For most organizations, cloud migration doesn’t fail because of strategy…
It fails in the details — storage performance mismatches, unexpected downtime, and post-migration rework no one planned for.
Microsoft seems to have noticed this!
The November 2025 updates to Azure Migrate , address some of the most expensive and frustrating challenges migration teams face once workloads are already running in Azure.
Cloud migration today is more than a checklist — it’s an engineering effort.
The move from on-premises infrastructure to Microsoft Azure brings clear opportunity, but it also introduces risk – Performance inconsistencies, data durability concerns, and operational complexity can slow timelines and inflate costs if not addressed early.
With its latest enhancements, Azure Migrate directly targets these risk areas, enabling enterprises to move critical workloads with greater performance assurance and built-in resilience.
The result is not just an easier migration, but one that is more predictable, scalable, and aligned with enterprise requirements.
Let’s explore some of the technical advancements in Azure Migrate — why they matter, and how they shape modern migration strategies for enterprise workloads.
One of the biggest challenges during migration is disk performance.
Many enterprise applications — databases, analytics engines, transactional systems — are highly sensitive to I/O throughput and latency.
Azure Migrate’s support for Premium v2 SSDs allows teams to migrate directly into disk types that offer:
– Scalable IOPS and throughput independent of capacity
– Predictable performance SLAs
– Efficient cost/performance tuning
Premium v2 SSDs are now fully supported during the assessment and replication phases, letting teams define the correct disk SKU before actual cutover, reducing post-migration tuning and performance surprises.
This support ensures that applications perform as expected immediately after migration — especially for ERP systems and high-transaction databases — without costly reconfiguration cycles.
For workloads that demand even higher performance — such as real-time analytics, large transactional databases or big data processing — Ultra SSD support is now available in public preview for Azure Migrate.
Ultra SSDs provide:
– Very high throughput and IOPS
– Dynamic performance tuning
– Low latency for critical storage paths
Why does this matter for enterprise migrations?
It’s because before this enhancement, organizations had to compromise or redesign storage stacks during migration. Now, with Ultra SSD support, Azure Migrate can act as a true lift-and-optimize tool for performance-sensitive systems.
This is a game changer for mission-critical applications that used to be flagged as “too risky” to migrate without significant re-architecting.
High availability is table stakes for enterprise systems. Disk failures or zone outages can cause unacceptable downtime.
Azure Migrate now supports migration directly to ZRS Disks, which synchronously replicate data across three physically separate availability zones in a region.
ZRS offers:
– Redundancy at the zone level
– Protection against single-zone hardware failures
– Improved uptime without complex architecture changes
This matters for regulated industries and enterprises with strict SLA requirements.
As ZRS provides higher availability for managed disks than locally redundant storage (LRS) one can now incorporate ZRS early in the migration plan, which helps teams avoid lengthy post-migration redesigns and align cloud outcomes with business continuity goals.
Agent-based migration has traditionally required infrastructure setup, replication appliance configuration, and careful network/topology planning.
Azure Migrate now offers an upgraded and simplified agent-based migration experience that:
– Streamlines replication setup
– Reduces configuration steps before initial sync
– Integrates closely with Azure Site Recovery backend services
The Agent-Based Architecture involves:
– A replication appliance that orchestrates discovery and replication
– A Mobility Service agent installed on source servers
– Capture of data at a block level, enabling continuous delta replication until cutover
This means fewer manual steps and reduced migration risk — especially for VMware and physical server environments.
Best practice – Use simplified agent-based replication for workloads with complex dependencies or where agentless discovery isn’t sufficient for accurate application mapping.
Taken together, these enhancements make Azure Migrate a more enterprise-ready tool with….
These changes allow infrastructure teams to embrace a modernization-first mindset, rather than treating migration as a simple VM move.
To take full advantage of these features, enterprises should…
Azure Migrate’s recent updates are subtle but powerful. They reflect a shift from “basic migration tooling” to a serious engineering platform that supports enterprise-grade performance, availability, and operational simplicity.
For technical teams planning large migrations — especially those moving ERP, analytics, or other I/O-heavy workloads — these enhancements should be central in architecture decisions.
For organizations planning or scaling Azure migrations, this is a big relief!
At CCIT we look forward to helping translate these platform capabilities into well-architected, low-risk migration programs — ensuring performance, resilience, and operational readiness from day one.
CCIT Cloud (CocoonIT Services) is an expert Microsoft Cloud Solutions and Implementation Partner. Organisations around the globe, partner with CCIT to harness the full potential of Microsoft Dynamics, Azure Cloud and Power Platform.