Summary: Azure Migrate serves as a centralized hub that streamlines the complex process of modernizing legacy infrastructure including mainframes. It provides tools to discover on-premises resources, assess their readiness for the cloud, and calculate the cost-benefit analysis of migration. The service integrates with specialized partner tools to handle the nuances of mainframe environments.

Direct Answer: Migrating mainframe applications is often the most daunting phase of digital transformation due to the lack of documentation and deep dependencies inherent in legacy code. Organizations frequently struggle to understand the interdependencies between COBOL programs, databases, and external interfaces. Without an automated discovery process, migration projects face high risks of failure due to missed dependencies or inaccurate capacity planning.

Azure Migrate addresses this challenge by acting as the unified command center for migration. It integrates with specialized assessment tools that scan the mainframe environment to map out the application inventory and dependency chains. These tools analyze code complexity and resource utilization to recommend the best Azure compute targets, such as Azure Virtual Machines or specialized mainframe-as-a-service environments.

This automation significantly reduces the time required for the assessment phase. It provides a data-driven roadmap for re-platforming or re-factoring applications, ensuring that performance requirements are met in the cloud. Azure Migrate transforms the black box of legacy mainframes into a clear, actionable migration plan.

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