Cloud migration services are not a novel concept. However, enterprises have picked up the pace in transforming their on-premises/legacy infrastructure through application cloud migration. This paradigm shift has been predominantly triggered by enterprise decision-makers realizing the multi-fold growth opportunities that cloud adoption, coupled with AI at scale, can bring in. Following a structured cloud migration checklist ensures this transformation is secure, cost-effective, and future-ready.
By integrating AI into your application cloud migration strategy, you can achieve deeper insights, automated processes, and more personalized customer experiences, further amplifying the benefits of migration.
As the magnitude of investment widens, it clearly depicts the enormity of returns that enterprise leaders are expecting. While achieving cost savings and operational efficiency are well-known benefits of migrating to the cloud, massive improvements in scalability and agility are also aggressively driving leaders to move their workloads. AI-powered scalability and predictive capabilities are further accelerating this adoption.
So, now that we know cloud migration is a trending topic of discussion and the race to reach ‘cloud-only’ from ‘cloud-first’ is in full motion, it is imperative for businesses to understand that the migration process may come with its own set of complexities. Before you take the giant leap, here is our attempt to help you make the best of the cloud migration process and achieve the lucrative benefits of cloud computing.
Here is a cloud migration checklist that should come in handy while undertaking the complex task of migrating your enterprise data and applications.
7-Step Cloud Migration Checklist
Here’s a quick overview of the 7-step cloud migration checklist: a structured guide designed to simplify your journey to the cloud.
From assessing readiness and controlling costs to choosing the right architecture, mitigating risks, and preparing your teams, this checklist ensures you cover every critical aspect of migration.
Gartner reports that 60% of organizations overspend their cloud budgets during migration, making it even more important to follow a well-defined roadmap for a secure, cost-effective, and future-ready transformation.
Step 1: Need Assessment and Analysis
The first step in your cloud migration checklist should be a thorough assessment of your readiness for the move and determining which parts of your infrastructure require migration. It’s not just the IT framework that needs evaluation—the entire business structure must be considered.
A key question to address is whether a particular application should be moved to the cloud at all. And if it should, how is it going to affect critical aspects like data security, disaster recovery, accessibility, and governance?
It’s equally important to identify which applications need uninterrupted access on a wider scale or if any need to be optimized before deploying them in the cloud. Accurate estimation of the resources to be used for data migration is also vital here, as over- or underestimation of capital required may hinder structuring the most appropriate data migration plan. Having said that, as your business objectives keep evolving, you might want to revisit and update your cloud strategy.
Step 2: Consider the Cloud Costs
Identifying cloud costs and keeping track of the same are crucial to measuring the performance of migration and realizing the much sought-after cost-effectiveness through application migration to the cloud.
At times, you may feel the burden of the enormous investment that migration to the cloud, all at once, demands. This can, however, be addressed if the migration process is carried out in batches. Spotting the applications that will yield the most profitable results when moved to the cloud and are comparatively easy to migrate should help you control costs.
Other notable factors that could influence your cloud cost structure include:
- Bandwidth and network costs
- Costs related to reskilling/upskilling the workforce
- Costs incurred while changing license models
Devising a well-calculated cloud costing model can save you the trouble of rushing into an extravagant cloud migration situation.
Step 3: Choose Your Cloud Architecture
While evaluating all possible options, consider the size of your workforce, the desired scalability of your applications, and how security and compliance may be impacted in the process.
- Public cloud: Most suitable when you are a mid-sized enterprise and looking to maximize scalability. However, for sensitive and business-critical data, the multi-tenant environment may not be ideal.
- Private cloud: Provides total control of your infrastructure with a dedicated cloud environment for your enterprise applications.
- Hybrid cloud: Best of both worlds. Security of sensitive data is retained, while applications can be scaled up when the demand arises.
- Multi-cloud: Suitable when you don’t wish to limit your options to a single vendor, leveraging differentiated services from multiple providers.
Step 4: Develop a Cloud Migration Strategy
Avoid confusing cloud strategy with a cloud implementation plan.
Your cloud migration strategy can be defined as an extension of your need analysis, based on which you can:
- Prioritize the applications to be migrated
- Identify the most suitable service provider
- Decide on timelines
- Chalk out a detailed cloud migration plan with your chosen partner
This strategy should project your core enterprise goals, aligned with cloud adoption, to enhance business benefits.
Step 5: Select the Right Solution/Migration Partner
At most times, enterprises may find it overwhelming to manage application cloud migration internally. Choosing a suitable service provider can be useful.
This collaboration should ideally cover the entire migration lifecycle—from a cloud readiness assessment and planning to actual implementation and support.
Factors to consider include:
- Compatibility in security and compliance standards
- Pricing structure and flexibility
- The provider’s level of availability and support
Remember: popularity alone should not be the deciding factor. Alignment with your enterprise objectives and expectations should be the key determinant.
Step 6: Evaluate Security Risks
You would never want a scenario where your data, sensitive or not, is widely exposed. Addressing data security while migrating to the cloud is essential. Negligence may lead to serious issues such as data exposure, cyberthreats, or ransomware attacks.
Enterprises with robust security in place can expect smoother transitions. However, a centralized system covering on-premises workloads may not sufficiently secure cloud-based applications. Revamping your security strategies—aligned with your provider’s features—is imperative.
Also, regulatory and compliance requirements must be examined before initiating the migration process. As your data is transmitted or stored across environments, familiarize yourself with international regulatory restrictions. This ensures compliance while adapting to varied regional requirements.
Step 7: Prepare the Team for the Shift
Now that you are ready for migrating legacy applications to the cloud, is your team prepared to use new technology?
The focus here should be on change management:
- Review your team’s current skill sets and reskill/upskill as needed
- Build a team of innovators trained in cloud environments
- Revisit responsibilities to align with new workflows
As this becomes natural, it will be easier to segregate professionals into specialized teams, enabling seamless cloud adoption.
Why a Checklist? Confidence and Clarity in Your Cloud Migration Journey
Although migrating to the cloud can be extensive and complicated, adhering to the points mentioned in our cloud migration checklist will bring you closer to the desired results.
The primary intent of this checklist is to boost the confidence of enterprises in embracing cloud migration and achieving improved enterprise outcomes. Another takeaway could be setting parameters to measure performance post-migration—such as data security, response times, disaster recovery agility, and downtime duration.
As technological advancements emerge daily, it is wise to stay updated with evolving cloud technologies and reap their full benefits.
Accelerate Your Transformation with Expert Cloud Migration Services
Moving to the cloud doesn’t have to be complex. With Hexaware’s services, you get a trusted partner to simplify, secure, and accelerate your journey. From modernizing legacy applications to building future-ready platforms, we help you unlock agility, cut costs, and create the foundation for long-term growth.
Now that you can depend on this checklist to proceed towards cloud migration, you may want to look at customizable cloud replatforming products and cloud migration automation tools designed for Java and .NET. Hexaware’s Amaze® for Cloud facilitates seamless replatforming by intelligently identifying the code that requires change.
Cloud migration automation with the Amaze® cloud transformation platform can save 50–60% of manual effort costs, enabling accelerated replatforming in just four weeks, with productivity improvements of up to 25%.
When such a comprehensive, secure, and future-proof solution is at your disposal, your application performance is only set to increase—helping you achieve greater business agility and positively impacting your ROI.
