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Updated: January 28, 2023
No matter what the online ads or salespeople say, cloud migrations aren’t easy and certainly not free. But that doesn’t mean they have to be difficult or costly. As with many things, how smoothly a cloud migration project goes depends greatly on the planning that goes into it at the front end ─ and on the expectations set for success.
While every project is different, the following are the key cloud migration planning steps that can help yours succeed.
Gather costs and identify pain points for current IT systems to establish a baseline. Project what the migration timeline and the new cloud environment costs will be. There are a number of online calculators and tools that can help you estimate these costs. The CSP you choose to work with can help with this as well.
Determine what the rationale is for migrating to the cloud ─ cost savings, greater flexibility, support for digital transformation, something else? What does the organization wish to migrate ─ everything or just a workload or two? What are the expectations for success? What benefits will be derived and how will they align with and support strategic goals and business requirements?
Keep in mind that as the migration process continues, you may discover some information that changes the original case ─ and could affect expectations and success measurements. Make sure to go back to the business case and update it.
Data migration project and budget approval isn't enough. You need upper management support to ensure all aspects of the cloud migration are embraced. That means support for any required training, communications, and additional resources. Share examples of migration projects from other companies, if possible. Help upper management understand both best- and worst-case scenarios and how they could affect budgets and timelines. Make sure they understand that much of the value and cost savings of a cloud migration happen over a period of time, on an ongoing basis.
Sure, you can go it alone but cloud migrations require time and resources. If you don’t have plenty of both, success will be more likely if you either work with a data migration partner or another third-party company that can help you with the migration. Their experience and expertise will both streamline and simplify the process.
Going with a cloud service provider (CSP) means going with the cloud services it provides. Make sure to do your due diligence and check out both the CSP’s services and what it offers in terms of its cloud environments. That includes things like technical support (24/7 is optimal) and service level agreements. Always insist upon references. Ask lots of questions.
The big name CSPs ─ Amazon, Google, Microsoft Azure, etc. ─ offer numerous benefits and resources. But don’t discount the smaller organizations. They may not have the global reach but they may have other benefits that can better meet your needs such as more personalized support.
The company you choose to partner with can help you out with the steps that follow, as needed, which will all be part of your overall migration project plan.
If you haven’t already conducted an audit of all your apps and data, do so. Make sure to account for shadow IT. It’s important to know what you have, who uses what, when, and for what purposes. Among the questions to ask:
Depending on how apps are architected, they may or may not work optimally – or at all – when moved to the cloud. You’ll have to assess what you plan to move and determine if the apps can be moved and what it will take to move them and ensure they work as expected. Options typically include one of the “6 R’s.”
The choice of migration approach can affect overall migration costs and the timeline so keep this in mind.
Determine the target environment that best reflects your organization’s business needs. Typically, the options will be a private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud.
There are several approaches used to access services from a cloud. Each model varies in its level of convenience and user control.
A cloud architect will need to design the cloud environment that is best suited to host the workload. The design typically assembles virtualized compute, storage, and networking instances, along with other services such as databases, logging/monitoring tools, security, and event-driven computing.
Make sure testing is done to validate the architecture and ensure that the workload will function properly once deployed and cut over for production. This may entail a proof-of-concept with iterations and refinements before an actual migration/cutover takes place.
Every migration project is different but generally will involve these actions:
Before moving ahead with more workload migrations, review how the initial process went. What worked well? What could have worked better?
US Signal’s professional services team can migrate your workloads from virtually any source to your US Signal cloud service. Utilizing established tools, technologies, frequent communication, and methods of procedures (MOPs), they can simplify the process, and minimize business disruption.
Depending on your specific needs, the US Signal team can also take on some or all of the data migration process, including assessing application cloud-readiness, determining and executing the appropriate migration methodology, and creating a post-migration plan. They've successfully handled numerous cloud migrations for other clients and will make sure yours goes smoothly as well. Contact us at 866.274.4625 or [email protected] for information.
To learn more about cloud migration, check out these articles below from our blog or visit our resource center for whitepapers, e-books and more!
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