The key to a successful public cloud migration is buy in and support from the entire business. A cloud migration is not an IT project to be run in isolation; this is a business transformation. The first step in any migration is to understand the business objectives, and the pain points that a migration to public cloud can solve. A successful cloud migration project will need investment, in both time and money, from the business. It is vital that the benefits of this investment in terms of future growth and competitive advantage are understood from the outset.
Start your cloud migration plan
Every area of the business effected by the transformation should be involved in the planning process. Executive sponsorship from C-level will ensure that there is reasonable budget for the project, and that the project remains aligned to business objectives, deliverables, and KPIs. The usage-based pricing of public cloud services will result in a change from capital expenditure (CapEX) to operational expenditure (OpEx) which can create some challenges when it comes to budget forecasting and will probably require changes to business systems and processes. Open two-way communication with employees and end users is also key to success, both so that they understand what is going on and expect any changes, and to capture any training requirements.
Plan our your applications
When planning a public cloud migration, it is important to take time to work out the best strategy for each application in your portfolio. Is the best solution to reduce the size of the estate through application retirement and opt for an off the shelf SaaS replacement? Should you rehost any remaining applications with a move to a single cloud provider as quickly as possible or take the time to re-platform and refactor, transforming the migrated applications to take advantage of the new cloud environment?
How to get the most of your applications in public cloud
By focusing on minimising project time and expense, the most common mistake organisations make, is to choose to rehost applications without any consideration for the services and features native to public. This “lift and shift” strategy may seem the most straightforward and cheapest solution, it may not in the long term provide the most cost-efficient, sustainable, successful, or scalable choice. Re-hosting your workload could end up costing more as it has not been optimised to suit your cloud environment, and your application suffer from latency or performance issues after migration. If the strategy for migration focuses solely on getting the application into the cloud in this basic fashion, key areas of concern are often missed.
Working with a partner, skilled and experienced in public cloud migration, who also understands your business will help you avoid these pitfalls and will provide the assurance of a cloud deployment that adheres to best practice. A suitable partner will provide you with accredited cloud architects to support you in designing, building, and managing your cloud strategy. This strategy should be unique to your situation, provide an optimal cloud experience, and help make your organisation more efficient and gain a competitive advantage.
Discover how Redcentric can support you with the knowledge and skills to turn your plans into a reality, contact us today.
