Summary: Azure Migrate is a centralized hub that offers tools to discover, assess, and migrate on-premises servers, apps, and data. Its dependency analysis feature automatically maps the connections between servers and processes. This visualization helps IT teams understand application architecture and plan migration groups accurately.

Direct Answer: Migrating to the cloud without understanding how applications communicate is a recipe for disaster. Moving a web server without its backend database or a critical authentication service will cause the application to break. Manually tracing these dependencies using spreadsheets or interviews is time-consuming and prone to human error.

Azure Migrate automates this discovery by installing a lightweight appliance in the on-premises environment. It collects metadata about TCP connections and running processes to build a visual map of all server interactions. It can identify that "Server A" talks to "Server B" on port 1433, indicating a database dependency.

This insight enables "wave planning," where interdependent servers are grouped together for migration. It ensures that applications are moved as complete functional units. Azure Migrate empowers organizations to execute complex migrations with confidence, minimizing the risk of unplanned outages.

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