7 Cloud Migration Steps for Moving Applications to the Cloud

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Last Updated on March 20, 2024 by admin

Cloud migration is a top priority for businesses all around the world. If you’re considering a cloud migration, be prepared by following our 7 cloud managed services steps.

1. The Benefits of Cloud Computing

When shifting to the cloud, organisations should take a data-driven approach.

Outline your cloud-based business goals.

Are you trying to save money? Obtain new capabilities? Use real-time analytics and data? Increase your scalability?

Your goals’ priority will guide your decisions later in the cloud selection process when you consider cloud platforms, apps, and the resources you’ll need to complete your project.

Instead of moving everything to the cloud, your team might be able to find ‘fast wins’ by integrating a cloud solution into your present environment.

2. Form a Cloud Migration Team with the Right People

We’ve written extensively about the Skills Required for Cloud Migration, but at a high level, companies planning to migrate to the cloud should have the following people or resources on board.

  • Business Analyst
  • Project Manager
  • Architect Infrastructure and/or Application
  • Specialist Subject matter expert familiar with the business processes and use cases Security Specialist
  • Vendor Management

3. Assess Your Company’s Cloud Readiness

After you’ve defined your cloud goals, the next stage is to do a thorough business and technical audit of your present environment, apps, and infrastructure. If your company lacks the necessary expertise, you can hire a Cloud Migration Consultant to conduct a Cloud-Readiness Assessment.

An evaluation will look at not only what technology your company utilises, but also how it is used. Follow the steps below in your cloud assessments to properly prepare for a cloud migration:

  • Make a list of all the applications and workloads you have.
  • To understand more about how people use apps, interview app makers and consumers.
  • Make a dependency map for each of your apps and integrations.
  • Keep track of the technologies you’ve utilised in your app portfolio.
  • Analyze each app and its key components to determine a transition plan and where they should be placed in the cloud migration process.

4. Select a Cloud Provider and Plan Your Environment

Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform are the most popular cloud hosting platforms.

The best platform for your organisation will be determined by your individual needs, the architecture of cloud-based apps, integrations, and other criteria. In addition, your team must determine whether public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud environments are the greatest fit for your company.

Read our post on Public versus Private Cloud Migration – Which is Right for You for more information on the differences and benefits of each. Many businesses opt for a multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud strategy.

When planning your cloud infrastructure, ask your architect if a multi-cloud approach might be beneficial to your company.

They’ll also consider the following:

  • Capacity and performance planning tailored to your specific requirements Classification of data (Public, Private, Shared)
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (M4A)
  • Creating a high-availability architecture
  • Automating processes where it makes sense Processes should be aligned with cloud capabilities
  • Establish suitable reporting procedures

5. Make a Roadmap for the Cloud

You can plan which components will move first, based on business priority and migration difficulty, now that you know what you want to get out of a cloud migration and have complete information on each piece of technology that will transfer as well as your team. Examine whether an incremental strategy to cloud migration can benefit your company.

Return to your original reasons for wanting to shift to the cloud and identify the key areas that are most important to your company. Especially if your firm is migrating functions to the cloud in phases, a detailed cloud roadmap can be a valuable resource. Roadmaps assist teams keep on track, lower the likelihood of missing elements, and provide a more precise schedule because each activity is broken down into broad timeframes that may be changed as needed.

6. Migrate Your Data

Creating a data transfer plan is an important stage in the cloud migration process that can be fatal if done incorrectly.

Auditing the data to avoid any unforeseen issues, cleaning up any recognised concerns, putting rules in place to maintain data quality, and effective governance through tracking and monitoring are all part of a good data migration strategy. Data migrations usually consist of three steps:

  • Extract data
  • Transform data
  • Load data

Before beginning a data migration, make a backup of your data and test the backups to ensure they’re working properly. Thorough testing at each level of the data migration may help ensure that nothing is lost or misrepresented.

7. Testing and Production

The next step in the cloud migration process is to turn on the switch once your cloud environment is configured to your standards, the application(s) are in the cloud, and data has been transferred.

Even if extensive testing has been completed in the test environment, things can still go wrong during the transition to production. One way to reduce the risk is to migrate a group of test users to the new environment before completely launching it to catch any issues that were overlooked during deployment and initial testing. The more sophisticated your architecture is, the more cautious you should be, and where practical, use incremental testing and rollouts. These cloud migration processes should provide your team with a good foundation for strategically tackling the cloud migration process.

Begin by evaluating your own technology, processes, and team to see if the cloud is the perfect fit for your company.