Azure Migrate enables "frictionless" VMware migrations, but rubs VMware the wrong way

Microsoft has launched the preview of Azure Migrate, designed to enable frictionless migration of VMware-virtualized Windows and Linux virtual machines to Azure. But, VMware advises against a migration solution that it did not help to engineer.

Microsoft first announced a limited preview at Ignite 2017 in September, and "we are humbled" by the response, writes the company's Shon Shah, principal program manager lead of Azure Migrate in a blog post.

As Shah describes Azure Migrate:

[It] enables agentless discovery of VMware-virtualized Windows and Linux virtual machines (VMs). It also supports agent-based discovery. This enables dependency visualization, for a single VM or a group of VMs, to easily identify multi-tier applications.

Azure Migrate is designed to provide a detailed (and visual) assessment of migration readiness. It purportedly answers:

• If the VM is suitable for running in Azure
• The right Azure VM size, based on historic utilization of CPU, memory, disk (throughput and IOPS), and network
• The recurring Azure cost considering discounts like Azure Hybrid Benefit

The assessment further suggests workload-specific migration services (e.g., Azure Site Recovery for servers; Azure Database Migration Service).

Microsoft's Corey Sanders, director of compute, Azure, described in a separate blog post a "frictionless path to Azure for your VMware environment," even a complex multi-server application. Azure Migrate visualizes group level dependencies in multi-VM applications, "...