Microsoft Azure Migration for Melbourne Businesses

Microsoft 365 is Microsoft's cloud productivity suite — Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, Word, Excel. Migrating to Microsoft 365 means moving your email and productivity tools to Microsoft's cloud. Azure is Microsoft's infrastructure cloud — virtual machines, storage, networking, databases. Migrating to Azure means moving your server workloads (file servers, application servers, line-of-business software) to Azure virtual machines. Many Melbourne businesses do both as part of a cloud migration programme: Microsoft 365 for productivity (email, files, collaboration) and Azure for server workloads (applications, databases, specialist software). CX IT Services manages both, and they are frequently part of the same engagement.

An Azure migration for a Melbourne SMB of 20–50 staff running 3–6 servers typically takes 6–10 weeks from assessment to cutover. The timeline includes: 1–2 weeks for the Azure Migrate assessment and architecture design, 1–2 weeks for Azure environment build and network configuration, 2–4 weeks for server replication and testing in parallel, and a scheduled cutover weekend. Microsoft 365 email migration for the same business runs 2–4 weeks in parallel. The two streams can be managed simultaneously. We provide a detailed project plan with milestones after the assessment so you know exactly what to expect.

For Microsoft 365 email migration, no — we run a parallel period where email flows to both the old system and Microsoft 365 simultaneously, and staff can begin using the new platform before the DNS cutover. For server migrations using Azure Migrate, the cutover window is typically 30–60 minutes per server, scheduled outside business hours. During the cutover window, the server is in a brief offline state while the final synchronisation completes. We schedule server cutovers for Friday evenings or Saturday mornings and have rollback procedures ready if anything needs to be reversed.

After the Azure migration is complete and validated, we decommission the on-premise server in a controlled process: removing it from Active Directory, disabling it, retaining it as a fallback for 30 days, and then formally decommissioning it. We document every step. If the server was leased or under maintenance, we advise on the contract implications before proceeding. If you have on-premise hardware that can be repurposed — as a local file cache, a network appliance, or backup storage — we advise on that too rather than assuming everything gets turned off.

Azure migration costs have two components: the project fee for the migration work, and the ongoing Azure consumption and licensing costs. A Microsoft 365 email migration for 10–20 users is typically $2,500–$5,500 as a fixed project. A server migration for 3–5 servers runs $8,000–$18,000 depending on server complexity and whether application remediations are required. Ongoing Azure monthly consumption for a 20–50 user Melbourne business running 2–4 Azure VMs typically runs $600–$2,000 per month in Azure charges plus our management fee. We provide detailed cost modelling before any commitment.

It depends on the application. Most modern line-of-business applications — practice management, accounting, ERP, CRM — have cloud-hosted versions or support installation on Azure virtual machines. For older applications with dependencies on specific Windows Server versions, local file paths, or local SQL Server instances, we assess what is required to run them on Azure IaaS. Some applications run perfectly on Azure VMs without any change; others require minor reconfiguration; a small number are better left on-premise. We do not migrate applications to Azure where the result would be worse performance or stability than the current on-premise deployment.

Yes — an office move is often the optimal trigger for an Azure migration. You are already planning infrastructure changes; adding an Azure migration eliminates the need to move on-premise servers to the new location. The disruption of the move is consolidated into a single transition period rather than two separate events. We recommend beginning the Azure migration assessment 3–4 months before the planned office move date to ensure the migration is complete and stable before the physical relocation.