Cloud Migration Strategies: From On-Prem to the Cloud

Moving from on-premises systems to cloud platforms can help teams scale, reduce maintenance, and improve security. A clear plan lowers cost and risk, especially for sensitive data and core apps.

Start with a full inventory: workloads, data, and dependencies. Define goals like faster releases, better resilience, or predictable costs. Then pick an approach that fits each workload.

Common approaches:

• Lift and shift (rehost) to move quickly with minimal changes.
• Replatform to gain some cloud benefits without major code changes.
• Refactor or modernize for long-term agility, often for new features.
• Hybrid or multi-cloud to spread risk and meet data rules.

Plan in waves:

• Assess and classify workloads by criticality and data sensitivity.
• Build a migration plan with pilots and clear success criteria.
• Move in waves, starting with noncritical systems, then critical ones, while monitoring performance and cost.

Security and governance:

• Align with policies, IAM, encryption, and data residency.
• Use guardrails, cost controls, and regular audits.
• Keep data sovereignty and audit trails.

Costs and benefits:

• Compare total cost of ownership with current setup.
• Watch network egress, storage, and license changes.
• Build a culture of continuous optimization.

Example plan:

• Phase 1: pilot migration for a noncritical app.
• Phase 2: migrate a data-heavy workload with test datasets.
• Phase 3: move core services and implement ongoing optimization.

Key Takeaways

• Start with a clear inventory and goals to guide choices.
• Use a mix of lift-and-shift, replatforming, and refactoring as needed.
• Plan in waves, monitor, and optimize for cost and security.