As organisations progressively shift their apps to the cloud to stimulate growth, success in the contemporary digital environment entails embracing the potential of the cloud.

Despite making such significant investments in the cloud, one in three businesses never reap the rewards. After adopting the cloud, 33% of firms reported little to no improvement in organisational performance. Moving to the cloud is a difficult and expensive process. So, how can a cloud project failure be prevented?

The secret to solving the problem lies in careful planning and selecting the optimum cloud migration approach for your IT assets. In order to develop a path for migration and make the switch to the cloud more easily, this article intends to help you better grasp an appropriate cloud migration plan.

What is a Cloud Migration Strategy?

An organization’s high-level plan for moving its current on-premises and/or co-located application workloads and the data they generate into the cloud is known as a cloud migration strategy. The majority of plans contain a strategy for moving to a public cloud provider, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure, or another. Not all workloads are appropriate for migration, even if the majority of workloads will benefit from cloud migrations.

Prioritizing workloads for migration, selecting the best migration approach for each workload, creating a pilot, testing it, and modifying the strategy in light of the pilot’s findings are all components of a successful enterprise cloud migration strategy. To lead teams through the procedure and enable roll-back if necessary, a cloud migration strategy document should be prepared.

The effort and expense of the migration will be greatly affected by the architecture similarities and suitability of the migration tools between the source and destination platforms.

The ideal outcome is a smooth transition of the applications from the current on-premises infrastructure to the required cloud architecture without interfering with application availability or regular business activities.

Why is it important for Companies to have a Cloud Migration Strategy in place?

Adopting a cloud migration plan aids in locating and carrying out the on-premises to cloud conversion that is the quickest, least disruptive, and least expensive. Additionally, it can be used to decide which workloads of already-existing applications should be replaced or discontinued, which ones should be rewritten, which ones can stay on-premises, which ones should be moved as-is to a cloud platform to run as-is or targeted to be supplemented with native cloud services, and which cloud is the best fit for which application. These methods will be combined in a corporate cloud migration plan to target the complete application portfolio.

Adopting a cloud migration plan aids in locating and carrying out the on-premises to cloud conversion that is the quickest, least disruptive, and least expensive. Additionally, it can be used to decide which workloads of already-existing applications should be replaced or discontinued, which ones should be rewritten, which ones can stay on-premises, which ones should be moved as-is to a cloud platform to run as-is or targeted to be supplemented with native cloud services, and which cloud is the best fit for which application. These methods will be combined in a corporate cloud migration plan to target the complete application portfolio.

Since every organisation is unique, an enterprise cloud migration strategy should be specifically suited to each one’s demands in order to accomplish the required technical and business results. Understanding the business objectives and the application portfolio is necessary to gain insight into the TCO and ROI of a migration project.

Since every organisation is unique, an enterprise cloud migration strategy should be specifically suited to each one’s demands in order to accomplish the required technical and business results. Understanding the business objectives and the application portfolio is necessary to gain insight into the TCO and ROI of a migration project.

What does a Cloud Migration Strategy work?

Organizations should think about the design and requirements of each application before deciding on migration options, as well as the skills, resources, and timeline needed to achieve the desired results. Teams must first examine what is already in place before evaluating the maturity of each workload. This may demand a complete discovery stage for each instance of each application that is currently in use.

Following that, the workload migration process should be planned with milestones, distinct targets, appropriate timeframes for each activity, and an awareness of potential dangers.

Every migration should begin with a test run, possibly by relocating or rehosting. This makes it easier to spot any gaps and make necessary adjustments going forward.

The company should concentrate on three crucial areas of optimization in order to carry out a migration at scale:

• Application and instance customization for maximum performance
• Keep your attention on operations and governance.
• Create the managed services team with the necessary experience to manage the migration and operations.

What must a foolproof Cloud Migration Strategy have?

The key practises to adhere to when creating a cloud migration strategy are listed below.

Set Goals

All parties participating in the cloud migration process must be aware of the plan’s objectives and be on the same page in order for it to succeed. Because of this, creating goals is a crucial phase that must be included in the process. Your cloud migration strategy’s goals should be formally stated and documented. Ideal goals include the baseline for the existing infrastructure and a few key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor cloud migration activity.

Decide which assets will move when

You cannot develop a cloud migration strategy based solely on an overview of the current infrastructure. The system’s hardware, data, services, and applications all need to be evaluated in detail by the system’s stakeholders. The first step in determining how and when to relocate each component of the system is to create a list of assets and interdependencies. It is quite doubtful that a company could simply forklift its entire infrastructure and move it to the cloud.

Ideally, firms relocate the less-important components first and only move the important ones once the proper support infrastructure is in place. New applications must be developed, migrated, and tested using the selected approach. The strategy should also outline how the older system will be decommissioned when all relevant components have been migrated.

Make use of price estimators

Although cloud expenses initially appear to be modest, given their dynamic nature, they could suddenly increase. Things that appeared to function properly in the on-premise architecture can turn out to be costly errors in the cloud. Enterprises can utilise the cloud cost estimators offered by the majority of IaaS cloud vendors to make sure that these charges don’t snuck up on them.

These calculators can be used by cloud migration teams to estimate the total cost of the intended arrangement. The AWS pricing calculator from Amazon, the Azure pricing calculator from Microsoft, and the Cloud pricing calculator from Google are a few examples of cloud pricing calculators. Additionally, they offer advisers who can offer timely advice for the best cloud configurations. These calculators can also be used to determine how costs will increase in line with the company’s long-term objectives.

