AuraShop → Microsoft Azure
Migrating our AuraShop web app from the Abacus.AI platform to Microsoft Azure — hosted onshore in New Zealand. We're running the whole programme in the open, from conception and design through to execution.
Led by Risatisone (Richard) Lemana
Solution Architect · 26 years at Telecom and Spark New Zealand · Founder, WedgewoodAI
Destination
Microsoft Azure
Region
NZ North (onshore)
Model
Hybrid
Current phase
Design & proposal
The story so far
AuraShop is one of our live products — a web app we built and host on the Abacus.AI platform. As it grows, we want its production home to sit onshore in New Zealand, giving us tighter control over where our data lives and how the app runs.
So we're migrating AuraShop to Microsoft Azure, in the New Zealand North region. Rather than keep that work behind closed doors, we're publishing the whole programme — the proposal, the strategy, the trade-offs, and the honest shortfalls — as a public engineering story.
A hybrid model
We keep authoring AuraShop with the same fast, AI-assisted workflow we love — and move where it's hosted and run to Azure. A repeatable release pipeline bridges the two.
Author as before
Keep building and maintaining AuraShop with our AI-assisted workflow — the part that makes us fast.
Host & run on Azure
Production lives on Azure in NZ North — onshore hosting, our own cloud environment.
An honest shortfall
Azure has no direct equivalent to Abacus.AI's build-and-host agents, so we keep authoring in Abacus.AI and release to Azure through a pipeline. The pipeline is our bridge — and we say so openly.
How it fits together
Cloudflare
Requests & edge
Azure Container App
A single AuraShop container, NZ North
Managed Azure services
Sign-in
Existing, kept
Secrets
Azure Key Vault
AI search
Azure OpenAI (if confirmed)
Data
Azure Database for PostgreSQL
Container image
Azure Container Registry
Monitoring
Azure Monitor + App Insights
Proposed design, confirmed in Stage 0. Requests come through Cloudflare to one Azure Container App in New Zealand North, which uses managed services for secrets, data, AI search and monitoring. Shoppers keep their existing sign-in.
Execution tracker
Eight stages, from decision to steady state. We'll update this as each stage lands.
Four weeks, end to end: an AI-assisted delivery in November 2026.
Preparation
Set up the Azure account, budget, environment design and infrastructure standards before any infrastructure code runs.
Decision & baseline
Choose the migration model, capture a baseline of the current app, data, and integrations.
Baseline: AuraShop on Abacus.AI today
| Monthly hosting cost (NZD) | To be measured |
| Average page load time | To be measured |
| Active users (last 30 days) | To be measured |
| Uptime (last 30 days) | To be measured |
The same rows are filled in for Azure in Stage 7, so readers can compare before and after.
Code export & repo
Export the AuraShop codebase and establish a clean source repository for the Azure-hosted copy.
Azure landing zone
Provision the Azure environment in NZ North — networking, hosting, database, and secrets.
Data dry-run
Rehearse exporting and restoring only the AuraShop-owned data into the Azure database.
Release pipeline
Build the repeatable bridge that moves each release from authoring to Azure production.
Parallel run
Run the Azure copy alongside the live app to compare behaviour and performance.
Cutover
Switch production traffic over to Azure via DNS, with a clear rollback path.
Steady-state hybrid
Operate the hybrid model: author as before, host and run on Azure, release on a repeatable cadence.
Last updated: 4 October 2026
Work starts on 2 November 2026. Target windows are estimates. We review them each week and record any change in the decision log.
Deployment journal
Every step of the migration, as it happens. Newest first.
Migration plan reviewed
What we did
We reviewed the AuraShop developer's migration plan against our design. AuraShop turned out to be simpler than expected: one web app, one small database and no stored files. We kept Container Apps, kept the existing sign-in, dropped a speech service we don't need, and listed the services that stay outside Azure for now.
Why
Planning from the real application, not assumptions, keeps the four-week timeline realistic.
Evidence
What's next: Write AuraShop's design documents, then price the design in the Azure Pricing Calculator.
