Once the IT team (with the approval of management) has decided to migrate an on-premise application to the cloud, the following are, on a broad level, the steps to take-
1. Choose the right cloud provider
- The team needs to have a clear documentation of their requirements.
- Should around and meet with cloud vendors to find the ideal match – one that fulfills-
- technology needs,
- budget,
- security concerns, and
- legal requirements.
2. Prepare to Migrate
This step is all about detailed and efficient planning.
- Decide what needs to move first, and the order to follow – ideally you would move the easiest and least critical data first.
- Analyze if the application architecture needs to change to adapt to the cloud environment
- Staff (developers, administrators, analysts, managers) need to be trained with technical skills that are “cloud-ready”
- Have plans for
- data backup
- updating code
- troubleshooting problems
- measuring performance
- dealing with downtime
- Understand and document governance and security changes that the cloud migration will cause
3. Migrate
- Make a backup – you do not want to be caught without a working copy of data if the migration blotches up
- Prepare data for migration
- encrypt
- compress
- use the right tools
- make sure it is complete (with metadata that is adapted to the new platform)
- Move the data – either over the internet, or physically, depending on the how much of data you are transferring and how critical it is
- Security during migration – security of data in motion – while it is being transferred. Securing all temporary storage devices and locations and cleaning up after the data has moved
4. Check and double-check
This can be a hybrid of automated and manual testing.
- Has all the data been moved according to the plan in step 2?
- Has the data been decompressed, stored in the right structure?
- Is the metadata in place and compatible?
- Is the data on the cloud encrypted?
- Is the application working?
- Is the application accessible to users?
- Are all internal interfaces and security controls in place?
- Can the admin and other staff remotely monitor and access all the data and functions needed to operate and maintain them?
- Are default password and access role changed and in accordance with policy?
- Are all intermediate storage devices cleaned up – no data leaks?
5. Document
- Document the process
- Review and analyze what went wrong, what could have been done better and more efficiently
- Use this document as a reference for future migrations
References:
AWS. (2015, December). A Practical Guide to Cloud Migration. Retrieved from https://d0.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/the-path-to-the-cloud-dec2015.pdf
Semeney, A. (2017, May 17). Cloud Migration Checklist: Step by Step Guide – Hacker Noon. Retrieved from https://hackernoon.com/cloud-migration-checklist-step-by-step-guide-e65839cb2e81