Blog Details

“Should we move to the cloud?” is the wrong question. The better one is: which workloads should move, and which should stay? In our view, most small and mid-sized businesses end up with a mix of both, and that’s fine. This guide explains how to decide, workload by workload, and how to manage a mixed setup without doubling the work.

What usually fits the cloud

• Email, files and collaboration. Microsoft 365 handles these well, and it removes the need for an on-site email server.
• Apps people use from anywhere. If staff work from branches, home or client sites, cloud apps avoid VPN bottlenecks.
• Workloads that grow and shrink with the season. You pay for more capacity only when you need it.
• Backup copies kept away from the office. A copy in the cloud survives a fire, theft or ransomware attack on the office.

What is often better on-premises, for now

• Software that only runs on a local server, or that talks to machines on the shop floor.
• Large files used all day over a slow internet line, such as design or engineering files.
• Servers with years of life left and a supported operating system.

Four questions for every workload

1. How critical is it? What happens if it’s down for an hour, or a day?
2. How do people access it? From one office, several branches, or from anywhere?
3. What does it cost over three years? Compare three years of cloud fees with new hardware, licences, power and support, not just this year’s bill.
4. When does the current hardware or software reach end of support? Windows Server 2016 support ends on 12 January 2027, so many businesses are making this decision right now.

Answer these for each server or application and the right home for it usually becomes obvious. Write the decision down, with the date you’ll review it.

Managing a hybrid setup with Azure Arc

Once some servers are in your office and others in the cloud, the next problem is managing them all without two sets of tools. Azure Arc connects servers outside Azure, whether in your office, a data centre or another cloud, to the Azure portal. With it you can:

• See every server in one inventory, on-premises or cloud.
• Apply the same policies and tags everywhere.
• Manage updates centrally with Azure Update Manager.
• Use hotpatching for Windows Server 2025, which applies many security updates without a restart.

Azure Arc works for both Windows Server and Linux. Connecting servers to Arc is free; some of the services you switch on, such as Update Manager, are paid. So plan which ones you actually need before you enable them.

A sensible way to start

1. List your servers and applications, with what each does and when its support ends.
2. Decide the right home for each using the four questions above.
3. Move the clear cloud candidates first, usually email, files and backup copies.
4. Connect the servers that stay on-premises to Azure Arc so everything appears in one place.

Moving in phases

A phased move to Azure typically works in four steps:

1. Assess: inventory every server and application, and map what depends on what. Azure Migrate, Microsoft’s free assessment tool, estimates sizing and monthly cost.
2. Plan: decide what to move as-is, what to modernise (file shares to SharePoint, for example) and what to retire.
3. Migrate in waves: start with low-risk workloads, test, then move business-critical systems in a planned window.
4. Optimise: right-size virtual machines, set up Azure Backup, and review costs monthly.

Capital cost versus running cost: is cloud cheaper?

Moving to the cloud turns a large hardware purchase every few years into a monthly bill. That brings real benefits: no big upfront spend, costs that scale with the business, and no ageing hardware on the balance sheet. But it doesn’t automatically make IT cheaper. Cloud bills grow quietly when virtual machines are sized for peak load and run all the time, test environments are never switched off, storage keeps growing with no retention policy, and nobody owns the bill.

Businesses that get good value from Azure treat cost as an ongoing discipline:

• Right-size workloads after migration, not just before.
• Use reservations or savings plans for steady workloads.
• Apply existing Windows Server licences through Azure Hybrid Benefit where eligible.
• Review the bill monthly, with a named owner and budget alerts.

The real comparison isn’t hardware cost versus cloud cost. It’s the total cost of running, securing, backing up and refreshing the service over five years.