Cloud Migration: Your Path to the Cloud in Four Steps

With the shift to the cloud, organisations must undergo a paradigm change and carefully consider how they want to consume and use IT resources in the future. One in three companies already has experience with cloud migration projects. It is no longer a question of whether adopting a cloud platform makes sense, but rather how to successfully navigate the path to the cloud.

In this article, you’ll learn what to look out for when migrating to the cloud. Follow a step-by-step guide with valuable insights and practical tips to support your implementation.

What Is Cloud Migration?

A migration (from the Latin migratio, meaning “relocation”) refers to a process of transitioning IT systems in the field of information technology. In this context, cloud migration describes the process of moving data and applications from on-premises systems to the cloud.

Cloud Transformation as a Challenge for Organisations

While moving from existing applications to cloud-native services can often be straightforward, migrating business-critical, highly customised and integrated applications is considerably more complex and requires thorough planning. Organisations should therefore prepare their cloud migration carefully and plan comprehensively. In particular, the expected benefits of cloud services should be evaluated in advance.

Overview: Your Step-by-Step Guide to a Successful Cloud Migration

• Step 1: Assess your current technology landscape and the potential of the cloud
• Step 2: Develop your cloud strategy and select a cloud provider
• Step 3: Define your migration approach and successfully execute the cloud migration
• Step 4: Establish your cloud provider management and regularly review your progress

Step 1: Assess Your Current Technology Landscape and the Potential of the Cloud

To ensure a successful migration to the cloud, organisations should carry out a thorough analysis of their existing IT environment. The primary goal should be to prioritise key areas and evaluate the cost-effectiveness of each application. This phase is crucial, as it forms the foundation for every further step you will take along your cloud journey.

Current State Observation: Comprehensive “As-Is” Analysis

A successful start in the cloud begins with a solid assessment of your current IT organisation. Moving to the cloud means entering a new ecosystem of providers and services. The analysis involves evaluating the cloud readiness of existing applications and grouping them according to performance requirements, complexity, security constraints and their interactions with other systems.

What Should You Consider During an As-Is Analysis?

The analysis must be comprehensive and should not only cover technological aspects—such as infrastructure, architecture, applications and subsystems—but also organisational and commercial considerations.

From an operational perspective, compliance, security and data protection requirements pose additional challenges. When it comes to databases, which form the backbone of many applications, organisations must consider how availability, performance and licensing can be ensured in the cloud. Contract specialists often face the difficulty of determining when and whether new licences need to be obtained.

Key Areas of an As-Is Analysis at a Glance

The following topic areas should be examined during an as-is analysis:

• Status quo
• IT organisation
• IT strategy
• IT budget
• IT service strategy, service design and service operations
• IT operations
• IT contracts and licences
• IT infrastructure and applications

From Analysis to Cloud Strategy: Prioritise Your Applications

Based on the as-is analysis, the next step is to identify in detail which applications, data and processes can already be migrated to the cloud. You should also assess their criticality, degree of standardisation and integration capability. Once this information is available, clear priorities can be derived. A precise assessment of your starting point is therefore essential for an effective cloud deployment.

The results of the analysis form the foundation for a comprehensive cloud strategy. In the next step, develop a concrete project plan that outlines workflows, milestones, KPIs and potential risks.

Step 2: Develop a Cloud Strategy and Choose the Right Cloud Provider

Flexibility, short provisioning times and convenient usage at lower investment and operating costs: the cloud promises a great deal. However, the economic and technological benefits you can actually realise depend heavily on your strategy. Cloud migration is, above all, a strategic business decision. By adopting cloud services, your IT landscape shifts from an exclusive on-premise environment to a new (hybrid) setup.

To develop your target cloud architecture, you must determine which cloud applications will deliver the greatest value, considering effort, benefit and risk. It is important to critically examine the various aspects of your current IT strategy and make the necessary adjustments.

Developing a Target Architecture Using the Cloud Deployment and Delivery Model

Once you begin defining your cloud strategy, the question of the right deployment model quickly arises. Should your applications be operated in a public cloud, private cloud or a hybrid setup in the future?

Private Cloud, Public Cloud or Hybrid Cloud?

While customers retain a degree of control and influence within a private cloud, public cloud environments operate according to market standards set by providers. There is no one-size-fits-all solution here. For this reason, the deployment model should always be considered on an application-specific basis.

Similarly, your organisational structure and business purpose play a crucial role in determining the degree of vertical integration (delivery model) within the cloud. You can choose between IaaS, PaaS or SaaS solutions:

At this point in your cloud migration journey, you are defining key parameters for the future design of your IT landscape: Which applications are you willing to transition to cloud-native standard solutions (SaaS), even if this may come with certain performance limitations? And where is it essential to fully migrate business-critical applications?

At the same time, the cloud solution must be integrated and orchestrated within your existing IT environment. Set clear requirements regarding the legal and regulatory standards that must be met in terms of cloud compliance (data protection and security). Last but not least, define exit scenarios to ensure that applications, data and business continuity remain secure at all times – even if you decide to withdraw from a cloud service.

