We guide our clients through the various phases of their cloud migration: from initial consultation to the actual implementation of the migration, once the evaluations and analyses are complete. Especially during the preparations, there are numerous things to consider.
During preparations, which mainly involve cost analysis, process selection, and migration planning, it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive assessment. One can especially focus on the support programs offered by individual hyperscalers. For instance, if you opt for Amazon Web Services, abbreviated as AWS, the Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) is available, providing organisational and financial support for assessment, planning, and implementation.
The assessment essentially covers all relevant points that should be addressed. At the forefront are the costs, not just the cost savings from migrating from on-premise to a cloud environment, but primarily the long-term costs. You should directly address how to keep the ongoing cost factors as low as possible, for instance through cost-saving plans or reserved instances. This way, after the migration, you won't immediately shift into the next project titled 'Cost Optimization'.
What sources of error can be pointed out in particular for cloud migrations?
- Not investing enough time in the planning process: Once the decision to migrate to the cloud has been made, many companies want to get to the analysed benefits and added values quickly and demand rapid implementation of the migration. However, incomplete planning not only quickly catches up with you during implementation, but above all it is long-term potential that is not exploited or requires numerous follow-up projects.
- Exploit optimization potential despite "standard migration": Lift & Shift describes one of the "standard" migrations of an on-premise environment to the cloud without making optimizations to the infrastructure itself. This is referred to as a "standard migration" because it is one of the easiest ways to leverage cloud resources and many organisations consider this migration strategy to be the start of their cloud journey.
- A PoC is worthwhile when applied correctly: For certain applications, particularly in the legacy domain, it makes sense not to start directly with a migration but rather to take the time to do a Proof of Concept (PoC). For discussions on when a PoC is advisable, any cloud or AWS partner is well-placed to help you out. Your outcome after a PoC: a clearer overview of planning, preparation, costs, general resource allocation such as personnel, expertise, and the evidence that you have found the ideal cloud partner for the migration.
What are the biggest misconceptions when it comes to cloud migrations?
- "It's just the migration, after that I'm done!" — No, it's not "just" the migration. If you decide to implement an IT infrastructure in a cloud, you start a cloud journey. This journey does not end abruptly with the migration, but takes you further project by project and is permanently accompanied by the operation of your cloud environment. And as we all know, this operation never ends.
- "Public cloud is more expensive than my previous on-premise setups!" — Yes, it can be, but only if you start the migration with incomplete and rushed planning. During the analysis, Total Costs of Ownership are evaluated, meaning the cost of your on-premise setup compared to a cloud environment is assessed. Additionally, your individual applications are examined for rightsizing, to avoid unnecessary capacity and associated costs. Moreover, hidden costs such as electricity for your own data centre or the procurement and operation of VMware are often not included in a full calculation.
- "Public cloud is not secure!" — An absolute misconception. Each hyperscaler employs several hundred experts to ensure the security of their cloud. Large German data centres, on average, have about 20 security experts on staff. Imagine a successful hacker attack with global impact on hundreds of thousands of customers at Microsoft, Google, or AWS - these companies would hardly or at least not without long-term damage withstand such an event. The unconditional security of their environment is their secret to success.
Furthermore, there are numerous other factors that enhance the security of the environment: the option to choose a European or German data centre, proper configuration of your own AWS environment, competent account management, and much more!