Microsoft Azure has quickly become the best fit for migrating from VMware, and Intwo is the ideal partner to help you make this move (read more about Intwo’s Azure migration service).
There are multiple ways to get to Azure, depending on your business goals, timelines, and technical requirements.
This option moves existing VMware workloads into Azure Virtual Machines with minimal change. It’s often chosen by companies seeking to avoid high costs while still getting out of the data center quickly.
A straightforward lift-and-shift avoids extra licensing costs and unlocks native Azure capabilities like managed disks, Azure Backup, and Defender for Cloud. Migration timelines are faster since workloads do not need to be re-architected.
While primarily a disaster recovery tool, Azure Site Recovery (ASR) can also be used for migrating VMware VMs to Azure. You use ASR to replicate your on-premises VMware VMs to Azure Storage. After the replication is complete, you can perform a failover to the Azure VMs to complete the migration.
However, as ASR primarily replicates existing infrastructure, you could miss opportunities for cloud-native optimization, which could in turn lead to higher costs in the long run.
Microsoft has of late been promoting its dedicated service, Azure VMware Solution (AVS), which is a co-engineered and supported service between Microsoft and VMware that runs the full VMware stack — including vSphere, vSAN, and NSX — on Azure’s infrastructure.
The trade-off, however, is cost — because you’re effectively paying for both environments at once. Also, it’s unclear how far down the road AVS will remain available as, in cases like these, the end goal of a new service is typically to one day move entirely away from the previous one. The “connectors” (like AVS) often have a limited shelf life. (Note that as of Q4, 2025, Microsoft has announced no plans to sunset AVS.)
Not sure what might be the best approach for you? We can help! Contact us for a free assessment of your environment and the best path for migration.
Intwo is the ideal Microsoft partner for this migration, combining specialized expertise with end-to-end services. As a certified Microsoft Azure Expert Managed Services Provider, Intwo possesses deep knowledge in both VMware and Azure, making us uniquely qualified to handle even the most complex migrations.
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