Critical Steps for Successful Cloud Migration
A study from Dimensional Research found that while 96 percent of its respondents are currently pursuing a cloud migration, 73 percent stall out, with application shifts to the cloud taking a year or more to complete. While benefits like cost savings and scalability are promised with a move to the cloud, those may appear out of reach for the enterprise that can’t seem to finish the migration.
There’s no reason that a cloud migration should take so much time. With the right steps in place, enterprises can prioritize the order of applications shifted to the cloud, make sure the applications can handle their business processes, and go through a few dry runs to be sure the migration will be a success.
Create a plan. Most enterprises have hundreds, or even thousands, of applications they’d like to move to the cloud. It’s important to create a strategy for cloud migration that includes a variety of considerations, including cloud-readiness, application service level agreements (SLAs), and whether you’ll use a physical or virtual approach. Other variables that can impact migration include bandwidth needs, memory shared storage, and integrations with other applications.
It’s important to create a questionnaire for service providers to determine the right path for your cloud migration, and to make answers available throughout the migration for frequent reference needs.
Determine the right approach. There are essentially three major paths to a cloud migration. These include the “lift and shift” plan, which is also called re-platforming. It takes the application and moves it to an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider that houses the application as-is. The second is a re-factor, which keeps the application basically the same but works to take advantage of cloud-native tools. Finally, re-writing is used to extensively re-write code to make it fit the cloud environment.
Most enterprises begin with a lift-and-shift approach in the public cloud, and then, as they learn more about the performance of the application in the cloud, they can evaluate each application going forward for the correct approach.
Test and test again. One common mistake in a cloud migration is to not test extensively enough. Test the new environment, and run a proof of concept to determine if the applications you plan to move will thrive in the cloud. These steps will help ensure the provider has the services and resources your application requires and will help determine any potential limitations the cloud provider may have.
Your cloud migration shouldn’t stall out when you partner with a provider that understands your business needs. Contact Net Tel One Communications about your technology needs and we can help you build a successful cloud migration plan.