Cloud Migration Checklist: Step by Step Guide

An effective cloud strategy is necessary to scale the business capabilities. It helps to be in line with a bunch of digitalization goals. Here, the business enterprise needs to move to cloud technology from the on-premise systems. Cloud technology has become the need of the hour as it offers full-stack security to the services and applications.

Cloud storage platforms such as Google Cloud, Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, bring a transformation on the IT infrastructure outlook. Cloud outsourcing provides a trustworthy, more scalable, and quicker resource than the regular on-site data centers. It decreases the dependence on different physical servers. It plays an integral role in reducing operational costs.

Moreover, it is useful in the optimization of the business output and IT resources. However, the execution of cloud migration is not a walk in the park. It can turn out to be a painful process without appropriate testing, execution, and planning.

Hence, it is a prerequisite to adopting the proper cloud migration strategy to make the process successful. In this process, we will tell you about the cloud migration checklist which helps in making the process of cloud migration a successful one. Also this step by step process will help you to know more about cloud migration services

Defining the cloud migration scopes

You should start the cloud migration process with the audition and assessment of the app portfolio for cloud readiness. You need to figure out the software you are going to use, the applications, which offer value as you remain in the cloud, the applications which offer value. At the time of assessment, you should utilize the TIME quadrant.

It is regarded as an efficient technology that helps in defining the work of every component of the latest system. Owing to this, it is necessary to assess every solution's technical and business value. The application category offers a helping hand in recognizing the proper cloud migration strategy. Cloud migration includes six different strategies, which are refactoring, re-platforming, rehosting, repurchasing, retiring, and retaining.

Reliability between different apps

A crucial aspect, you should take into account while selecting the cloud migration strategy is the dependence between different apps. You should check whether the application migration to the cloud will have a negative impact on the apps' working?

 If you want to define the dependencies between the system components accurately and faster, you can make the right use of the app dependency mapping tools. Such tools are recognized to be an indispensable part of the app management software.

It helps in finding the connections between different components. Besides this, it offers a holistic view of the entire infrastructure. Few of the efficient tools which help in accomplishing dependency mapping is AppDynamics, Datadog, Dynatrace, Prometheus, to name a few.

Defining the success of the migration

Another phase of the data migration plan is the establishment of crucial performance indicators. It helps in measuring how perfectly cloud migration helps in accomplishing the business expectations and business objectives.

 Few KPIs, which needs to be measured after the data migration to the cloud include peak response time, average response time, error rates, overall uptime, network latency, error types, network I/O, CPU and memory usage, hardware costs, ongoing staffing costs, external costs, to name a few.

Selecting from multi-cloud or single-cloud

Before starting the cloud migration, you should address the answer. You need to pick from a single or multi-cloud service provider. It allows the migration of the app so that it can execute in an optimized way for the specific environment. You need to find whether your application can work better on multiple cloud service providers.

Optimization of the app with a certain cloud service provider happens to be a simple process. Vendor lock-in happens to be a drawback of the approach. After the app is updated to work with a specific provider, the transfer of the app to a specific service provider needs extra effort like the original migration of the cloud. Adopting the singular cloud service provider might have negative effects on the capabilities to negotiate the crucial terms, like SLAs, pricing, to name a few.

Automation of migration

There are a bunch of tools, which can execute the heavy lifting. It offers a helping hand to the business enterprise in boosting the cloud migration speed. Moreover, it helps in decreasing the cloud migration downtime and risks.

In addition, it is effective in reducing migration costs significantly. The business enterprise which makes the right use of automation tools can enhance the migration projects' success rate. So, the business enterprise can get a quicker time to value.

At times, you might need to move a vast array of application components to execute the performance tests, which help to assure a successful cloud migration. Cloud migration offers an excellent choice to the developers in automating the cloud migration process.

Execution of pilot migration

Before you move ahead with the large-scale cloud migration, it is wise to perform pilot migration. It helps in checking whether the specific cloud migration strategy is effective. It helps to recognize the improvement for the smoother and hassle-free large-scale migration. If you want to execute the pilot migration, you need to prepare the cloud platform.

Next to this, you should recognize the data and apps - the first adopters along with the lower workload. After this, you should move the pilot workloads onto the cloud. The next step involves the analysis and measurement of the latency and performance. Then, you should optimize the platforms, tools, and processes, following the insights.

Migration

In the final phase, you should make specific preparations to create the cloud migration strategy. It happens to be the most vital phase of the cloud migration lifecycle. In the specific phase, you should execute the product migration and transfer the data and users onto the cloud.

Cloud migration has become the need of the hour as it enables the business enterprise to make the right use of cloud computing power. In place of using the on-premise infrastructure and apps, you should opt for the prerequisite cloud migration strategy. It provides a suitable opportunity to the business enterprise in enhancing scalability. Moreover, it is effective in streamlining the operations.