Microsoft Azure and Cirrus Data for Block Storage in the Cloud

Today’s environment demands flexibility. One lesson we’ve learned repeatedly over the past few years is that business conditions can change in a blink. Soaring demand today doesn’t mean that pace will continue indefinitely. The reverse is also true, where a slow period can transform into an insatiable appetite for more services. In the past, organizations had to forecast and manage their storage requirements according to the capacity of their data centers.

Many organizations are now embracing the cloud as an alternative to the traditional confines of an on-premises data center. Every new technology solution comes with questions about handling specific use cases or incredibly resource-intensive applications. Cirrus Data partnered early on with Microsoft Azure to solve problems related to migrating block storage to the cloud. Applications and databases that are critical to your business have unique requirements that can’t be supported the same way organizations handle their file or object data.

In the fall of 2022, Azure previewed its Elastic Storage Area Network (SAN) service designed to help organizations optimize workloads while offering built-in cloud capabilities like high availability across geographic regions. With the cloud performance, scalability, and functionality on-premises tier 1 applications need, Azure Elastic SAN provides an alternative to traditional data centers for large-scale databases and performance-intensive mission-critical applications.

Microsoft Azure and Cirrus Data

Earlier this week, Azure unveiled several updates to its Elastic SAN service, including announcing Cirrus Data as its preferred partner for block data migrations. We are honored to be recognized by Azure for our ability to migrate enterprises to the cloud seamlessly. Additionally, Azure shared that it is now sponsoring all new block-storage on-premises or cloud migrations to Azure Elastic SAN done with Cirrus Migrate Cloud for Azure. Yes, you read that correctly. If an organization has block storage that they want to move onto Azure Elastic SAN – it is now fully funded by Azure (aka FREE!) when they use Cirrus Data.

Why are we excited about the news?

Organizations globally should be excited about this offer for several reasons. First, Azure has continued to innovate, significantly expanding the capabilities and geographic reach of its Elastic SAN. The developments within Azure are exciting enough, but Cirrus Data has also been working closely with Azure to bolster the capabilities within Cirrus Migrate Cloud. There are now a number of features designed to help Azure customers optimize and migrate their block storage to Elastic SAN.

Storage Cost Optimization Wizard for Azure

Cirrus Migrate Cloud is fully integrated with Azure to deliver an automated, seamless migration to Azure. We also recently unveiled new functionality enabling businesses to monitor the storage capacity and performance of their hosts and virtual machines (VMs) while in production and to determine the best Azure storage service for each host based on performance measurements, actual storage capacity used, and projected costs informed by Azure storage pricing and availability information published by Microsoft. The Storage Cost Optimization Wizard updates pricing information based on live data from Azure. What was a tedious and often expensive manual process is now fully automated and included in the Azure-sponsored migration offer.

Block Storage migrations are now even easier.

Organizations have always been able to migrate any block storage to Azure with Cirrus Migrate Cloud. We’ve taken that capability even further with our latest software release for Azure. For organizations that want to migrate from VMware virtual machines into a non-VMware environment on Azure, Cirrus Migrate Cloud for Azure removes the hassle.

It previously could be complex to move from VMware virtual machines causing some organizations to feel trapped. It often took multiple steps to migrate out of a VMware environment and extended the migration timeline. With the Cirrus Migrate Cloud for Azure, organizations can transform and migrate from VMware on-premises (or in another cloud) to Azure in one automated process. No added delays. No manual processes. No increased risk.

Take the next step in the cloud journey.

Ready to take the next step in your cloud transformation journey? Let’s go. Azure is one of the industry’s most trusted clouds for large-scale enterprise systems, with proven abilities to drive positive business outcomes. Cirrus Data is an industry leader in block storage migration with an ever-growing track record of success. With the new Azure Elastic SAN and enhanced Cirrus Migrate Cloud for Azure, you can accelerate your progress to cloud transformation and start realizing your goals before you know it.  Visit the Azure Marketplace here.