SOLUTIONS / MODERNISATION
Cloud migration and application modernisation.
Portfolio assessment, target architecture and wave-based migration of applications and data to Microsoft Azure — protecting service continuity, controlling cost and leaving a platform ready for future capabilities.
What we deliver
Assessment, planning and delivery of application and infrastructure modernisation onto Azure, with incremental, low-risk change and measurable cost outcomes.
Not every workload needs the same treatment
Some applications should be rehosted, some refactored, some replaced and some retired. We assess each workload against business value, technical condition, risk and cost, so that modernisation effort is spent where it pays back.
Portfolio assessment
Decisions are based on data gathered from the estate, not assumptions.
- Discovery and dependency mapping with Azure Migrate and application telemetry
- Technical health scoring: runtime support status, security exposure, test coverage and deployment automation
- Business criticality, change frequency and data classification
- Total cost of ownership modelling, including licences, operations and migration effort
Modernisation options
Each workload receives an explicit disposition.
- Retire or retain — not everything needs to move
- Rehost — move largely as-is to Azure virtual machines for a time-bound exit
- Replatform — adopt managed services such as Azure SQL Managed Instance, App Service or Container Apps with modest change
- Refactor — restructure for cloud-native patterns (containers, serverless, event-driven) where the business case supports it
- Replace — adopt SaaS where the capability is not a differentiator
Migration engineering
Large cut-overs are where modernisation fails. We migrate in waves and keep every step reversible.
- Landing zone readiness: identity, networking, policy and monitoring before the first workload moves
- Data migration with Azure Database Migration Service, online replication where downtime must be minimal
- Strangler-fig routing to move functionality incrementally behind a stable interface
- Rehearsed cut-overs with defined rollback criteria, performance baselines and post-migration validation
Cost and licensing
We model run costs before migrating — including reservations and savings plans, Azure Hybrid Benefit for eligible Windows Server and SQL Server licences, and the operational effort that managed services remove — and track actual cost against the model after each wave.
Problems we address
- Ageing applications on unsupported runtimes or infrastructure
- Data-centre exit or contract deadlines
- High hosting costs relative to business value
- Release processes too slow for business demand
Technologies and approaches
- Azure Migrate and Database Migration Service
- Azure App Service, Container Apps and AKS
- Azure SQL and SQL Managed Instance
- .NET Upgrade Assistant
- Terraform and Bicep
- GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps
Typical engagement activities
- Portfolio and application assessment
- Modernisation disposition per workload
- Target architecture and landing zone alignment
- Pilot migration and pattern validation
- Wave-based delivery with rollback plans
Deliverables
- Application assessment and disposition report
- Target and transition architectures with ADRs
- Migrated or modernised workloads
- Infrastructure as code and deployment pipelines
- Operational handover documentation
Potential business outcomes
- Reduced risk from unsupported technology
- Lower or better-understood running costs
- Faster, automated releases
- A platform ready for future capabilities such as AI
Contact: contact@nexaarislabs.com