If you want to make the most of the cloud’s strong security, scalability, uptime, and quick data recovery, your company should have a cloud migration checklist in place to future-proof your business. Here are 10 steps you need to follow:
By following the 10 steps on this Cloud Migration Checklist, your business will be empowered to digitally transform and succeed in a modern world.
- Determine the Right Partner to Manage a Migration
It is advised that you hire an IT company to plan the migration and execute the transition. The right company will have the skills to plan, migrate, test, and support a shift to the cloud.
- Understand your Cloud Migration Goals
Identify your goals and objectives and determine how far your organization is from them. Specifically, what goals you are trying to achieve from this migration. Common ones include digital transformation, speed of operations, better scalability of operations, financial savings, business agility, and better customer service.
- Assess your Existing Infrastructure
It is important to assess your current environment and evaluate where you are versus where you want to be. This includes understanding the data available and what portion of it should be moved to the cloud and reviewing your current lease and support agreements. Also, rank the infrastructure, platforms, and services you plan to move to the cloud in order of priorities, including expected savings, risks, and improvements.
- Choose the Right Cloud Environment
Which cloud environment will best fit the needs of your business? This decision depends on your company’s size, type, the data you deal with, your security requirements, and your budget. Many small- and medium-sized companies use a hybrid cloud which offers an effective balance across security, privacy, and transparency.
- Determine a Migration Roadmap
Next, work with your IT provider to specify a migration roadmap for your IT infrastructure and your business goals. This will help you prioritize workloads, confirm bandwidth requirements, set deadlines, and prepare for bottlenecks and possible downtime. This is a great time to identify any necessary changes to your internal processes and how you will ensure business continuity during the migration.
- Be Realistic About Costs
Your IT provider will estimate the required labour for this transition and any ongoing changes to network and bandwidth costs. The costs will differ for the type of hosted environment, the bandwidth of servers, databases, scalable storage, backup, monitoring, the number of virtual desktop licences, disaster recovery, and more.
- Plan for Data Migration
Data migration composes a large portion of the cloud migration journey. Instead of migrating all of your existing data, you should take time to review, analyze, and clear out clutter. Your IT partner will plan to migrate your data in a phased manner, beginning with the most crucial data.
- Carry Out a Test Migration
If your business possesses critical data, you may want to carry out a test migration. to provide insight into any potential risks and challenges. This provides your team with time to plan for workarounds and ensure every phase of your migration process goes smoothly with little interruptions.
- Change Management
To familiarize new users with the cloud, your outsourced IT team can provide practical training and access to documentation, especially for those who are habituated to traditional ways of working. It is imperative that your staff understands changes to their processes and technologies. They will be provided with tips and best practices so that they can make the most of cloud features and capabilities.
- Monitor and Optimize
For long-term growth and success, your IT partner should be monitoring the new environment on a regular basis and continuing to optimize it. This includes insights into usage and spotting anomalies, so the required steps can be taken to keep your data safe and costs under control.
Contact WW Works for a pressure-free conversation to learn more. We serve small to medium-sized businesses in Toronto, Oakville, Mississauga, Burlington, Hamilton, and the Niagara Region.
