Evaluate a migration solution that leverages the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
5 minutes
5 Questions
The Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure provides a comprehensive methodology for evaluating and executing migration solutions. When assessing a migration approach, architects must consider several critical components within this framework.
First, examine the Strategy phase by identifying …The Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure provides a comprehensive methodology for evaluating and executing migration solutions. When assessing a migration approach, architects must consider several critical components within this framework.
First, examine the Strategy phase by identifying business motivations, expected outcomes, and financial justifications. This establishes clear migration goals and success metrics that align with organizational objectives.
The Plan phase requires creating a digital estate inventory, assessing workloads for cloud readiness, and developing a prioritized migration backlog. Use Azure Migrate to discover on-premises resources, analyze dependencies, and estimate costs. This assessment reveals which workloads are suitable for rehosting, refactoring, rearchitecting, or rebuilding.
During the Ready phase, evaluate the Azure landing zone configuration. Ensure proper subscription design, resource organization, identity management through Azure Active Directory, network topology including hub-spoke architectures, and governance policies. Landing zones must support scalability, security requirements, and compliance standards.
The Adopt phase involves actual migration execution. Assess whether Azure Migrate tools adequately support your workload types, including VMware, Hyper-V, physical servers, databases, and applications. Evaluate the chosen migration pattern - whether incremental migration, datacenter migration, or specific workload migration best fits your scenario.
Governance and security considerations span all phases. Review Azure Policy implementations, role-based access control configurations, cost management boundaries, and compliance requirements. Ensure the solution addresses data residency, encryption, and regulatory obligations.
The Manage phase evaluation focuses on operational readiness, including monitoring strategies using Azure Monitor, backup and disaster recovery plans with Azure Site Recovery, and operational baseline definitions.
Finally, assess the overall migration timeline, resource requirements, risk mitigation strategies, and rollback procedures. A successful evaluation confirms that the solution provides a structured approach, minimizes business disruption, optimizes costs, and establishes a foundation for future cloud innovation while maintaining operational excellence throughout the transformation journey.
Evaluate a Migration Solution that Leverages the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure
Why This Topic Is Important
The Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) for Azure is a comprehensive guide that helps organizations plan and execute their cloud migration strategy. Understanding how to evaluate migration solutions using CAF is critical for Azure Solutions Architects because it ensures migrations are well-planned, cost-effective, and aligned with business objectives. This knowledge is essential for the AZ-305 exam as Microsoft emphasizes structured approaches to cloud adoption.
What Is the Cloud Adoption Framework?
The Cloud Adoption Framework is a collection of documentation, tools, and best practices that Microsoft provides to help organizations adopt cloud technologies. It consists of several key phases:
1. Define Strategy - Establish motivations, business outcomes, and financial considerations 2. Plan - Create a cloud adoption plan with digital estate assessment 3. Ready - Prepare the Azure environment with landing zones 4. Adopt - Execute migration or innovation initiatives 5. Govern - Implement governance controls and policies 6. Manage - Establish operations management practices
How CAF Works for Migration Evaluation
When evaluating a migration solution using CAF, architects should consider:
Digital Estate Assessment: Inventory and rationalize workloads using the 5 Rs: - Rehost (Lift and Shift) - Refactor (Repackage) - Rearchitect (Rebuild with cloud-native services) - Rebuild (Create new cloud-native application) - Replace (Use SaaS alternatives)
Landing Zones: Pre-configured environments that include networking, identity, governance, and security foundations for hosting workloads.
Migration Tools: Azure Migrate serves as the central hub for discovery, assessment, and migration of on-premises servers, databases, and applications.
Business Case Development: Financial analysis comparing current on-premises costs with projected Azure costs, including TCO calculations.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on CAF Migration Evaluation
1. Know the 5 Rs of Rationalization: Questions often present scenarios where you must choose the appropriate migration strategy. Understand when each approach is suitable.
2. Understand Landing Zone Concepts: Be familiar with how Azure landing zones provide a foundation for migrations, including subscription design and network topology options (hub-spoke vs. Virtual WAN).
3. Azure Migrate Is Central: Remember that Azure Migrate is the primary tool for assessment and migration. Know its capabilities for servers, databases, and web apps.
4. Recognize Governance Requirements: Questions may test your understanding of how governance policies should be established before migration begins.
5. Business Justification Matters: Be prepared for questions about building a business case, including TCO analysis and motivations for cloud adoption.
6. Phased Approach: CAF promotes incremental adoption. Expect questions where the correct answer involves a methodical, phased migration rather than a complete cutover.
7. Dependencies and Ordering: Understand that workload dependencies must be mapped before migration. Azure Migrate provides dependency visualization features.
8. Look for Keywords: When you see terms like structured approach, best practices, governance baseline, or landing zone, the answer likely involves CAF principles.
Common Exam Scenario Patterns: - Organization planning first-time cloud migration → Recommend CAF methodology - Need to assess on-premises workloads → Use Azure Migrate with CAF planning - Establishing cloud foundation → Implement Azure landing zones - Choosing migration strategy for specific workloads → Apply the 5 Rs based on requirements