The Problem

Your organisation is running critical systems on aging on-premise servers or co-located infrastructure. Maintenance costs are rising, hardware is reaching end-of-life, and your team spends too much time patching and firefighting instead of building new capabilities. You know cloud migration is the right move, but the prospect of moving production systems without downtime feels overwhelming.

Or you've already started a migration and it's stalled. Maybe the initial cost estimates were wrong, the networking configuration doesn't work with your existing systems, or your team doesn't have the Azure expertise to finish what they started. You need someone who's done this before and can get it back on track.

What You Get

A complete migration from assessment to cutover. I handle infrastructure-as-code with Terraform or Bicep, set up networking and security, configure monitoring and alerts, and ensure your team can manage the new environment independently. Every migration includes a detailed runbook and disaster recovery plan.

You also get knowledge transfer throughout the process. I don't just migrate your systems and disappear — I make sure your ops team understands the new architecture, knows how to troubleshoot common issues, and can manage day-to-day operations without external help.

Who This Is For

Organisations running on-premise servers, aging VMs, or co-located infrastructure who want to reduce costs, improve reliability, and enable remote working. This service is particularly suited for UK public sector teams who need to meet government cloud-first policies and maintain compliance with security standards for OFFICIAL and OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE workloads.

The assessment can also cover workloads on shared hosting, dedicated servers or another cloud provider. Review dependencies, identity integration and transfer costs before deciding whether Azure is a suitable destination.

My Approach

Every migration follows a four-phase approach that minimises risk at every step.

Phase 1: Cloud Readiness Assessment. I audit your current estate — every application, database, and service. I map dependencies between systems, identify which workloads are straightforward lift-and-shift candidates, which need re-architecting, and which should be replaced with SaaS alternatives entirely. I use Azure Migrate for automated discovery where possible, supplemented by manual review. The output is a migration plan with clear priorities, cost estimates, and a realistic timeline.

Phase 2: Foundation. Before migrating any workloads, I set up your Azure landing zone. This means configuring virtual networks, subnets, network security groups, firewall rules, and VPN or ExpressRoute connectivity back to your on-premise network. I configure applicable Azure Policy controls around the agreed regions, encryption and diagnostic logging requirements, and review exceptions with the team.

Phase 3: Phased Migration. I start with low-risk, low-dependency workloads — development environments, internal tools, file shares. Each workload follows the same pattern: migrate to staging, test thoroughly, run parallel with on-premise, cutover, monitor, decommission old system. This builds confidence and operational knowledge before touching production systems.

Phase 4: Optimisation. Review measured usage and service costs, right-size resources, and assess whether reservations suit the workload and commitment period. Agree cost alerts and any non-production shutdowns with the team. Measure the result against the baseline rather than promising a fixed saving.

Security and Compliance

For government workloads, I sync your on-premise Active Directory to Azure AD using Azure AD Connect, set up conditional access policies, enable multi-factor authentication for all admin accounts, and configure Privileged Identity Management for time-limited elevated access. All of this is documented and auditable.

Agree security, data residency, access and monitoring requirements with your organisation before selecting regions and services. Review and validate the configuration against those requirements as part of the migration; a cloud service or region choice alone does not establish compliance.

Technologies Used

Azure App Service, Azure SQL, Azure Functions, Azure Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, Azure Active Directory, Terraform, Bicep, Azure DevOps, Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Key Vault, Front Door, Azure Firewall, ExpressRoute, and Azure Migrate.

Common Pitfalls I Help You Avoid

Underestimating bandwidth requirements for the migration itself. Forgetting to account for data egress costs. Not training the ops team before cutover. Migrating without modernising — if you lift-and-shift a poorly architected system, you just get a poorly architected system in the cloud that costs more. Choosing oversized VM SKUs because "we might need the headroom" and then paying for capacity you never use.

Pricing

Cloud readiness assessments start from £2,000 and typically take one to two weeks depending on the size of your estate. Full migrations are priced per project based on complexity — typically £5,000 to £25,000 for small to medium environments. Large-scale migrations involving 20 or more applications are quoted individually after the assessment phase.

All pricing is fixed-quote after the assessment, so there are no surprises. The assessment fee is deducted from the migration cost if you proceed.

Discuss Relevant Work

Ask about work relevant to your project. I can explain my role and share supporting material where I have permission. Discuss relevant work →

☁️ Azure Cloud Migration