Cloud Migration: A 7-Step IT Infrastructure Transition Strategy
The increasing interest in hybrid infrastructures, rapid application deployment, and flexible payment systems — paying only for utilized computing resources — is driving the growth of the cloud migration market. Analysts predict that this market will continue to expand by an average of 25% annually through 2030. Despite this trend, many organizations hesitate to migrate IT workloads to the cloud due to concerns over the complexity and duration of the process. However, breaking the migration into phases and enlisting the aid of an experienced provider can make the cloud migration smooth and yield predictable outcomes.
What is Cloud Data Migration?
Cloud data migration involves the planned transfer of an organization’s digital assets — data, applications, and IT services — to a cloud platform. There are two main types of cloud migration: from on-premises infrastructure to the cloud, and from one cloud service provider to another. An organization may choose to migrate its entire IT infrastructure or just specific workloads. If only certain workloads are moved and links are established between on-premise and cloud infrastructures, the solution is termed hybrid.
Why Do Companies Migrate to the Cloud?
Companies migrate to the cloud for several reasons:
- To reduce capital expenditures on IT infrastructure.
- To flexibly adjust computing resources in response to workload fluctuations.
- To easily scale in response to business growth.
- To facilitate the operations of distributed teams by enabling 24/7 data access globally.
- To delegate maintenance and administration tasks to a service provider.
- To establish off-site locations for backup storage and disaster recovery.
Current Market Size and Future Projections
As previously discussed, the cloud migration services market is rapidly expanding. In the next three years, it is projected to reach $100 billion (McKinsey), with 78% of large companies reporting increased application performance post-migration (Forrester Consulting). This success motivates other businesses to consider cloud migration, although small and medium-sized enterprises may still lack a clear understanding of what to expect during the transition to a fully cloud-based or hybrid IT infrastructure.
Steps for Cloud Migration
Step 1: Define Your Cloud Migration Objectives
Consider the desired outcomes of migrating your infrastructure to the cloud, such as shifting from capital to operational expenses, improving scalability or performance, preparing for load spikes, real-time data and analytics usage, and data protection if the cloud is used as a backup storage platform. Coordinate migration plans across all company divisions.
Step 2: Select Applications for Cloud Migration
Enlist the support of skilled technical experts to develop a cloud migration strategy. Ideally, these will be your IT department staff working in synergy with specialists who will facilitate the cloud implementation, or employees from the cloud provider itself. Initially, opt for simple, independently functioning applications while keeping an interdependency map handy. Avoid starting with applications that may pose difficulties or are not yet ready for cloud deployment.
Step 3: Calculate Required Cloud Resources
Based on the workloads you intend to move, determine the necessary computing resource volumes. Select the type and capacity of data storage (e.g., high-performance SAN storage) considering the planned access speed. Many providers who offer data migration services perform these calculations early and include them in their proposals.
Step 4: Design a Custom Cloud Solution
This task can also be delegated to a service provider who will develop a detailed technical specification, design the solution, demonstrate its capabilities, and help your company staff develop an optimal migration plan and distribute key responsibilities among different IT specialists. The better your preparation for infrastructure migration to the cloud, the less likely you are to encounter undesirable incidents during the process.
Steps 5: Implement, Test, and Enhance Your Cloud Deployment
Transfer one or several applications to the cloud without making changes just before migration — leave the rectification of imperfect code for later or select another application that can be migrated “as is.” Determine the optimal time for application migration to minimize impact on users or critical business processes, often during off-peak hours. If necessary, this task can be divided into several iterations if the workload is too large.
Step 6: Test the First Application in the Cloud and Migrate the Rest
Evaluate data access speed and application stability in the cloud. If satisfactory, proceed with migrating the remaining applications. You might consider keeping the same data both in the cloud and on-premises for a while. Only after confirming stable operation on the provider’s platform should you disconnect the local copy. Trust the experience and intuition of cloud migration specialists, whether from your team or provided by the provider — they are invested in ensuring that your business processes continue uninterrupted.
Step 7: Integrate Additional Services to Enhance Resilience
Basic tools for enhancing resilience are usually offered by default by cloud providers. However, it is recommended to further protect your data, at least by deploying a remote site for creating and storing backup copies (BaaS, “Backup as a Service”) and for companies where a shutdown could lead to catastrophic consequences, to develop a disaster recovery plan (DRP) and use the DRaaS service, so that in the event of an emergency, rapid recovery can be achieved at the backup site.
