You know it’s time to help your customers modernize their data estate, but maybe it sounds complicated. Which type of Microsoft Azure SQL should they use? What are data migration best practices?
We’re here to help. We asked our SYNNEX sales team to tell us the top questions partners and their customers ask when evaluating Azure SQL for a data workload migration.
First, questions from partners:
1. What are the benefits of moving my customers to Azure SQL?
For you, Microsoft Azure is a tremendous partner opportunity. Cloud migration services, which are a $72.4 billion market revenue opportunity worldwide, account for up to 30% of the overall implementation service market.1 Migrating to Azure SQL opens up conversations about data modernization, specifically data and analytics tools such as Power BI, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Data Lake, and SQL Edge.
For your customers, the benefit of moving to Azure SQL is a modern, flexible technology infrastructure that keeps pace with the never-ending business shifts around them, whether it’s remote working or competitive and economic pressures.
Azure SQL offers cost-effective innovations, comprehensive compliance, and enterprise-grade security features. It's is a fully managed offering that never needs to be patched or upgraded and frees customers from hardware purchases and maintenance. And customers can start by moving portions of their data to the cloud while the rest stays on their on-premises server.
2. How can we quickly and effectively demonstrate the benefits of moving from on-premises SQL to Azure SQL?
- Customers of SQL Server 2008—which has passed its EOS date—who plan to migrate can take advantage of complimentary extended security updates until they upgrade to Azure.
- Moving to Azure SQL provides an unbeatable ROI. With Azure SQL Managed Instance, for example, the anticipated ROI is 212%, and the payback period is six months.2
- Moving customers to Azure SQL Database or Azure SQL Managed Instance lets them access not only the latest SQL features, but also additional analytics and data analysis tools.
- Use the Azure Total Cost of Ownership Calculator tool to see your customers’ likely benefits.
3. Is it complicated to migrate workloads to Azure?
While it can seem challenging, we have tools that make workload migration easier. Check out our on-demand webinars, which walk you through the process.
Or, watch our video on how to take advantage of the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework.
4. Does SYNNEX help with migrations?
Our top-notch SYNNEX engineers are on call to help with anything from pre-sales proof-of-concepts and pilots to scoping, building, and pricing your solutions or addressing a technical challenge. For help with a more extensive Azure SQL migration, there’s Microsoft FastTrack, a complimentary program that provides those that qualify with tailored guidance.
5. What training do you offer?
We recommend partners start with our SQL Server migration series. For in-person training, contact us, and we’ll invite you to our weekly SYNNEX Microsoft Cloud Technical series and upcoming boot camps. For even more, dive into Microsoft Learn. A good starting point is the Migrate SQL Server Workloads to Azure learning path; also, check out Data Estate Modernization.
For customers, the Azure SQL Fundamentals series is a great starting point for database administrators.
We also asked our sales team about the questions partners’ customers ask most often.
1. Is it truly important to move to SQL Server 2019 or Azure SQL right now?
It’s absolutely essential that customers on unsupported tools like SQL Server 2008 modernize so they can avoid outages or expensive security breaches. And the flexibility, accessibility, and scalability of Azure SQL helps customers get ahead of a changing market faster.
2. Will my customers save money by moving to Azure SQL?
Historically, customers bought expensive hardware and licenses all at once, often overbuying to ensure they had sufficient resources. Then they paid to secure, maintain, and repair all those assets. With Azure SQL, that upfront expense is gone, and they only pay for what they use. Azure Hybrid Benefit and Server Subscriptions and Reserved Instances let you help your customers find the lowest cost.
Compute their usage with the Azure DTU (database throughput units) calculator and then take a look at the Azure pricing calculator. Learn more in the Azure and Cost Control section of our on-demand webinar series, Overcoming Azure Concerns.
3. Will my data be secure in Azure? What if Azure goes down?
The Azure SQL service-level agreement (SLA) guarantees one of the industry’s highest availabilities, at 99.995%. Azure SQL has industry-leading security and compliance features, with more security certifications than any other cloud provider. When you consider that Microsoft analyzes 6.5 trillion threat alerts per day and spends more than $1B per year on cybersecurity, Azure is one of the safest ways to protect your data.3
Built-in security features include identity management tools, data defense, unified security management, and AI-enabled threat protection. For a deeper dive, check out Azure and Security and Azure and Availability in our Overcoming Azure Concerns webinar series.
4. What are best practices for planning and deploying databases in Azure?
See the six-step Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure, which helps partners build a SQL Server migration practice. Or watch our team walk you through the process.
Migrating your customers’ databases to Azure is the perfect time to reevaluate their data estate. How do they use their data? What could they be using it for? What are their business motivations for moving it to the cloud?
5. How is SQL Server different from Azure SQL, and which version does my customer need?
With SQL Server 2019, customers gain industry-leading performance, state-of-the-art security, the ability to analyze data from any source, and access to the latest languages and open-source platforms.
Need all that plus a lot of control? You can use SQL Server 2019 in Azure on a virtual machine (VM), which is perfect for customers who want the cloud’s flexibility and reliability but have limited connectivity, or when regulation and compliance concerns limit public cloud use.
They’ll need to migrate from any legacy version of SQL Server, install and maintain up-to-date hardware, and repeat the process once their version reaches end of service. And feature updates are limited.
As for Azure SQL, it’s designed to take advantage of the cloud and its latest features at the lowest cost. There is no hardware expense, it’s by subscription instead of a one-time license fee, and it’s easy to administer and scale. Azure SQL offers two options:
Azure SQL Managed Instance is a SaaS solution that helps customers modernize their data estate. It provides all the benefits of a fully managed service plus near-complete compatibility with an on-premises SQL Server.
Azure SQL Database is ideal for net-new cloud app development. Advanced features such as Azure serverless and Hyperscale allow rapid development and scaling only possible on SQL Database.
For customers with solution-specific cloud needs, Azure SQL Edge provides a full stack motion for IoT scenarios with consistency from edge to cloud. Azure SQL in Azure Government is also available through SYNNEX.
Finally, if your customers cannot move from SQL Server 2008, the most cost-effective option is migrating to an Azure VM. Three years of complimentary extended security updates will provide time to help them modernize.
Learn more about helping your customers find the right path to data modernization with our partner opportunity playbook, SQL on Azure: Building Your Data Practice.
Here at SYNNEX, our Microsoft-certified engineers, experts in complex data migration scenarios, will help you scope new projects and migrate customers successfully. Email us, and we’ll help you get started.
For more, see the other blog articles in this series, How SQL Server Migrations Help Partners Build Data Practices and Migrating to Azure SQL. And check out our SQL Server Data Practice On-Demand Webinar Series and the Data Practice Building Solution Hub for help getting started.
