Improving work efficiency and achieving project timelines has become difficult for businesses, especially SaaS companies. Different processes and technologies have been introduced to assist businesses to deliver projects on time, but cloud computing has turned out to be the most effective way for improving team performance and project efficiency.
As businesses expand, their IT infrastructure needs also increase. The cloud migration process is not an easy task. However, the right approach and checklist will ensure a smooth cloud migration:
- Plan and Prepare for Migration
- Choose Cloud Environment
- Final Check, Migrate, and Review
Here is how to go through the checklist and prepare for cloud migration.
1. Plan and Prepare for Migration
1.1 Design the Migration Architecture
Cloud migration architecture involves activities such as completing high-level planning covering all aspects of the migration, defining the migration priorities, cloud solution, and modifications needed to make the migration successful. Cloud migration architecture is most effective when there are large projects for migration.
1.2 Define the Level of Cloud Integration
Shallow data migration, also known as lift and shift migration, is about taking your on-premise application and migrating it to the cloud as it is.
On the other hand, in deep cloud migration, you can modify your application to take full advantage of cloud capabilities before the data migration.
2. Choose Cloud Environment
Decide the cloud environment for data migration so that you can plan and utilize the resources accordingly.
2.1 Single Cloud Environment
Single Cloud migration allows you to choose one cloud provider and run your application for that environment. This approach is relatively simple. Your team will have to learn one set of APIs for that single cloud provider. However, shifting to the other cloud migration vendor requires as much effort as the complete data migration.
2.2 Multi-Cloud Environment
A Multi-cloud Environment buckets into three different models:
2.2.1 Application-Specific Cloud
You can utilize one dedicated cloud storage to house one set of applications and another cloud to house another set of applications. You can decide which application to run on which cloud. It allows you to optimize the complete application specific to the cloud provider.
2.2.2 Split Application Across Different Clouds
A multi-cloud environment approach allows you to distribute the application parts across the different clouds. You can utilize the key benefits of each cloud service provider for specific parts of the application.
2.2.3 Application Compatible on Any Cloud
Run any application on any cloud. You need to optimize the complete application to run on multiple cloud providers. This approach will help in application load balancing for improving performance. However, your developers might need to put in extra effort to make the application compatible with multiple environments.
3. Final Check, Migrate & Review
3.1 Set Performance Baseline
Before migration, set the post-migration performance expectations of the application. Identify the KPIs, note the current application performance, and define the expected performance statistics.
3.2 Prioritize the Migration
Plan whether you need to migrate the complete project at once or in phases. You can decide which component you should migrate first and later. Ideally, you should first migrate the application components that are utilized by your customers.
3.3 Data Migration
The location of your data during the migration is a crucial part. You need to ensure a smooth data migration process without compromising the user experience. To ensure there is no application downtime, you can take three approaches:
- Once you migrate all the data to the cloud, you can remove the on-premise database.
- Allow users to connect with on-premise database only and keep the one-way sync.
- Approach the cloud experts for a smooth transition.
3.4 Review
Once you complete the data migration process, make sure your teams have a plan for distributing resources to your application. You can scale up as needed to improve the application performance.
Key Takeaways
Cloud data migration is the trickiest thing to execute if you do not plan properly. Companies face challenges in cloud data migration which either disturbs the user-experience or may lead to rework. It is always advisable to consult the data migration experts who use a fully automated process and secure products to minimize risks, decrease costs, and transport your data safely.
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