Azure Migrate
Cloud migration software
Cloud migration assessment tools
Data integration tools
Cloud data integration software
- Features
- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
- Affordability
- Market presence
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$25 per month per instance replicated
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What is Azure Migrate
Azure Migrate is a Microsoft service for discovering on-premises and other-cloud workloads, assessing readiness, and planning migrations into Microsoft Azure. It supports inventory, dependency visualization, sizing and cost estimation, and migration tracking across servers, databases, and virtual desktops, with optional integration to partner tools for specific scenarios. Typical users include infrastructure and cloud migration teams standardizing assessment and execution within Azure. The service is designed to centralize assessment and migration project management in the Azure portal.
Integrated discovery and assessment
Azure Migrate provides built-in discovery for servers and applications via an appliance and supports assessment outputs such as right-sizing and cost estimates for Azure targets. It consolidates inventory, assessments, and migration progress in a single Azure portal experience. This reduces the need to stitch together separate assessment utilities and project tracking spreadsheets. It is particularly suited to teams planning a structured move of datacenter workloads into Azure.
Broad workload coverage in Azure
The service supports common migration paths for servers (VMware/Hyper-V/physical), databases, and virtual desktop scenarios, with Azure-native target recommendations. It also supports dependency mapping to help sequence moves and reduce application breakage risk. For organizations migrating multiple workload types, this helps standardize assessment artifacts and reporting. The approach aligns well when Azure is the primary destination.
Partner tool extensibility
Azure Migrate includes a framework to integrate partner migration and assessment tools for specialized needs (for example, certain application, data, or platform migrations). This allows teams to keep Azure Migrate as the central hub while using third-party tooling where Azure-native capabilities are not sufficient. It can reduce operational friction compared with running multiple disconnected migration programs. The integration model is useful for mixed environments and phased migrations.
Azure-centric destination focus
Azure Migrate is primarily designed for planning and executing migrations into Microsoft Azure. Organizations pursuing a multi-cloud destination strategy may need additional tooling to assess and migrate to other clouds with comparable depth. This can lead to parallel processes and duplicated assessment work. The product fits best when Azure is the main landing zone.
Setup and data collection overhead
Accurate assessments typically require deploying and maintaining an Azure Migrate appliance and ensuring network access, credentials, and permissions across environments. Dependency mapping and deeper application insights can add further configuration and monitoring requirements. In tightly controlled networks, these prerequisites can slow initial rollout. Teams often need coordination across infrastructure, security, and application owners.
Not a general data integration tool
While it supports database and server migration workflows, Azure Migrate is not positioned as an ongoing, bidirectional data integration or ETL/ELT platform. Organizations needing continuous data movement, transformations, and orchestration across many sources typically use separate data integration services. Using Azure Migrate for recurring integration use cases can be a mismatch. Its strengths are assessment, planning, and migration execution tracking rather than long-term integration pipelines.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Azure Migrate (Platform/tools: Server Assessment & Migration, Web App Assessment, Database Assessment) | Free (no additional charge) for assessment features. Server migration: free for first 180 days per machine; after 180 days: $25 per month per replicated instance. | Centralized discovery, assessment and migration orchestration. Server migration licensing: first 180 days free per machine, then $25/month per replicated instance. During replication you may still incur Azure Storage, storage transaction and data transfer charges. Third‑party ISV tools listed in Azure Migrate may have separate licensing costs. |
| Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) — Standard tier (1-, 2-, 4‑vCore) | Free | Supports offline (one‑time) migrations; Standard tier is generally available and free to customers for offline migrations. |
| Azure Database Migration Service (DMS) — Premium tier (vCore-based) | Billed hourly (region-dependent); 4‑vCore Premium is free for the first 6 months (183 days) from DMS service creation before billing starts. | Premium supports online (continuous) and offline migrations for business‑critical workloads. Premium is billed on an hourly rate based on provisioned vCores; exact hourly price varies by region and needs Azure pricing calculator or portal to view. |
Notes: - Azure Migrate platform/tools are listed on Microsoft's official Azure Migrate pricing page as available at no additional charge, but specific migration licensing and runtime charges apply as noted above. - Some DMS Premium usage may be free for limited periods (see Premium 4‑vCore 183‑day free period). - Additional Azure services used during migration (VMs, storage, network egress, Log Analytics, etc.) are billed separately per their own pricing pages.
Seller details
Microsoft Corporation
Redmond, Washington, United States
1975
Public
https://www.microsoft.com/
https://x.com/Microsoft
https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/
