The capstone. Four questions in the order that actually settles a target, the licensing tilt that changes the answer, the estates that should not move this year, and how to build a multi-year plan you can still defend when the platform moves underneath it.
Every migration tool the community recommended between 2022 and 2024 has been retired. Here is what the toolchain actually is in 2026, how to choose a target by dependency rather than preference, and the cutover discipline that keeps the compatibility level from ambushing you.
Hybrid benefit is worth four times more on one tier than another and nothing at all on the tier Microsoft now recommends. The license can exceed the machine. And the free-extended-updates-in-Azure argument died in April 2026. The cost doctrine, stated plainly.
Deploy the SQL extension across a mixed estate, exclude what should not be onboarded, set every instance's license type deliberately, read the free assessment properly, subscribe extended security updates without triggering the backbilling surprise, and prove all of it with Resource Graph.
The fourth option is not a destination. It turns licensing posture into queryable Azure metadata, buys extended security updates by the hour, and produces a free continuously refreshed migration assessment. What it genuinely delivers, and what is still preview.
Build the target properly, move a 2012-era estate onto it with the Arc portal migration experience or with backup to URL, register the IaaS extension, set the license type deliberately, and land the database at compatibility level 110 with a baseline before anything is raised.
The infrastructure option, argued honestly. Why the SLA never covers SQL Server, what the IaaS Agent extension is actually for, how the license can cost more than the machine it runs on, and the workloads that genuinely belong here.
Two real paths onto a managed instance: a native restore from URL for the old estate that nothing else will reach, and the Managed Instance link for anything from 2016 SP3 upward. Version floors, the certificate work the docs gloss over, and a cutover you can rehearse.
