How to organize a cloud migration roadmap

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Based on our experience since 2015 in migrations to the cloud primarily of SAP solutions, we have observed that it is important to consider the following elements when designing this process.

1. Understand how the cloud adds value

First and fundamental is to realize that the cloud’s value is related with innovation, flexibility and speed. Second, that operating from the cloud implies you can purchase on demand capacity, in contrast to older architectures where the infrastructure had to be purchased initially, according to the projected capacity for a certain number of years, having to pay for idle capacity during the early stages of this period.

The 6 following items may be done in parallel and are all required for item 7.

2. Applications and services assessment

Evaluate and determine the feasibility of migrating to the cloud, bearing in mind the interdependency and interaction between applications and IT services. It is also important to identify contract restrictions, business obligations, etc.

3. Define the migration strategy

The migration strategy must take into consideration:

a. Define phases: there is usually no need to do a Big Bang style migration, but an incremental approach is preferred. For this, you must identify which groups of applications and services may be migrated in bundles.

b. Define a technical migration strategy for every application, according to how each one may be migrated. Some may be migrated as is, and others must be modified or might need upgrades, while some are not supported by the cloud. Therefore, it is vital to make decisions about what to do, or evaluate if they may be substituted by SaaS, among other things.

4. Proof of Concept tests

If there are any doubts about the behavior of certain components in the cloud, or if they relate to sensitive matters, carrying out proof of concept tests is a healthy measure. This is a common step along this road to evaluate different alternatives and include the necessary adjustments in order to comply with the business’ or organization’s requirements.

5. Business case

Developing the business case is highly recommended to reach consensus about the problem that is to be solved by migrating to the cloud, the impact this will have in processes and in the company’s revenues, as well as ascertain the alternatives and the expected benefits, in order to be able to determine the projected return on investment (ROI).

6. Develop skills

First, the team’s required skills, capabilities and knowledge must be determined, and then decide how to obtain the lacking expertise. You may choose to train the company’s own staff or hire an external service; however, a mixed solution is the most common approach.

7. Migrate

Once the previous elements have been defined the migration may begin, usually starting with the easiest and most valuable, leaving the most complex until last.

8. Optimization and conversion

An application may be migrated as is, and later be redesigned for optimization. For example, a more efficient DR (Disaster Recovery) scheme could be implemented, or something that is already operating in the cloud may be rebuilt to add a new feature.

9. Define a governance model

In order to achieve the desired results, a model and cost control policies must be put in place to balance the flexibility offered by the cloud.

10. Innovate

Once all the above elements have been defined, consider making the most of what the cloud platform has to offer in terms of innovation, such as IoT, Big Data, Analytics, etc., or even substituting legacy applications by microservices.

Related Notes:

• Renovate hardware or migrate to a public cloud?