azure in under three months
- No need for renewed VMware enterprise licensing or new hardware purchases
- Ops teams now rely on Azure Monitor, Defender for Cloud, and auto-shutdown policies to optimise post-migration
- The organisation gained flexibility to modernise key workloads over time — starting with databases and file services
This wasn’t an outsourcing story. It was a joint effort between the business and IT, with strong internal ownership. The key was aligning the timeline with a clear, well-sequenced plan — and putting change management on equal footing with tech execution.
Gotchas & Mindset Shifts
Moving from private cloud to Azure isn’t just a platform shift — it’s a mindset one:
- Control vs Trust: You give up some control (no more “log into the hypervisor”) but gain reliability and consistency
- Skills Drift: Infrastructure teams may need to upskill in areas like Identity, Cost operations, Infrastructure as Code (Bicep) and Security operations.
- Shared Responsibility Model: Azure handles the infrastructure; you still own the configuration, access, and data
Best Practices Before Moving
- Audit your private cloud footprint: Understand what’s worth lifting, modernising, or retiring. Another key element here is to understand your private cloud costs from hosting (co-lo or rent if your self hosted), power, licensing, hardware purchase (or leasing) and staff skilling
- Define your business drivers: Cost, agility, compliance, global expansion or region redundancy
- Get leadership buy-in: Start with pilot workloads tied to measurable success (e.g., cost per transaction)
- Consider a landing zone: Set up an Azure environment with guardrails from day 1
- Upskill early: Give your ops team time to get hands-on with Azure Certifications help, but nothing beats real workloads
Brewed Take ☕
If you’re waiting on a hardware refresh, you’re already behind. The real driver isn’t just cost it’s capability. While private cloud has you patching firmware, Azure has you deploying platforms. Migration doesn’t just reduce lift it increases lift-off.
No two migrations are the same, but a few benefits show up every time:
- Teams spend less time maintaining, more time improving
- Systems Engineers evolve into Cloud and Platform Engineers
- Application teams finally get to modernise using the services they’ve been asking for
The move is technical, yes — but the transformation is cultural.