How to Plan Your Migration to the Cloud
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Since I have already provided some guidelines for choosing a cloud provider, I would like to further discuss steps to be undertaken when preparing for a cloud migration.
Problems might appear at any moment, and the best thing you can do is take all measures to reduce risks and minimize their potential negative effect. This is why advanced planning for a cloud migration is crucial.
Here are some general guidelines to keep in mind when planning for a cloud migration:
- Perform an analysis of processes and evaluation of business needs. You should keep in mind how much can your IT staff can handle? Should you think about outsourcing your application development to a software provider? What applications do you need to move? Also, set up clear objectives. How much do you want to save? How much can you actually save? Assessing these basic facts will help you prepare your migration as well as helping you evaluate and negotiate with your cloud provider.
- After evaluating the cloud provider offering, decide the exact terms of the partnership. The first step I described will help you decide exactly what to ask from your cloud provider. Depending on the characteristics of your business, you can choose the cloud provider who offers either a customized offer or comes closer to meeting your business needs.
- Perform a test of both the cloud provider and how the new technology integrates into your business, by implementing/migrating an application which is not vital to your business. The good news is that most cloud computing vendors offer free trials. This will also give you the opportunity to see if you are comfortable with the way your cloud provider works.
- Always have an alternate plan – before the actual implementation, decide upon using some alternative solutions to how the migration is made. What if something goes wrong? Having backup in place is vital. And, if you consider point 2, than you probably already have a Service Level Agreement in place.
I hope these guidelines are useful. What other guidelines do you consider important?
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