This document discusses preparing to move a legacy on-premises SQL Server application to Azure. It recommends:
1. Decoupling the database from the server name and database names to allow future changes.
2. Making the database smaller by deleting old data, unused indexes, and moving BLOBs to Azure storage.
3. Defragging and shrinking the database, implementing compression, and moving the backup process to Azure.
4. Migrating SQL Server to an Azure VM as the first step, choosing appropriate VM sizes and premium SSD disks for performance. Further steps will break the database into microservices and move components to Azure PaaS offerings.