Difficulties in predicting category shifts, changing business priorities, and balancing cost implications, can make investing in the future seem daunting. But when it comes to Cloud computing, what’s even more daunting is the risk of not taking steps now to position your organization for growth down the road.
In our previous overview of the benefits of Cloud Migration, we detail the opportunities for scale, flexibility, and cost efficiency as well as the need for a partner with the expertise to develop a strategic plan, evaluate tools, and help manage the tactical implementation. At G2O, we believe this relationship should also help you optimize your approach and ensure a smooth transition with the ultimate benefits aligning perfectly to the needs of your individual organization.
Building an Optimized Cloud Migration Strategy
Whether the “lift and shift” method of transition or a more stair stepped approach is best for your business, ensuring you have the right strategy in place to guide your decisions is critically important. In either case, there is an opportunity to analyze what can be improved in your new infrastructure. While the first approach may be desirable to get to the Cloud quickly, a corresponding training plan for new Cloud development will be needed to help your team optimize applications such as serverless functions and API management. In the second approach, designing with an eye towards extending your current capabilities will optimize the success of both the initial migration and future expansion.
While the heavy lifting from a technical standpoint lies in understanding the current state of data management, investment from both data architecture and the business side are critical to ensure the needs of both are effectively incorporated into the strategy. In partnership, these groups should re-evaluate KPIs and document a baseline as they translate to the new setup.
In our approach to developing a unified Cloud Migration strategy, we walk through the following:
- What haven’t you been able to do because of technical constraints and issues?
- What features are you hoping to implement?
- What improvements do you need to make to your infrastructure before you move it?
- What is your API management strategy?
- Is there any requirement for a certain amount of process to remain on-site?
By gaining internal alignment on these key strategic elements upfront, an efficient and effective technical implementation plan can be developed and executed.
Planning the Technical Side of Your Cloud Migration Strategy
Once you have established a solid understanding of the goals and outcomes for your move to the Cloud, a complementary technical plan will solidify your strategic approach. A holistic plan should incorporate logistics from the team to the tool, as well as steps for the migration and subsequent testing.
Start with this checklist of technical plan components:
Team
Choose a qualified team including an experienced Cloud Architect, Cloud DevOps, and Cloud Developer to seamlessly work together throughout the life of the project.
Tool
Weigh the pros and cons of single Cloud vs Multi-Cloud applications to determine which is best suited to your business. Evaluate options from providers including AWS, Azure, and GCP and/or a private or hybrid Cloud.
Infrastructure
Leverage experts including your Cloud Architect and Cloud DevOps to prioritize components and create a plan.
Migration Steps
Determine whether it is safer to migrate everything at once or separate into stages and how to mirror the data while making the transition.
Testing
Develop a thorough plan for post implementation testing to verify completion.
By combining an optimized strategy with a thorough technical plan, you can ensure a smooth and successful process minimizing or entirely avoiding disruption and resulting in a platform for long-term benefit and business growth.
A Partner Positioned for Both Strategy & Implementation
While the majority of your Cloud Migration project’s time may be spent on the actual implementation, the upfront strategy phase proactively lays the foundation for how smooth a transition and how significant a benefit the business and its stakeholders ultimately experience.
At G2O, our depth of expertise allows us to partner with you throughout the full process, creating an optimized Cloud Migration Strategy and implementing that roadmap towards reality. Reach out today to schedule a consultation with one of our Cloud Migration specialists.