5 Tips on How To Build a Great Cloud Migration Roadmap

Written by Susan Craig

Just like any other complex project, cloud migration implies much more than just moving workloads. Its successful application allows companies to enhance the workflow, increase agility and boost the process's efficiency. Furthermore, that’s a great solution for setting up a secure working environment that enables employees to work anytime from anywhere.

With a clear cloud migration plan, companies can easily move their on-premises data center and infrastructure to the cloud system. In this article, we’ll uncover the best practices of how to successfully and effortlessly create the cloud migration roadmap for your business.

Best Practices for Building a Roadmap to the Cloud

According to Gartner’s recent survey of 2020, over 80% of cloud move strategies claim a lack of internal skills and knowledge as the main barriers to the business migration’s success. That is why, to make the most of your cloud migration strategy, you should pay attention to the following aspects:

#1 Line Up Clear Objectives

First of all, it’s essential to estimate the real value of cloud migration for your business. The major steps needed for the so-called UVP are:

• Conducting research for understanding the different uses of cloud migration and how they can benefit your organization
• Aligning the main IT goals
• Estimating the financial point of the cloud migration process
• Defining the step-by-step actions of the data migration
• Understanding the team readiness, analyzing the priorities, and finding the most effective vendor
• Setting up clear data and metrics for the progress tracking

#2 Create the Migration Plan

The second stage of a step-by-step cloud migration process is its planning. A clear plan of action is essential in any business. It minimizes the possible risks of unforeseen situations during the migration process and allows you to identify all vulnerabilities in the system. Write down each step that you are going to take and think over the sequence of manipulations. If you can't handle creating the plan yourself, you can hire a specialist migration provider who has written it hundreds of times and will definitely be able to help.

#3 Set Up the Cloud Migration Process

To make sure the process will go according to the agreed-upon plan, migration experts recommend assigning a project manager. This person will be responsible for the entire cloud migration of your business, can suggest the most effective strategies as well as optimize the workflow, and also keep you updated about the progress and changes.

Besides, it’s a great option to build the cloud migration runbook - the process outline that enables a clear tracking of the progress for everyone involved in the migration. This way you’ll ensure the team is working for the same objectives and is aware of the current state of affairs.

Last but not least, set up check-ins to systemize the progress tracking. This can be organized in the form of meetings, online calls or emails, and is greatly beneficial for delivering the latest updates and voicing the specific issues that may arise during the migration process.

#4 Minimize Workflow Disruptions

To ensure the successful cloud migration of your company or organization, minimizing the risks of different problems is a must for establishing robust processes. For this purpose, create a specific governance plan, the objectives of which are:

• the peer review of sensitive data, its analytics, and monitoring
• ensuring system security with various tools
• the systematic reports regarding the issues and tactics for their resolving

This step will help you to set up a clear and effective troubleshooting algorithm that will enable the lossless and resource-efficient migration of your business to the cloud system.

#5 Optimize and Scale Your Cloud System

The final step of cloud migration implies evaluating and developing the workflow performance of your business within the cloud system solution you’ve employed so far. For example, you can try investing in advanced cloud strategies and implement them into your business to boost its KPI.

Also, professional cloud migration experts recommend looking for further cloud optimization opportunities (for instance, look for the benefits you and your business can get after the resource allocation). This will help to achieve the core business goals and deliver the best performance results for your business improvement.

With these strategies employed, you’ll certainly succeed in creating the most effective cloud migration roadmap for your business!