SQL Server on-premises remains a perfectly valid and often favourable strategy for many organisations, offering complete control, predictable costs, and optimal performance for stable workloads. However, business requirements sometimes shift toward cloud-first strategies, whether driven by customer demands, scalability needs, or costs.
I have helped clients migrate SQL Server databases to Azure SQL when moving to the cloud made sense for their business needs. This typically involves assessing compatibility issues, planning the migration process, and ensuring existing systems continue to work while taking advantage of Azure's cloud features.
A client who supplies a line-of-business application that is traditionally deployed on-premises (Windows app, IIS and SQL Server co-located for optimal performance) was struggling to satisfy requirements from prospective customers who increasingly demanded cloud-first solutions. I helped this client migrate their application's SQL database to Azure SQL, with minimal changes required to the application code. Using Azure Database Migration Assistant, I implemented a phased migration strategy that addressed compatibility issues with legacy stored procedures. The main challenge was handling deprecated SQL Server features that weren't supported in Azure SQL Database, resolved by refactoring problematic code and implementing Azure SQL-compatible alternatives with minimal impact on the dev team.
Working with their team, I delivered detailed compatibility testing and performance benchmarking throughout the migration. The client and it's cloud customers now benefits from Azure's intelligent monitoring insights, advanced threat protection, and automated backup policies with point-in-time recovery capabilities that were previously manual processes in their on-premises environment.