Cloud Migration Strategy Guide [and Checklist]

• Macro Execution Plan — Big Bang, Phased, or Hybrid: With a big-bang approach, the project can be completed faster, but also with greater risk.​ A phased approach usually takes more time, but the cloud migration team can focus on smaller chunks of the workload during each phase.​ If going this route, consider breaking it out by business unit or end-user application, and break up the complexity into separate phases to reduce risk in each phase.​ The hybrid approach often entails deploying the architecture to the cloud, but migrating content in phases, often aligned with business units or lines of business. Like a phased approach, you’ll probably run your legacy stack and cloud deployment in parallel until you can comfortably cutover.

• Micro Execution Plan: This is where you consider the individual needs of each tool or workload to determine the best micro-execution plan. A common industry term for these micro-execution approaches is the “6R”. First, consider what is to be retired or retained as it currently exists. This enables you to immediately trim down your area of focus.

  Then you can shift focus to the other four Rs—rehost, re-platform, replace, and rearchitect. Here is a breakdown of the “6R” cloud migration strategies:

  ⇒ Rehost: This is also commonly referred to as a “lift-and-shift” of the applications and is the most common strategy as it is the simplest and fastest approach. It does, however, limit cloud-native opportunities. This strategy is best for a large-scale legacy migration scenario where the organization is looking to move quickly to meet business objectives because it requires the least change to workloads and processes. Re-hosting can be automated with tools made available by cloud providers.

  ⇒Re-platform: This means that the underlying architecture stays the same between cloud and on-prem, but the systems that run on the infrastructure — such as databases or operating systems — change. The re-platform strategy only requires few modifications to achieve some noticeable benefits as you are simply looking to optimize the applications you currently have.

  ⇒ Replace: This involves moving to a different product with a new architecture or the same product with a new service delivery model, like Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS to Software as a Service (SaaS. This is common for organizations that are looking to move away from managing installed applications, or those that just want to replace an application with a different product from a different vendor. The replace strategy can be implemented if you are already on the cloud and want to move significant workloads.

  ⇒ Rearchitect: This is often the most expensive and requires reimagining how the application is developed. It is effectively a modernization that involves redesigning the application and infrastructure architecture using cloud-native and often (but not always) open-source tools, technologies, and frameworks like serverless, Kubernetes and containerization, cloud-native or serverless databases, streaming data ingestion, and spot server instances. Organizations that use this strategy do so usually to add features and scale, or to improve existing applications within their current environments.

  ⇒ Retire: This is helpful to identify what applications you don’t need anymore. Some applications are no longer useful to your organization and if you can identify these before you move to the cloud, you can shift your focus to the applications that are being used and are necessary to meet business objectives. The retire strategy also results in cost- and time-savings.

  ⇒Retain: This helps you identify which applications you’re not ready to move to the cloud, but that you may need to revisit after you’ve completed your cloud migration. In this instance, you would retain certain aspects of your IT services in the current environment until you are ready to move them over to the cloud.

• Foundational Architecture: This is where you consider the underlying infrastructure, systems, and processes that must be in place before a cloud migration can occur, serving as the backbone to support the deployment, operation, and maintenance of cloud-based services. Here’s a list of top considerations:

  ⇒ Networking: Start with networking requirements so that you establish a resilient and performant foundation upon which your cloud solution can be built. If you’re all-in on the cloud, you may not need anything beyond a direct VPN to manage the platform.​ If you host in your facility and data volumes are reasonable, a site-to-site VPN may be adequate.​ When dealing with large data volumes coming from on-prem systems, AWS Direct Connect or Azure Express Route enable low latency connectivity directly into the cloud provider’s backbone.​

  ⇒ Identity & Access Management: If your application requires domain membership, you can connect to your on-prem domain controller or deploy a new one to the cloud environment. ​If using Windows authentication for your application, domain connectivity might be required; however, SAML authentication could be an option to avoid a domain​ controller dependency.

  ⇒ Security: This has long been a concern with cloud environments, but the native tooling and push-button options at your disposal give you incredible power and flexibility to secure your environment. Defined user roles and responsibilities and a proper change management framework should be implemented to avoid the human error responsible for most system breaches. ​A best practice is to deploy encryption in transit and at-rest across your cloud landing zone; it’s simple to deploy and maintain in modern cloud environments.

  ⇒ Data Protection Framework: Data protection is an extension of security. Snapshots and backups can be scheduled and retained or rotated as needed (but remember to monitor the costs associated with storage). Disaster recovery and resiliency are robust and attractive features in modern cloud platforms. Rather than manage dedicated disaster recovery sites or co-location facilities, there are other scenarios like hot/cold, pilot light, or complete load-balanced redundancy across geographic regions to ensure business continuity.​ Consider the revenue impact of a system going down before you define your ​disaster recovery strategy.

  ⇒ Automation: Consider investing in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) from the outset.​ Native tooling or third-party offerings allow you to define your infrastructure in templated and parameteriz​ed configuration files so you can quickly re-deploy you stack.

 

How to Execute on Your Cloud Migration Plan

When executing your cloud migration plan, it is important to take a well-planned and systematic approach to avoid any potential pitfalls or disruptions to your business operations. Here are 6 clear steps to take to successfully execute your cloud migration plan.

 

1. Start by deploying the foundational framework: This includes the actual cloud provider and setting up identity access management, networking, security, tagging and cost management, and automation.
2. Migrate data: Start with one database, take a phased approach, or do it all at once.
3. Migrate applications: Establish connectivity, make sure everything is configured properly, ensure scheduled jobs are running, etc.
4. Validate and document: Ensure accuracy and reliability.
5. Initial optimization/adaptation: There will always be some minor things to adjust to adapt to the cloud; do initial optimizations.
6. Cutover: This will happen many times if you are taking a phased approach.

How to Operate and Optimize Your Cloud Environment

Once in production, keep optimizing your environment. ​The following are not one-time tasks; they should be performed continuously.

• Cost Optimization: Continuous rightsizing enables you to start with what you need now and grow with your business demand rather than estimating a multi-year growth plan.​ Using reserved or spot capacity can reduce your infrastructure costs by 20-50% depending upon your level of commitment​. Use cost attribution and budget alerts to track over-run and budget accuracy. ​
• Process Automation​: Patching can be automated through native tooling to reduce the load on operational teams.​ Test backups and disaster recovery occasionally to ensure your plan is still effective.​ Self-healing and autoscaling help meet seasonal business demand without a year-round commitment​. Automate shutdown of Dev/QA resources—doing this on weekends alone can immediately save you 30% with on-demand pricing. Shutting down overnight, and on weekends, can save up to 70%.
• Improve Operational Efficiency​: Set up hardware monitoring/alerting to proactively investigate problems​. Data transfer can be costly if not properly planned and monitored, but there are numerous options to drastically reduce this spend.​ Also, you’ll often find operational or cost efficiencies by keeping up with new product and feature releases within your platform.

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While the above steps are a great guide for your move to the cloud, remember that no migration will look the same. Your cloud migration process and overall strategy should be based on a long-term direction that delivers real business value. Take the time to think about how cloud can be utilized to promote success at your organization.