Cloud migration has become common as companies embrace cloud-first strategies. Despite this, the 2023 State of the Cloud Report found that 66% of organizations identified cloud migration as a top cloud challenge.
Cloud migration can be a complicated and risky process, especially as companies increasingly turn to more complex hybrid and multicloud strategies. Cloud migration challenges can range from security risks and application incompatibility and may cause a migration to fail.
However, moving to the cloud doesn’t need to be complicated. Working with a managed service provider (MSP) to develop and carry out the right strategy can make cloud migration easy.
Getting Prepared – Cloud Readiness Assessment
Preparing for a cloud migration is the first step to making the process easier. Before moving to the cloud, your company should assess your current system to determine cloud readiness. Evaluating your current IT architecture, data, and applications will help you identify interdependencies, incompatibilities, and performance requirements.
An MSP can work with your business to carry out a cloud-readiness assessment. The MSP gives your company a new perspective on your infrastructure and the assets you want to move to the cloud, enabling you to identify any issues that might cause problems during migration. Based on the readiness assessment, your company can make the right decisions about which databases and applications to move to the cloud.
Hatching a Plan for Cloud Migration
Planning is the key to carrying out a smooth and successful migration. An MSP can work with your company to develop a roadmap for how to conduct the migration. A migration should be planned in stages to avoid interruptions to production. Based on interdependencies, your company can plan to move certain databases and applications at the same time.
An MSP will work with your company to build a migration plan that identifies the resources and funding required to carry out the migration. The plan should specify timelines and milestones that will keep the project on track and within budget.
Picking a Cloud Migration Strategy
An MSP can help your company choose the right cloud migration strategy based on your objectives. The migration strategy needs to accommodate database and application requirements.
Your company needs to choose from a list of 7 strategies:
- Rehosting, sometimes called lift and shift, involves moving the application to the cloud with no optimization
- Replatforming transfers the application to the cloud and optimizes it using cloud capabilities
- Relocating moves infrastructure to the cloud without the need for new hardware
- Refactoring allows applications to be rearchitected when required
- Repurchasing, sometimes called drop and shop, means transitioning to another product, often software as a service (SaaS)
- Retiring discontinues or eliminates applications that are no longer needed
- Retaining maintains legacy applications or applications that need significant refactoring in the current environment
Choosing the right migration strategy increases the chances of accomplishing a successful and stress-free migration.
Making It Happen
Once your company has chosen your strategy and developed your plan, an MSP can help you carry out the cloud migration and support you after completion.
The MSP can work with you to move databases and applications and to integrate cloud and on-premises resources. Databases can be moved in a manner that has as little impact on business operations as possible. Any applications that need refactoring will be rearchitected in preparation for the move.
An MSP can help you track the progress of your migration. Once workloads have been moved, they need to be tested to ensure they function in the new environment.
After the migration has been completed, your MSP can work with you to ensure that systems continue to sync and update. Support can continue into the operations phase, with the MSP helping you to manage cloud workloads through performance monitoring, resource management, and security.
Trouble-Free Cloud Migration
Your company doesn’t need to go through the cloud migration process alone. Working with an MSP will make the process of moving to the cloud much easier. You can benefit from the right MSP’s experience with cloud migration and overall cloud expertise.
The Purple Guys can help your company carry out a trouble-free cloud migration using our managed IT services. For over 20 years, we’ve been working with companies to move data and applications to the cloud. We understand how to use the cloud to reduce risk, improve security, enhance functionality, and increase uptime.
Find out how to simplify your cloud migration process. Ask for a proposal from The Purple Guys.