Migrating your IT infrastructure or files to the cloud can have many benefits.
A cloud migration allows you to increase your performance and the ease of performing tasks, but also to optimize costs.
However, you will need to take every precaution to fully secure and retain your data, not only during but also after migration.
Indeed, if your cloud migration is not well prepared, for lack of method or reflection, you will encounter many obstacles that will make this process a real nightmare.
Thus, you will have to ask yourself the right questions beforehand in order to find the most suitable and relevant answers according to your request.
Every business and every migration is unique, so you’ll need to choose the plan that’s right for you.
Why perform a cloud migration?
First of all, it is worth knowing why it is relevant for you to migrate to the cloud.
Indeed, migrating to the cloud can be a long and sometimes complex process, but has many advantages that you should be aware of.
Indeed, migrating to the cloud-first of all optimizes your budget, because it avoids the purchase of applications, equipment, and additional technical assistance to manage all of your data. The cloud makes hosting, hardware, and necessary applications accessible at often low cost.
In addition, your work will be improved. Indeed, the cloud makes it possible to avoid hardware failures and poor internal data management, in order to focus only on the quality of the work.
In addition, thanks to the cloud, you will be able to access your data regardless of the place or time. Indeed, the majority of cloud applications are accessible from anywhere in the world, as long as you have an Internet connection.
Finally, a migration to the cloud is a guarantee of security for your data. Indeed, contrary to what one might spontaneously believe, a well-performed cloud migration allows an automatic data backup to be set up. Cloud applications are designed to protect data against most risks and cyber-attacks.
So now: what are the key steps to perform your cloud migration in the best way?
Step 1: Goals of cloud migration
Before performing a cloud migration, it is important to know why you want to do it. Indeed, with clear migration goals, you will choose the appropriate options and make the right choices.
You will need to know whether the transfer must be complete or partial and be able to justify it. Do you choose to migrate to optimize costs, to be more agile, to strengthen the security of your files?
Step 2: Assess the current environment you find yourself in
Once the migration goals have been set, you will need to assess the environment, that is, assess the external constraints, such as regulations, financial and administrative constraints.
To know the environment well, you must also check your company’s current infrastructure and therefore have a precise idea of the extent of the migration. For this you will need to check your storage level, the amount of data you want to transfer, the databases you are using, etc.
Then it will certainly be necessary to prioritize the applications to migrate, starting with the most manageable applications, the “cloud-native”, then process the files in order of importance.
Step 3: Choose the right partner
Cloud migration being a complex process, it is recommended to perform this migration with the support of a company specializing in these services.
In order to choose the right partner, you can find out about his certifications, his past experiences in helping with migration, the types of clients he has worked with before. Finding out from an IT consultant can be a good place to start.
Step 4: Determine the characteristics of the cloud
There are different types of clouds. Depending on your situation and your established environment (step 2), you will need to choose the most suitable cloud. Among them, you will find the public, private, or hybrid cloud.
The public cloud offers great ease of use, as well as a more flexible and agile IS.
The private cloud is more complex, but it has the advantages of being very stable and secure.
Finally, the hybrid cloud is characterized by great flexibility and represents an intermediate solution.
Finally, it is important to determine beforehand the characteristics of the cloud to know if the available bandwidth will be sufficient to support the expected load or to know how much computing power or what type of databases you will need.
Step 5: Plan the implementation of cloud migration
Once all the data is gathered and your type of cloud chosen, you’ll need to move on to planning the migration itself.
To do so, you will have to choose your final candidates for migration, that is to say, choose which applications will be ported to the cloud.
This choice is made according to your own criteria, especially if the application requires significant specific development or if it will contribute to your current and future needs.
Step 6: Run the cloud migration
You have arrived at the last step of the migration: the execution of it!
To do this, you must first proceed in stages to avoid the risk of a big bang.
Indeed, defining execution deadlines and proceeding in a progressive manner is essential to correctly execute the migration.
It starts with backing up and updating your data, files, and apps first.
Then you can start migrating them, in the pre-established order.
Finally, you will each need to validate and adjust the production environment by verifying that all the data is present, undamaged, and secure.
A final test can be performed to ensure that the applications are accessible and operational, and your cloud migration will be perfectly successful!
