How a recommendation is reached. Every server is scored against four gates and the strictest failing gate decides the option. Option 1 (in-place) needs a verified backup and no blocking application. Option 2 (cloud, no servers) is offered when the roles present can all be replaced by a Microsoft 365 service. Option 3 (Azure IaaS) is the fallback when a role must stay on a server but the hardware shouldn't. Option 4 (replace) applies when the workload has to stay local. Tags marked inferred come from naming conventions and installed software, not a role query — verify before quoting. pending means not yet collected.