Hi Ratul
I've worked with a number of customers to move them to Azure, you should be fine moving to this environment.
Answers inline...
1. Primarily, does Microsoft Azure support IBM Cognos Analytics software? If yes, which specific versions does it support? Can we configure an IBM Cognos Analytics Server hosted on Azure and if yes, who provides Technical Support - Is it Microsoft or IBM or both.
- A windows or linux server hosted in Azure should support Cognos Analytics like any other on-premise server environment.
- If you have a support & maintenance contract with IBM for your current licenses then IBM should provide technical support. Should the issue reside with infrastructure then Microsoft would provide appropriate support.
2. Do we need to move away from Oracle or can we also install an Oracle Instance on Azure? This is to understand if we can continue with existing Oracle installation on Azure or we have to move to MS SQL Server for Content Store Database.
- You can move your content store from Oracle to MS SQL (hosted also in Azure) easily. No need to use Oracle unless you have other data repositories in Oracle.
3. When it comes to providing Technical Support - IBM or Microsoft or both, who would provide the support and how shall the License Model look when we have Cognos hosted on MS Azure?
- License model is the same as you have today, except you are taking those licenses and hosting them in Azure. If you have PVU based licenses then you need to make sure that you have appropriate license monitoring and management tools in place to comply with the T&Cs of the IBM license model. As Abhi mentions this is deemed BYOL to Azure.
IBM continues to provide support for the cognos licenses installed in this environment, but any infrastructure related issues may get referred to Microsoft as they are providing the infrastructure as a service in this respect.
Regards
Nick
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Nick Waters
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