Simplify cloud migration with this three-step roadmap

Embracing the cloud is not just a strategic choice. It's a necessity. 

To stay competitive, businesses need the agility to adapt to changing market conditions. The cloud provides the flexibility required in today’s fast-paced, digital-first business world and migrating to the cloud has become standard for forward-thinking organisations across the globe.

If your organisation still relies on on-premise hardware, now is the time to migrate your data to the cloud. History is filled with cautionary tales of organisations that were slow to adopt today’s tech - and paid the price. Don’t turn cloud hesitancy into redundancy. 

Cloud migration is a complex and often challenging task. Especially if you're a large organisation with extensive amounts of data. 

Although it's a big project, with the right planning and execution, cloud migration can be a seamless process. In this article, we will run through the three-pronged approach to efficient, effective cloud migration, and the common pitfalls to avoid along the way.

Read this before you migrate to the cloud: The three-phased approach to effective cloud migration:

1. Diagnosis phase

At the diagnosis phase, you should make the objectives of cloud migration clear.

Cloud migration can transform the way your organisation operates, so you'll need to align your cloud solution with your commercial goals to ensure business continuity.

Before you make the move, you'll need to form a project team encompassing stakeholders and decision-makers across your organisation. Together with your cloud provider, they'll form a working group for the migration.

The purpose of this group is to assess the impact of cloud migration in your organisation and proactively identify and solve any challenges.

Cloud migration will have far-reaching implications for every employee across every department of your organisation. So it's important to ensure the cloud allows them to keep doing what they've done - just with better tech.

It's not enough to approach cloud migration with a "others are doing it, so we should too” mindset. If your cloud migration isn't fit for purpose, you risk undermining its benefits. You need a cloud solution that moves your organisation forward, not one that reinvents the wheel.

So, before you start the work of migrating your organisation to the cloud, engage with stakeholders across your organisation and get clear on the objectives of your cloud solution - and how they relate to overall business objectives.

The great thing about the cloud is that it's more responsive to organisational change than legacy solutions. However, getting it right from the start means you can act fast should you reach your goals ahead of schedule.

2. Implementation phase

Once you're clear on your objectives and ideal solution, now comes the time to launch your business into the cloud.

While getting the diagnosis phase right will make for a much smoother implementation, there are common mistakes organisations make that make for a less efficient, more costly ride.

Common mistakes to avoid during cloud migration:

• Migrating everything at once. Migration should be staged.

• Putting everything in the cloud - Unnecessary migration equals unnecessary cost. Don’t need it? Don't take it with you.

• Thinking cloud migration is the magic bullet to modernising your organisation. Migration without a commercial goal leads to unclear success.

• Training staff on the go, which can lead to increased costs and delays.

• Addressing security like you always have. Cloud security is different to traditional security. You'll need a security policy that addresses the unique considerations and cyber risks of cloud storage.

• Not having Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with your provider. Following migration, your business will rely on the cloud to access critical data, so guaranteed uptime is crucial to continuity.

Avoid these pitfalls; it’ll be a smoother, cost-effective journey to the cloud.

3. Activation phase

The final phase of cloud migration is, you guessed it, activating your cloud service. 

In this stage, your organisation is ready to move off legacy systems and enjoy the benefits of your new cloud-based system.

But the job's not done yet. You still need to take some key actions to complete the transition.

Test, test and re-test: As much as we'd love things to always run smoothly, murphy's law often strikes during activation. A rigorous testing environment will help you identify and solve issues before they become a roadblock to successful cloud adoption across your organisation. 

Account for breakages: Your test environment should identify any breakages in your cloud systems. As the saying goes: Expect the best, prepare for the worst. While breakages can throw your cloud migration off, they're far from the end of the world. Adjust your cloud migration timeline to account for breakages and ensure you have the resources to fix them.

Maintenance and upgrades: The work does not stop once you're in the cloud. At the activation phase, define a maintenance schedule. Regular maintenance will ensure your cloud infrastructure maintains high performance in the medium to long term.

And crucially, once your organisation has completed its migration, it's crucial you maintain control of your data.

Regardless of your cloud provider, you’re responsible for controlling and protecting your data. A robust data protection and disaster recovery process is essential for keeping your business safe post-cloud migration.

Want to take your company to the cloud?

Book a discovery session today to learn more about how to best position your business for successful cloud migration. Whatever your cloud requirements, we'll guide you through a solution that meets your strategic objectives. Call us on 1300 161 625 and take the first step to the cloud today.