From TCO to “Go”: The Wave 1 Azure Business Case Playbook

A practical, first-timer guide to build an Azure migration TCO, a Business Case, and a Wave 1 execution pack using Azure Migrate.

This guide + the “Wave 1 Starter Kit” gives you a usable starting point.

The cast

Upendra

Lead Architect

Trinity

Cloud Engineer

Morpheus

Sec Architect

Project Manager

Wave 1 Lead

The story

Scene 1: The question UKLifeLabs leadership asks

UKLifeLabs leadership: “Wave 1 is 30 app services. When do we get confidence, and what do we need to approve it?”

The Project Manager adds: “We need a decision pack. Not opinions.”

Upendra sets the rule:

“No guesses. We’ll use Azure Migrate to measure reality and then turn that into a TCO + business case.”

TCO vs ROI vs Business Case

Visualizing the savings: TCO is the math foundation.

TCO

Total Cost of Ownership is the total cost to run workloads over a period (usually 3 to 5 years).

• On-prem TCO usually includes:
  • Hardware (compute, storage, network)
  • Data center costs (space, power, cooling)
  • Licensing (OS, DB, middleware)
  • Support contracts
  • Operations labor
  • Downtime impact (often missed)
• Azure TCO usually includes:
  • VM or PaaS compute
  • Disks, backups
  • Networking (VPN/ER, bandwidth, load balancers)
  • Security services
  • Monitoring
  • Ops labor (often reduced, not zero)

ROI

Return on Investment answers: “What do we get back, and when do we break even?”

Business Case

A Business Case is the exec decision narrative.

It uses TCO and ROI, but also includes:

• Risk reduction (security, DR, compliance)
• Speed (faster provisioning, releases)
• Growth (scale, new digital products)
• Delivery plan and governance

Rule: TCO is the math. Business case is the decision.

Structural FinOps & Maturity Assessments

As highlighted by industry experts like Thomas Maurer, successful FinOps isn't just about turning off unused VMs. It's about a cultural shift that integrates Finance, Technology, and Business teams.

Before you "Go-Live" with Wave 1, you must evaluate your FinOps maturity. Are you in the Crawl, Walk, or Run phase? Most organizations start at 'Crawl' (simple visibility), but for a regulated Wave 1, you should aim for 'Walk' (automated alerts and tagged accountability).

How Azure Migrate helps you build TCO and the Business Case

Agentless discovery data flow: From VMware/Hyper-V to Azure.

Azure Migrate is your “facts engine.”

What you do in practice

1. Create Azure Migrate project
2. Discover servers (via appliance or integrations)
3. Collect performance data (CPU/RAM/disk/network over time)
4. Run assessments (readiness + sizing + cost)
5. Generate business case (where supported) and export the outputs

Why this matters

If you skip measured performance, you’ll oversize in Azure and lock in waste.

The Wave 1 playbook (30 app services)

Step 1. Define Wave 1 boundaries

Upendra + Project Manager:

• Confirm which 30 app services are in Wave 1
• Define “done”: migrated, validated, monitored, backed up, signed off

Step 2. Discovery completeness check

Trinity:

• Confirm coverage: all Wave 1 servers discovered
• Identify gaps early: appliances not reaching segments, firewall blocks, unsupported OS

Step 3. Dependencies and network truth

Visualize interconnections to define the "Move Group" boundary.

Trinity + Morpheus:

• Capture inbound/outbound flows
• Tag each flow as:
  • Must-have (app breaks without it)
  • Nice-to-have (monitoring, admin)
  • Legacy/noise (old agents, scanning, random)

Output: a “minimum viable ruleset” for Wave 1.

Step 4. Landing zone readiness gate

Morpheus + Upendra:

• Identity, RBAC, logging, key management
• Network segmentation, egress control
• Security baselines
• Backup + DR approach for Wave 1

Step 5. Sizing + cost assessment

Upendra:

• Use performance-based sizing where possible
• Apply license benefits and reserved capacity assumptions carefully
• Document assumptions (this is where audits happen)

Step 6. Build the TCO view

Neha (Finance lens, represented in the guidance):

• Put on-prem cost inputs (even if estimates)
• Compare with Azure run cost
• Add one-time migration costs (tools, effort, partner services)

Step 7. Write the Business Case

The executive summary: Annual savings, Cashflow, and ROI.

Project Manager:

• 1-page exec summary
• Risks + mitigations
• Wave plan + timeline
• Budget ask + approval checkpoints

Step 8. Execution + evidence (PoE)

This is how you avoid “nice deck, no proof.”

Collect evidence continuously:

• Discovery and assessment exports
• Change records
• Cutover runbook
• Validation results
• Monitoring enabled proof
• Customer sign-off

PoE (Proof of Execution) in plain English

PoE = evidence that work was executed and outcomes happened.

Even when a migration is funded or co-invested, Microsoft and customers need proof for:

• Compliance and audit
• Quality control
• Preventing “paper migrations”

Typical PoE pack contents

• Before/after evidence
  • discovery coverage
  • assessment results
  • migrated resources in Azure
• Execution evidence
  • migration wave plan
  • change tickets
  • cutover checklist
• Validation evidence
  • application smoke tests
  • monitoring/alerts enabled
  • backup enabled
• Customer acceptance
  • sign-off email or approved document

(Exact requirements depend on the program and your partner agreement.)

Funding programs and why partners care

What partners typically get

Partners can benefit from Microsoft programs that:

• Reduce customer friction (funded assessment or migration activities)
• Accelerate Azure consumption and modernization
• Create a repeatable delivery motion

The reality

Funding rules vary by region, customer eligibility, workload type, and program rules.

Treat funding as a bonus. Build a business case that works even without it.

Funding process (high-level)

A practical, “don’t get stuck” sequence:

1. Confirm eligibility with Microsoft field/partner contact
2. Define scope (Wave 1 specifics, target services, timeline)
3. Create plan + estimate (what will be delivered, when, and how measured)
4. Collect required artifacts (see Starter Kit)
5. Run delivery while capturing PoE continuously
6. Submit PoE as required by the program

Common mistakes (what breaks migrations)

• Using static VM sizes instead of measured performance
• Treating “dependency mapping” as optional until cutover week
• No landing zone gate (identity, logging, network, backup)
• TCO built without assumptions documented
• PoE captured at the end (it will be missing)

Reference links

Referenced Videos

Azure Migrate Overview

Microsoft Mechanics walkthrough of the assessment flow.

Discovery & Assessment

Deep dive into agentless discovery for VMware/Hyper-V.

Building the Business Case

How to generate the TCO/Business case report.

Ready to operationalize your Azure journey?