Workload assessment
We document the applications, data, capacity and dependencies. We find the constraints before we compare platforms.
Cloud platforms Azure, the Microsoft 365 platform, and the boundary with your local systems.
We start with the applications, the data and the operating requirements, not with a particular platform. Then we compare the options and draw the boundary between cloud and local systems, so that the environment can be run day to day.
What we do
Azure and hybrid design
We look at identity, access, connectivity and operation together. We decide where the boundary between cloud and local systems goes, and write it down.
Migration planning
We order the work by what depends on what. We set the tests, the cutover and the way back with the people who run the environment.
Operational handover
We make configuration, ownership, monitoring and recovery part of the design from the start, so someone can run it afterwards.
We do this as a project, alongside your own IT team. Working with your IT team
An example
The file server that moved to the cloud
Without a workload assessment
The file server is due for replacement, and everything on it is moved to the cloud in one go. The large drawing files now take minutes to open. People start keeping copies on their own machines.
With a workload assessment
We look at each kind of work before anything moves. Documents and email go to the cloud. The drawings stay on a server close to the people who use them, with the same sign-in and backup.
Engineering workloads
CAD, project files and heavy applications change the requirements.
We look first at the actual workflow: workstation performance, file access, application dependencies and recovery. We work with your engineers and IT team to understand those requirements before recommending a platform: on site, in Azure or a mix of the two.
What you are left with
A documented design
What runs where, and why. The boundary between cloud and local systems is drawn and written down.
A plan for the move
The order of the work, the tests and the way back if something does not go as planned.
A design someone can run
Configuration, monitoring and recovery are documented and handed over to your own team.
See also
Contact
Tell us about a specific architecture question or a wider infrastructure project.