A cloud migration is a massive undertaking, but with proper strategic planning and alignment, it can be both rewarding and productive.

The cloud migration process requires organizations to take a hard look at their data, data structures, and systems. This detailed work has multiple benefits. First, it allows the company to be prepared for the migration itself, with clear roadmaps and details that will ensure that data and applications are migrated in the right sequence and at the right time.

These processes also provide organizations with a deeper understanding of their data hygiene, gaps, overlaps, and synergies. These insights can help drive improvements in efficiency, operations, and business processes.

When this process seems daunting or not worth it in the short run, it is important to remember the key opportunities that migrating to the cloud and a proven managed service provider offer:

• Scalability
• Cost efficiency
• Higher levels of application performance
• Lower on-site hosting costs
• Better responsiveness to supply chain providers, customers, and consumers
• Better security and risk assessment
• Enterprise-wide management of systems, operations, and back-office functions

Developing a Migration Strategy

The migration begins with the development of a robust migration strategy that organizes data, people, and systems. Here is a closer look at the steps to take when developing that strategy.

1. Understand the Differences

There are three basic types of cloud spaces. Public clouds, such as those from Amazon Web Services or Google, are highly scalable and fit well in a pay-for-usage model. However, in highly regulated or sensitive spaces, such as health care, federal contracts, financial services, and pharma, the public cloud may not be allowed or advised.

Private clouds offer a controlled environment but require companies to absorb maintenance and security issues and costs. The hybrid model offers the best of both worlds, with a combination of public and private applications and seamless communication between them.

Determining which model is right for your organization depends on what is most critical for your organization. Among the factors to consider:

• What matters the most? Is scalability on demand the most critical factor for your organization? Do you want more personalized application management services that niche players can deliver?
• Database size. Knowing the size of your database today and projecting its likely size in the future helps you match providers against capacity. The last thing your organization wants to do is migrate data and applications to one environment only to need to do so again due to size constraints with your chosen provider.
• Modeling costs for each of the potential service providers. While some of this work can be difficult to do, having a clear idea of different pricing scenarios and looking for hidden charges for each vendor allows your organization to make the smart choice when it comes to providers.

2. Assess the Applications and Data

Not every application is right for migration, at least not in the immediate future. It is important to consider the multiple types of cloud solutions available and match up your applications and data to the right type of cloud solution.

Many applications may be appropriate for a public cloud environment, sharing cloud space with other customers. However, for sensitive information such as customer credit card data or medical information, it is likely you want to choose a different option, such as private cloud or a hybrid model.

The same goes for legacy systems and mission-critical applications and data.

Public clouds also share resources, so, while scalability is achievable across cloud types, performance lags are possible in some public cloud spaces.

3. Create Comprehensive Cost Assessment

Cloud migrations shift many fixed costs to operational costs. Companies will dramatically reduce costs related to physical locations for servers, cooling needs, and IT maintenance staff. Further personnel savings can be gained as legacy systems are retired and moved into cloud spaces.

Organizations need to plan for new network and bandwidth costs and plan as best as possible for changes in demand that may require expansion or contraction of needed cloud resources.

4. Determine the Right Timing

Sequencing is an important component of managing your cloud migration. What goes to the cloud first?

Usually, it makes sense to move less critical applications to the cloud first. This gives users and the organization collectively a sense as to how the process works and to get a feel for the totality of the cloud migration experience. If there are any issues that arise, they will be impacting the least critical areas of the enterprise, where stakes are lowest.

5. Prepare People and Systems

There are several processes and dynamics at play that need to be considered during a migration. They include:

• Cloud server environments may operate differently from legacy, on-site systems. This means the networks, data services, and servers may need to be reconfigured or updated to operate properly in the new reality.
• Performance is likely a key reason for the cloud migration. While performance is likely to improve dramatically, there may be unforeseen bottlenecks or other performance challenges that arise as parts of your enterprise move.
• Staff preparation is an important component of migration planning. There will be a mixture of excitement, trepidation, and frustration as employees need to adjust to new business processes. This migration will affect employees across the organization, meaning that you will need to be ready with training programs and support resources to help employees adjust.
• Operational procedures will change considerably in a cloud environment. In addition to the functioning of apps, there will need to be clear plans and strategies developed to outline how code will be updated, problems will be troubleshot, and performance measurements will be adjusted to reflect new systems and procedures.
• Managing downtime during the transitions needs to be understood and addressed. There is always a risk during a migration and clear communication needs to be developed to prepare users for any expected downtime. This downtime needs to be articulated well in advance and progress reports need to be ready to go during and after any downtimes, be they planned or unplanned.

6. Migrate

The migration itself is a multiphase process. If the planning is done properly, the actual migration will run smoothly. If problems do arise, they will have been planned for and contingencies will launch as needed.

There needs to be an approach determined for each migration of a database or application. If databases are small, data may simply be copied to the cloud. However, with large databases, this may not be feasible.

Large workloads will lead to long transfer times and may incur charges from the cloud provider. Some companies choose to compress data instead, or ship drives to the provider to reduce bandwidth charges.

During migration, security will be absolutely paramount. Transfers are a time of increased vulnerability to external threats. Any temporary storage locations need to be as secure as the main locations.

7. Verify and Assess

Congratulations! The data and applications have migrated. Now it is time to make sure everything got there and is working properly. The validation protocols will assess whether the data actually got to where it was supposed to go and whether all of it migrated correctly to its new home.

Functionality is, of course, also essential. You want to be sure that the data is accessible and functional. Are applications talking to each other properly internally?

Cloud services provide an opportunity for deeper monitoring and assessment of cloud performance and functionality. Your administrators should make sure that all of these monitoring tools are working properly and able to monitor accordingly.

Choose the Right Partner

Having a proven managed services provider as your strategic partner bestows significant advantage for your cloud migration. The right partner will have the experience, resources, and insights that will help accelerate your migration, allow you to make the right decisions, and provide smart counsel throughout the planning, migration, implementation, and training phases.

If you do not have the resources available to complete the steps outlined above, or want some experienced leadership helping you chart the right course for your cloud migration, finding the right managed services provider is a smart move.

When looking for the right partner, consider those that have experience in your industry and with companies that have similar levels of size, complexity, operations, and needs. Providers should be able to support you during some or all of the planning, implementation, migration, and follow-up phases.

A managed services provider can anticipate issues and offer solutions that are low cost and reduce risk throughout the project. Many providers have certifications from the leading cloud providers, ensuring that they know the products, features, and strengths of each potential partner.

Denovo provides enterprise-wide peace of mind. Our managed services solution provides foundational support services, application support, platform management, cloud hosting infrastructure, and managed disaster recovery services.

Denovo has more than 2,000 customers and more than 175 active managed services engagements. To learn more about how Denovo can help your organization have a smooth cloud migration that delivers high-impact results, schedule a free consultation.

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