Cloud migration has become increasingly popular among organizations, with 94% of enterprises leveraging cloud services. In addition, by 2022, companies managed 60% of their data on the cloud, a consistent increase from the previous years. And cloud migration will only continue to grow, with a project market value of $947.3 billion by 2026 and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.3%.
As confirmed by IBM, organizations prioritize cloud technology because of optimized scalability, data security, streamlined work, and collaboration. In addition, this technology can improve accessibility and storage options while offering increased tool selection and control choices.
However, businesses must strategically migrate their data to the cloud to leverage these advantages. This article will explore the four critical phases of cloud migration and how organizations can follow this method for success.
Phase 1: Map and Inventory Data and Analytics
To begin cloud migration, map and inventory all data and analytics. Analyze this information to understand the application and infrastructure environment and track dependencies, consumption levels, and system requirements. Successful migration relies on understanding the existing data infrastructure and runtime environment.
Organizations must review all their applications and resources—the technologies, databases, data warehouses, or networks used and the relationships between them. A critical outcome of these measures must include a list of all computing devices, along with their characteristics, operating systems, licenses, and the data stored and managed among all these systems. This list will help developers optimize every aspect of their current infrastructure for cloud computing.
Phase 2: Rigorous Planning
The next phase is to plan and select the resources to migrate to the cloud first. Businesses cannot migrate large volumes of data at once. They must optimize each application, its data, and its elements. These steps will help developers understand how to migrate and test applications in the cloud, minimizing mistakes and increasing overall efficiency.
So cloud migration does not disrupt the organization, the first data to migrate should be information concerning non-critical business procedures. Next, businesses must transfer structures without dependencies on other parts of the system—eliminating the need to make numerous changes to the application immediately.
The final stage of the planning phase is to configure the cloud environment, establish credentials, and assign roles and access rights. This stage enables organizations to build and customize their cloud infrastructures—employ scalable decisions that offer agility as the business expands.
Phase 3: Implementation
When businesses begin implementation, they must consider the least complex elements (with low volumes of data) first. As the migration progresses, ensure each application, and its related data, is migrated successfully. Organizations must closely monitor this process to identify and minimize or eliminate potential disruptions and bottlenecks.
Once all the data is migrated to the cloud, configure the network settings and establish a connection between the existing environment and the cloud service. After developing projects and assigning roles, organizations must install at least one connection to a virtual private cloud (VPC).
As a result, cloud computing teams can sort and combine individual elements of the application in migration. Similarly, specialists must install a firewall and configure event monitoring with a logging service for optimized security.
Phase 4: Optimization
Moving data to the cloud does not conclude with the transfer of resources. Businesses must also optimize their infrastructures. To achieve this, they should consider the training and development of cloud specialists, consistent monitoring, and automation. Here is a detailed overview of these solutions and how they can help companies establish their cloud environments.
The Training and Development of Cloud Specialists
Cloud technologies can become challenging to manage, and organizations need cloud specialists to migrate their data to these infrastructures. In addition, these teams should have experience in managing, scaling, and leveraging cloud computing resources. Similarly, businesses must support their teams to stay ahead of technology developments in this sector and data management strategies.
Consistent Tracking and Monitoring
Continuous cloud monitoring ensures data management and scaling in the cloud are operating successfully. As such, companies can use this knowledge to drive improvements, refine data management, implement new practices, and test the impact of changes on the environment and application.
Automate Processes and Activities
Manual operations, in addition to being time-consuming, have many disadvantages. Professionals can make human errors, leading to compliance and financial setbacks. However, by using cloud automation for aspects such as deployment and configuration, organizations can maintain consistency, reduce maintenance and manual error costs, and adhere to data standards and policies.
In Closing
Cloud migration has become a priority for many organizations, allowing them to automate processes to increase efficiency, minimize errors, access actionable insights, and scale much easier. However, failing to take the correct measures for cloud adoption can lead to disruptions and bottlenecks. Fortunately, by using the four phases of cloud migration—data inventory, strategic planning, implementation, and optimization, companies can build scalable, agile cloud infrastructures.
