Companies are moving over to the cloud at an incredible rate. Cloud computing and storage represent the future of business IT capabilities, and migration to these services and functions requires careful strategic planning if they are to succeed.
With that important point in mind, the following are vital steps that need to be taken in order to move to the cloud successfully.
1. Establish A Migration Architect Or Hire Help
Many larger companies establish the role of ‘cloud migration architect’ from within their organization to oversee the entire migration strategy.
Alternatively, others may hire third-party cloud migration planning companies, which are extremely useful as they have ample expertise and experience with migration and know how to avoid choking points.
2. Choose Level Of Integration
Companies need to choose whether to plan a shallow cloud migration or a deep cloud migration.
During shallow cloud migrations, applications are moved to cloud servers with little to no changes – allowing them to be accessed using online portals. This is also often referred to as a ‘lift and shift.’
On the other hand, during a deep cloud migration, applications are altered in order to make the most out of the increased capabilities of the cloud.
3. Single Or Multi-Cloud?
During a cloud migration, there is nothing stopping a company from opting to use multiple cloud providers.
This increases the complexity of cloud integration while also allowing a business to make use of unique features offered by different providers. To navigate this multifaceted landscape seamlessly, businesses can rely on DataKnox cloud migration services, ensuring a streamlined transition while optimizing the advantages of diverse cloud offerings.
4. Establish Performance Indicators
As any business project manager knows, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) need to be established so that the success of a project can be assessed – a step that is especially important during a cloud migration.
5. Prioritize Migration Components
It won’t be easy to move entire applications onto the cloud at once. Thus, companies need to decide what application data and capabilities need to be migrated to the cloud-first.
6. Refactoring
Many applications and data banks will need some refactoring before they can be successfully used via the cloud. Even during a lift and shift migration, some refactoring is usually necessary.
7. Data Migration Planning
Moving over the actual data used by a company is one of the trickiest parts of a migration. If conducted incorrectly, data migration can cause serious disruption to a business’ operations.
However, a proper data migration plan will allow a company to move data without interrupting or hindering its other operations.
8. Switchover
The actual switchover of capabilities from in-house legacy systems to the cloud is a rather nail-biting moment. Many companies opt to switch over their capabilities bit by bit so as to negate the impact of any possible mishaps. With good planning, however, a sudden switch should not cause too much chaos.
9. Review
Once all of these steps have been taken and a company has switched over to the cloud, it is still crucial to review how the process has gone using the Key Performance Indicators established earlier in the plan.
It is highly unlikely that all of the KPIs will have been met without incident. Improvements need to be made constantly!
Read Also:
