Add as a preferred source on Google


News

Microsoft Resources Tout Hybrid Azure Scenarios

Microsoft this week put the spotlight on some resources for organizations that are looking to take a hybrid approach with their Azure deployments.

It's not clear whether all of these resources are brand-new or just updated. On the possibly new front, Microsoft is offering a free report to help organizations assess their ability to swap some of their current premises-based resources for Azure offerings. The report gets compiled after signing up at this "Cloud Migration Assessment" portal.

Apparently, the Cloud Migration Assessment portal will initiate some kind of discovery tool. It identifies an organization's servers and analyzes their configurations. It'll produce an estimate of "the initial cost benefits of moving to Microsoft Azure," according to Microsoft's description.

Next, Microsoft indicated it's now possible to use the Azure Management Portal to activate the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. The Azure Hybrid Use Benefit is an option for organizations licensed to use Windows Server Standard or Datacenter editions provided that they also have Software Assurance coverage for those licenses. The "benefit" part is the ability to transport the licensing rights to Azure, using Microsoft's datacenters to run Windows Server in virtual machines. Microsoft's Azure Hybrid Use Benefit option isn't new, but activating it via the Azure Management Portal appears to be so.

Microsoft is also promising to enhance its Azure Site Recovery tool in the Azure Portal to "tag virtual machines" on a customer premises for the Azure Hybrid Use Benefit. This enhancement will be arriving "in the coming weeks." It's apparently an option over the current need to use PowerShell for the purpose. Azure Site Recovery is typically used for disaster recovery purposes, but it also can be used to move virtual machines to Azure datacenters, according to Microsoft.

This week, Microsoft opened a new Azure Migration Tech Community forum for discussions. It also published a new Total Cost of Ownership Calculator for Azure migrations, which is at the preview stage.

Microsoft's overall Azure cloud migration page can be found here, including links to get partner assistance.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

  • Microsoft Dismantles RedVDS Cybercrime Marketplace Linked to $40M in Phishing Fraud

    In a coordinated action spanning the United States and the United Kingdom, Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit (DCU) and international law enforcement collaborators have taken down RedVDS, a subscription based cybercrime platform tied to an estimated $40 million in fraud losses in the U.S. since March 2025.

  • Sound Wave Illustration

    CrowdStrike's Acquisition of SGNL Aims to Strengthen Identity Security

    CrowdStrike signs definitive agreement to purchase SGNL, an identity security specialist, in a deal valued at about $740 million.

  • Microsoft Acquires Osmos, Automating Data Engineering inside Fabric

    In a strategic move to reduce time-consuming manual data preparation, Microsoft has acquired Seattle-based startup Osmos, specializing in agentic AI for data engineering.

  • Linux Foundation Unites Major Tech Firms to Launch Agentic AI Foundation

    The Linux Foundation today announced the creation of a new collaborative initiative — the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) — bringing together major AI and cloud players such as Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic and other major tech companies.

Most   Popular