Environment design drafted
What we did
We designed WedgewoodAI's Azure environment from scratch: one Microsoft Entra tenant, one management group, and two subscriptions, production and non-production. Each subscription has three resource groups: platform, app and data. We also listed everything the owner has to provide before any infrastructure code runs.
Why
Production and non-production share the same shape, so the same Bicep templates deploy both. Only production changes need the owner’s approval.
Evidence
What's next: Confirm the AuraShop inventory from the migration plan, then price it in the Azure Pricing Calculator.
Budget set at $200 a month
What we did
Before deploying anything, we set a monthly budget of NZ$200 on the subscription, with email alerts at 50%, 80% and 100%.
Why
Pay-as-you-go has no spending limit. A budget doesn't stop charges, but it means we hear about them early.
What's next: Replace it with a production budget based on the cost estimate.
WedgewoodAI's Azure account is live
What we did
We created WedgewoodAI's Azure account on pay-as-you-go billing. The free trial wasn't available, because Microsoft allows one free account per person.
Why
The company’s cloud stays separate from personal accounts, the way a client environment would be set up.
What's next: Multi-factor authentication, a named administrator and an emergency break-glass account.
Four weeks, end to end
What we did
We set the migration as a four-week, AI-assisted delivery, running from 2 to 27 November 2026, with October for preparation.
Why
AI-assisted building, infrastructure as code and automated release let a small team run all eight stages in one month.
What's next: Finish the October preparation, so Week 1 starts building on day one.
Decision log
Host in Azure New Zealand North
AuraShop and its database run in Azure New Zealand North; a few external services, such as payments, stay where they are for now. Any AI service not offered in NZ North would use Australia East, and that will be recorded here.
Run the app in Azure Container Apps
One container, no servers for a small team to patch, and scales to zero when idle.
Keep a hybrid model
Author in Abacus.AI, release to Azure through a CI/CD pipeline.
Deliver in four weeks, starting 2 November 2026
AI-assisted build, infrastructure as code and automated release let a small team run all eight stages in one month. Work starts after Labour Day, once the migration plan has been reviewed.
Keep the existing sign-in for the move
Shoppers keep signing in with email and password, Google or Apple. Changing sign-in during a four-week migration adds risk; Microsoft Entra External ID is a later stage.
Move AI product search to Azure OpenAI, if a suitable model is available in NZ North
Checked in Stage 0 against today’s search quality. If not, the current AI service stays and the reason is recorded here.
Some services stay outside Azure for now
Stripe payments, the WedgewoodAI account sync, email, sign-in providers and advertising remain external services, recorded as exceptions. AuraShop and its database run in New Zealand North.
Azure Container Apps over App Service
Both fit; Container Apps scales to zero for a small user base and runs AuraShop as a single container.
What this programme demonstrates
- Cloud landing zone design: subscriptions, resource groups, naming, tagging and policy
- Data sovereignty and NZ Privacy Act 2020 compliance
- Identity and secrets: keeping the existing sign-in, with Azure Key Vault for secrets
- CI/CD and infrastructure as code: GitHub Actions and Bicep
- Observability and cost management: Azure Monitor, Application Insights and budget alerts
- Azure Well-Architected Framework review across all five pillars
Mapped to Microsoft AZ-305 (Designing Azure Infrastructure Solutions) and AZ-104 (Azure Administrator).
Artefacts
The documents behind the programme. We publish sanitised versions as each one is ready — the design proposal will be added here once it's finalised.
Concept & rationale
PublishedWhy we are moving AuraShop to Azure — data sovereignty, onshore hosting, and resilience.
Read it on this pageDesign proposal
Coming soonThe full architecture and migration design. To be published once the design proposal is finalised.
Migration strategy
Coming soonThe staged, hybrid approach and the reasoning behind each decision.
Execution plan & logs
Coming soonStage-by-stage execution notes and progress as the migration is carried out.
Follow the migration
We're sharing each milestone as it happens. Get in touch to follow the journey or talk through anything you see here.