Cloud Migration

Service description

Cloud migration moves a business's applications, data and infrastructure from its own servers or a data center to a cloud provider. Work typically includes inventorying what exists, choosing a migration approach for each system, moving and testing it, and cutting over with a rollback plan. Some migrations also redesign systems to use cloud services instead of moving them unchanged.

Common industries

Applies across industries that run their own servers or older hosted systems.

ROI

Done right, it lowers infrastructure cost, improves scalability and resilience, and retires aging on-prem risk.

Benefit

Move your infrastructure and applications to the cloud — planning, migration, and optimization — often to exit a data center.

Why get it

Businesses migrate to exit aging data centers or hardware, gain room to scale, or improve resilience. The right approach depends on what each system does.

When you benefit

A one-time project, often phased, followed by ongoing cloud operations.

What it costs

Project fee or hourly.

When you pay

Assessment and planning are often a fixed fee; the migration itself is priced as a fixed project, per workload, or time-and-materials. Payment usually follows milestones such as completed phases or cutovers.

Other costs

Cloud provider usage charges, software licenses, network connectivity, and a period of running old and new environments side by side are typically separate from the provider's fee.

Risks to know

Moving systems unchanged ("lift and shift") may not deliver the security or cost benefits the business expects, and cloud bills can exceed forecasts if usage isn't managed. Misconfigured access or storage can expose data, and downtime or data loss can occur at cutover without testing and a rollback plan.

When risks arise

Cutover problems, such as downtime or missing data, appear during or just after the move. Security misconfigurations and cost overruns often show up later, as usage grows.

The process

The provider inventories systems and dependencies, then assesses them and groups them into waves. For each wave it designs the target environment, migrates data and applications, and tests with the business. After cutover, the provider fixes issues, documents the environment and hands over operations or ongoing support.

Your commitment

The business provides an inventory of its applications, data and integrations, names an owner for each system, and decides which to retire, move or rebuild. It should make staff available for testing and agree on acceptable downtime and the cutover window before work starts.

Documents to gather

• Inventory of applications, servers and integrations
• Network diagram and current hosting or data-center contracts
• Data classification and compliance requirements
• Current infrastructure costs and uptime requirements

Helpful reading

• How to 'lift and shift' successfully — National Cyber Security Centre (UK)
• Cloud Computing: Private Sector Leading Practices in Acquisition, Cybersecurity, and Workforce Development — U.S. Government Accountability Office