5 Key Strategies for a Smooth Cloud Migration

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Migrating to Amazon Online Services (AWS) is a journey. It often feels scary to begin this journey, but it doesn't have to be. With this article, I'll go through five key strategies that when used in isolation, as well as when combined, will go a long way to ensure your migration to AWS is as smooth as possible.

1. Follow a proven process

A successful one MIGRATION it's as much about preparation as it is about the act of moving workloads. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail as the saying goes. The migration journey can be divided into four key steps.

Discover: At this stage, it is about defining the initial field as much as possible. Don't worry about why, how and when. Focus on documenting the workloads you intend to migrate.

Rate: Now you know what you want to migrate. Here you think about why, how and when. Any migration should have clear technical and/or business drivers that can be articulated into a business case. At this stage, make an early call about how you want to migrate and in what order.

Mobilize: You wouldn't build a house on a weak foundation, so don't migrate workloads without it AWS configuration properly. Make sure you're creating a solid landing zone that adheres to the AWS Good Architecture framework. That way, you'll be secure, operationally ready and cost-conscious from day one.

Migrate and upgrade: At the sharp end of the process, it's all about migrating applications and modernizing them. This should be smooth if you have done the preparation properly. You'll need to consider aspects such as when, or if, you can tolerate an interrupted window, as well as clearly document recovery plans if things don't go quite to plan.

2. Define a migration model for each workload early

AWS defines a set of migration patterns known as 7Rs. This set of models covers the entire spectrum, from pulling workloads to completely re-architecting them to take advantage of everything AWS has to offer. A full list of the 7Rs can be found below.

Retired
bear
support
transpose
repurchase
Replatform
The refactor

Defining a migration model for each workload early on, usually in the Assessment phase, sets the stage for the final Mobilization and Migration phases. These patterns aren't set in stone, but setting a north star for your migration helps keep the journey on track.

3. Don't just transform your technology, transform your business

People, process and tools are the trio that many of you will be familiar with. The domains that are integral to a successful migration are no different. When you start a migration, it's all too easy to get caught up in the shiny new world of designing AWS architectures and dream of better times to come. You must not forget what underpins any successful migration – operational readiness.

Operational workloads in AWS bring with them several changes to consider in your operational posture. Among them, you should give priority to the following:

Financial management in the cloud: AWS brings with it a very different cost model – there is a sudden shift from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operational expenditure (OpEx). On premises, it's often easy to attribute capital costs – you're able to directly link a physical piece of infrastructure purchased to the cost center that required it. With AWS, you need to consider how, or if, you want to attribute costs with increased scalability and implement the necessary mechanisms to enable it.

Disaster Resilience and Recovery (DR): A big advantage of migrating to AWS is the increased opportunity for resiliency, but have you considered your resiliency requirements? Defining your return to operations objectives (RTO) and recovery point objectives (RPO) helps determine the level of resilience you need. AWS has published an excellent white paper on cloud DR, including guidance on how to define a DR strategy depending on your RTO and RPO objectives, all while balancing the appetite for additional spend.

Security: Operating in the cloud brings with it a change in mindset when it comes to security. You work on the basis of a “Shared Responsibility Model,” where AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud (ie, the physical security of the data centers), and you are responsible for the security IN cloud (ie configuring your workloads). You should consider how this affects your existing tools and processes and evaluate whether cloud-native security tools are better placed to serve you.

4. Use Well-Architected Framework

of Well-architected framework contains prescriptive guidelines laid out in six pillars, designed to make it easy to design and implement solutions that adhere to best practices. The pillars are operational excellence, safety, cost optimization, reliability, performance efficiency and sustainability.

Inside the frame is the concept of the lens. These are use case specific payloads or additions to the standard instruction. Such a lens is migratory lens. It covers the common pillars but provides specific migration-related guidance in line with the well-known and proven phases of the migration journey (discover, assess, mobilize, migrate and modernize).

Keeping this framework and any additional lenses in mind and evaluating against the guidelines throughout the migration journey will increase the likelihood of successful decision making and subsequently a smooth migration.

5. Leverage specialized AWS partners

For large and complex migrations, it pays to work with a specialist partner to support your journey. AWS makes it easy to identify the right partner through a variety of specialization programs. There are three main types of specializations to consider when evaluating a partner:

Competencies: These are externally audited awards that verify that a partner has deep expertise and proven experience in either an industry (e.g., Financial Services), use cases (e.g., Migration and Modernization), or type workload (eg Microsoft).

Service provision: These focus specifically on an AWS service (eg Amazon RDS) and are awarded when partners can demonstrate that they can deliver solutions using said service to a consistently high standard and in line with best practices.

Well-architected: The well-architected framework we discussed earlier has a dedicated partner program that recognizes those partners who have special experience in designing, evaluating, and debugging to achieve AWS best practices.

You can search for a suitable partner at AWS Partner Finder.

You should now have a few key strategies in mind to help make your migration a smooth one. Working to a proven process and leveraging a specialist partner where necessary keeps your journey on the straight and narrow. Mapping your workloads with migration patterns as early as possible sets you up to use the Well-Architected Framework as you prepare to design your target architecture. Finally, remember to take the entire organization on the migration journey. A successful migration can only be considered truly successful if everyone is accepted and benefit from the transformation.

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