A cloud migration can lower risk, improve resilience and free your team from managing hardware. It can also simply move existing problems somewhere more expensive. These questions help you tell the difference before you start.
1. What exactly are you running?
Build an inventory of applications, databases, file shares and scheduled jobs, including the ones that only one person knows about. Note the owner and business purpose of each.
2. How do things connect?
Map dependencies between systems. A small reporting database might feed a critical finance process; moving one without the other can break both.
3. Rehost, re-platform or retire?
Not everything should move as it is. Some workloads can be lifted and shifted, some benefit from managed services, and some should simply be switched off.
4. What will it cost?
Estimate run costs for the target design, including storage, backup, networking and support. Compare with today’s full cost, not just the hardware.
5. How will you secure it?
Decide on identity, access, network boundaries, encryption and logging before the first workload moves. Retrofitting security is harder than designing it in.
6. What is the rollback plan?
For each migration wave, agree how you will test success and how you would roll back if something goes wrong.
7. Who runs it afterwards?
Confirm who will monitor, patch and pay for the new environment, and make sure they have the documentation and skills they need.
Our cloud and modernisation service helps organisations answer these questions and migrate with confidence.