A Centric Azure migration assessment is the structured first step that turns an open-ended "should we move to Azure?" into a defensible plan. It inventories your infrastructure, applications, and data platforms, maps dependencies, right-sizes the target design for total cost of ownership, reviews security and compliance, assigns a migration strategy per workload, surfaces risks, and delivers a roadmap with milestones - on a no-obligation basis.
Key Takeaways
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The assessment converts uncertainty into a concrete, sequenced plan before you commit budget or production.
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Coverage spans a full inventory of infrastructure, applications, and data platforms, plus dependency mapping, right-sizing and TCO, security and compliance, per-workload strategy, and risk.
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The deliverable is a migration roadmap with milestones - something you can take to a CFO or a board.
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A per-workload migration strategy (the 6 Rs, framed by Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework) is assigned during the assessment, not guessed at later.
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It is no-obligation: the assessment stands on its own as a planning artifact, whether or not you proceed with execution.
What is a cloud migration assessment?
A cloud migration assessment is a disciplined discovery exercise that establishes what you have, how it connects, what it would cost to run in Azure, and how each piece should move - before any production workload is touched. It replaces assumptions with evidence, which is what protects a migration from cost overruns, surprise dependencies, and downtime. For a deeper look at the mechanics, our guide to how a cloud migration assessment works walks through the process step by step.
The assessment is also where the engagement earns trust. Rather than starting with a sales pitch, Centric's Azure migration and modernization services begin by understanding your environment in detail, so every later recommendation is grounded in your reality rather than a template.
What does Centric's Azure migration assessment cover?
The assessment is deliberately comprehensive, because the gaps you skip are the risks you inherit. It covers:
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Current-state inventory - a catalog of your infrastructure, applications, and data platforms (databases, warehouses, and analytics workloads) in scope for the move.
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Dependency mapping - identifying how systems connect, so tightly coupled workloads move together and nothing breaks at cutover.
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Right-sizing and TCO - matching target Azure resources to actual demand and modeling total cost of ownership rather than carrying over on-premises over-provisioning.
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Security and compliance review - aligning the target design with your regulatory, residency, and audit obligations from the start.
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Migration strategy per workload - assigning each workload a path among the recognized options (the 6 Rs - rehost, replatform, refactor, rearchitect, rebuild, replace), framed by Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework.
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Risk assessment - surfacing the fragile, undocumented, or business-critical workloads that need extra care or a phased approach.
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Roadmap with milestones - sequencing the work into waves with clear checkpoints.
Where data platforms are in scope, the assessment connects to broader data strategy and advisory thinking, so warehouses and analytics workloads are evaluated for fidelity and continuity rather than treated as generic servers. This coverage is the front end of Centric's Azure migration services, which carry the plan through execution and stabilization.
Not sure where your estate stands? The fastest way to find out is to let the assessment map it. Centric's Azure migration and modernization services start with this discovery, with no commitment to execute.
What do you receive from the assessment?
The tangible output is a migration roadmap with milestones - a planning artifact you can act on, budget against, and defend to leadership. Rather than a vague recommendation, it sets out which workloads move, in what order, by what strategy, and against which checkpoints, alongside the right-sizing and TCO view that grounds the business case.
That roadmap is what makes it possible to plan an Azure migration with confidence instead of guesswork, and it feeds directly into the budget conversation - the investment and timeline considerations that a CFO will ask about. Because the assessment scopes both the project effort and the projected Azure run-rate, the numbers that follow are defensible.
How does the assessment reduce risk before you commit?
Most migration failures trace back to something the team did not know: an undocumented dependency, a fragile integration, a compliance constraint discovered at cutover, or a workload sized on guesswork. The assessment is designed to find those before they become incidents. By inventorying the estate, mapping dependencies, and flagging business-critical or unstable workloads, it lets the riskiest pieces be sequenced into phased waves with rehearsal and rollback rather than moved blind.
This is why disciplined sequencing sits at the heart of Centric's migration methodology: the assessment does not just produce a plan, it produces a plan whose risks have already been named and assigned a treatment. The result is fewer surprises during execution and a schedule leadership can trust.
Is the assessment no-obligation?
Yes. Centric frames the migration assessment as a no-obligation first step. The roadmap, inventory, dependency map, and TCO view stand on their own as a planning artifact - useful whether you proceed with Centric, proceed later, or simply use the findings to sharpen an internal business case. The point is to remove the risk from *starting*, so the decision to migrate is made with evidence rather than pressure.
Ready to see your environment mapped? Begin with Centric's Azure migration and modernization services and request an assessment. You will receive a clear inventory, a per-workload strategy, and a milestone roadmap - with no commitment to execute.
FAQs
What does an Azure migration assessment include?
A current-state inventory of infrastructure, applications, and data platforms; dependency mapping; right-sizing and TCO modeling; a security and compliance review; a migration strategy assigned per workload; a risk assessment; and a roadmap with milestones.
What is the deliverable?
A migration roadmap with milestones, supported by the inventory, dependency map, per-workload strategy, and TCO view. It is a planning artifact you can budget against and present to leadership.
Is the assessment really no-obligation?
Yes. The assessment is framed as a no-obligation first step. Its findings stand alone as a planning artifact, whether or not you proceed to execution with Centric.
What happens after the assessment?
The roadmap feeds execution: workloads are migrated and modernized in sequenced waves using proven frameworks and tooling, then validated and stabilized for performance, security, and cost. The assessment defines the plan; the later phases carry it out.