Maintain a working disaster recovery plan (DRP)

Unsettling a tried-and-true arrangement is required when migrating to the cloud. Even with the most well-defined plans and execution, backups and fail-safes must be set up to handle unanticipated outages. In this scenario, a disaster recovery plan (DRP) can be useful. Although most firms have DRPs in place, they rarely update and test them. Organizations must make sure their DRP are impenetrable while creating the cloud migration strategy and carry them ahead as necessary.

Educate every staff

Working with cloud technology is very different from working with in-house technology, particularly if a company is switching for the first time from traditional infrastructure to the cloud. In order to operate with a certain cloud provider, employees must receive training. Simply because there are ongoing updates, this training cannot be done once. As a result, the cloud migration strategy must also take into account the time and money spent on this training.

Eliminate vendor lock-in

Given that this will be a long-term partnership, selecting the best cloud vendor is crucial. The decision to select a cloud vendor is based on both the company’s future technology roadmap and the services it already offers. The company will eventually lose its crucial competitive edge if the provider is not on the cutting edge of technology. Some businesses choose to work with many cloud vendors to reduce this risk. Utilizing the top features offered by several vendors is simple with the multi-cloud configuration.

Document Everything

A formal business process, cloud migration requires documentation at each stage. This documentation should cover the goals, materials, migration strategies used, cost analysis, and plans for testing and training. The document will be used by all parties involved and as a reference for compliance audits.

Test and Gauge the success of the Migration

After the actual migration, the process of moving to the cloud continues. It doesn’t end until all of the new cloud setup’s services and applications have been tested and all of the parts from the previous arrangement have been retired. The strategy must include the testing timetable. After testing is complete, short- and long-term success must be evaluated using the KPIs established during the goal-setting phase.

Continue to follow updates

As was previously noted, some businesses only use the cloud to make their infrastructure future-proof. This occurs as a result of the constant release of new capabilities by cloud providers. It is the responsibility of the organisation to update itself and stay current with new features. To guarantee that the organisation fully benefits from the cloud, an update cycle must be incorporated into the cloud migration strategy.

Put automation first

The cloud computing ecosystem is evolving quickly, and changes are ongoing. Many cloud services are effectively uncontrollable “black boxes,” with very few controls that may be overridden by the company. Middleware tools must be used to automate various procedures as necessary. Processes for continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) must be established.

Advantages of having a Cloud Migration Strategy

The advantages listed below persuade businesses to move their resources to the public cloud:

Scalability: Cloud computing can scale far more easily to accommodate more users and heavier workloads than on-premises equipment can. To scale up business services in traditional IT settings, businesses had to buy and install physical servers, software licences, storage, and network equipment.

Cost: Managed services from cloud providers can reduce your operational costs and make procedures like upgrading easier. Businesses that move to the cloud might spend a lot less on IT operations. They can invest more money in innovation by creating new items or enhancing ones that already exist.

Performance: Performance and user experience can both be enhanced by moving to the cloud. Cloud-hosted programmes and websites can readily scale to handle more users or higher throughput, and they can operate in close proximity to end users to minimise network latency.

Digital experience: Customers and employees alike can access cloud services and data from any location. This improves the customer experience, supports the digital transformation process, and enables staff workers access to cutting-edge, flexible solutions.

Cloud Migration Strategy best practices

These are the six most popular strategies, collectively referred to as the “six R’s of migration”:

Rehosting (Lift and Shift)

This entails removing your stack from on-premises hosting and moving it to the cloud, as the name suggests. For the quickest return on investment, you move an identical duplicate of your current environment without making major modifications. Rehosting is a good option for businesses with conservative cultures or those without a long-term plan for utilising advanced cloud capabilities.

Replatforming

Replatforming is a version on the lift and shift that entails making a few more modifications to prepare your landscape for the cloud. The fundamental structure of apps remains the same. For conservative firms that wish to boost system performance while establishing trust in the cloud, this is also a smart method.

Repurchasing

Moving your apps to a new, cloud-native product—most frequently, a SaaS platform—means achieving this (for example, moving a CRM to Salesforce). Losing familiarity with older code and educating your team on the new platform present challenges. Even yet, if you’re leaving behind a highly tailored legacy environment, repurchasing might be your most economical choice.

Refactoring

Refactoring, also known as rearchitecting, entails starting over with your applications. This is typically motivated by a business need to utilise cloud capabilities, like cloud auto-scaling or serverless computing, that are not present in your current setup. Refactoring is typically the most expensive choice, but it is also the most forward-compatible.

Retiring

You can discover some applications are no longer useful after evaluating your application portfolio for cloud readiness. Simply turn them off in this situation. The savings that follow could potentially strengthen your business case for relocating applications.

Retaining

Adoption of the cloud is still not practical for some businesses. Are you prohibited from taking data off-site due to compliance issues? Maybe you’re not ready to give a recently updated app top priority. Plan to return to cloud computing later in this situation. Only relocate what is necessary for your business.

Conclusion

Although moving to the cloud can be challenging, it doesn’t have to be if you have the correct information and guidance. Although not absolute, these strategies are a surefire approach to begin planning your migration. The choice of options also depends on the migration model that your firm has adopted, such as Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). There is no one-size-fits-all method, so your migration tactic can combine some of these strategies or use them all.

Take heart! With this innovative technology, you can start too! To determine what would work best for your needs, build a structured framework, and carry out your migration strategy, get assistance from the appropriate cloud services partners.

About Artha Solutions

Artha Solutions is a premier business and technology consulting firm providing insights and expertise in both business strategy and technical implementations. Artha brings forward thinking and innovation to a new level with years of technical and industry expertise and complete transparency. Artha has a proven track record working with SMB (small to medium businesses) to Fortune 500 enterprises turning their business and technology challenges into business value.