Total Cost of Ownership: Perform a Comprehensive Cost–Benefit Analysis

A cost–benefit assessment is indispensable when defining a cloud strategy. Organisations may take different approaches to determine the profitability of their cloud initiatives. This includes considering the impact on operating costs, savings in capital expenditure and the costs of specialised personnel. Beyond the classic cloud advantages, the shift in cost structure should also be taken into account: fixed capital investments (CAPEX) are replaced by variable, ongoing operational costs (OPEX). A cloud solution can therefore become a strategic factor in financial and investment planning and enable balance sheet flexibility.

Evaluating the Full Costs of Cloud Initiatives

Gain transparency on the pricing models of public cloud services (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and compare them with traditional outsourcing options. Pay particular attention to storage. Storage costs can increase linearly or even exponentially – regardless of the model chosen.

Selecting the right storage tier, based on performance and replication requirements, is crucial for cost efficiency. To maximise success and avoid setbacks, it is essential to evaluate the total cost of cloud initiatives (including redesign, redevelopment and migration efforts) before embarking on your cloud journey.

Cloud Provider Selection: Finding the Right Cloud Provider

Once your strategy has been defined, the next step is to choose the right cloud service providers. Here too, your choice may vary depending on the applications concerned.

Single Cloud or Multi-Cloud?

A multi-cloud approach involves combining several cloud services and using multiple cloud providers in parallel. Overviews and evaluations of cloud service providers can be found in studies such as Crisp Research (2018), “Cloud-Computing-Anbieter & -Dienstleister im Vergleich.”
When selecting a cloud provider, ensure that the functionalities of the cloud service meet the requirements defined earlier. Carefully examine each potential provider and their offerings in terms of features, availability, pricing, SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and data protection and security before making a decision.

Cloud Security as a Key Decision-Making Factor

Each target platform has its own strengths and weaknesses. To maintain an overview, organisations should define specific requirements that support the selection process. Compliance requirements in cloud sourcing are not new and largely mirror those found in traditional IT outsourcing. The cloud market has long responded to various risk scenarios and now promotes trust through certifications, standards and security seals. Cloud security remains a top priority.

There is still some work ahead of you – but it is well worth taking each step carefully. At the end of Phase Two of your cloud migration journey, you are now equipped with a comprehensive cloud strategy (including cost–benefit scenarios) and well prepared to select the appropriate service provider. In the next stage of your journey, you’ll learn how to put your cloud migration strategy into action.

Step 3: From Lift-and-Shift to Full Rebuild – Finding the Right Strategy

There is no single “cloud”. Once your cloud strategy is defined and your provider selected, the real work begins: planning the migration of each application. Depending on your operating model and desired cloud solution, a migration plan will outline the target architecture of your cloud solution in detail and the steps required to transfer your data and processes to a cloud service.

Develop Your Cloud Migration Strategy

The goal of this third phase in the cloud migration journey is to develop actionable recommendations for a detailed migration plan for the applications under consideration. This plan should account for dependent activities and milestones. Choosing the right approach always depends on your business domain, cloud strategy, and the applications in question.

Four Key Questions to Define Your Cloud Migration Approach

Keep the following questions in mind when selecting your approach:

1. How much knowledge and experience do you already have with cloud migrations?
2. How many resources are available for migrating the applications?
3. How quickly do you want or need to migrate to the cloud?
4. What level of risk are you prepared to accept?

SaaS as the Preferred Option

Before planning a complex migration of an application, check the market for an alternative Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. Determine whether its functionality meets your business requirements. If no suitable SaaS solution exists, then proceed to prepare for the migration of your application.

The Four Cloud Migration Approaches at a Glance

Forrester Research distinguishes four primary migration approaches, which are often combined in practice:

1. Lift-and-Shift

When organisations want to migrate quickly, the “lift-and-shift” method is frequently chosen. This approach essentially moves applications to the cloud without modifying the code, leveraging the infrastructure components of the cloud provider. Migration tools perform minor automated infrastructure conversions, while changes to the application itself are minimal.

In this method, a virtual machine (VM) is treated like a black box and copied piece by piece. Lift-and-shift allows a fast and resource-efficient migration, reducing on-premises infrastructure costs in the short term. However, the application is not optimised for the cloud, meaning benefits such as speed, agility and scalability cannot be fully realised. Lift-and-shift is typically used for standard, unmodified applications.

2. Lift-and-Extend

According to Forrester Research, this is the most common method. In the lift-and-extend approach, applications are adapted to the cloud provider’s platform (PaaS) and re-hosted in a public cloud. This allows organisations to continuously enhance and, if necessary, fundamentally modify their applications. It is suitable for both custom-built and standard software.

Unlike lift-and-shift, this approach involves some recoding to take advantage of cloud infrastructure. It provides a balanced middle ground, enabling organisations to benefit from basic cloud functionality and cost optimisation, at least partially.

Hybrid Extension

Instead of fully transferring applications to the cloud, hybrid extension allows you to augment existing applications with cloud resources. New functions are added in the cloud, while the majority of existing functions remain on-premises or in a hosted private cloud. Latency must be considered, as it depends on the physical distance between locations.

Hybrid cloud extension provides a secure hybrid connection, allowing you to expand internal applications while leveraging additional computing and storage capacity without changing your network or security configurations. This is a fast, low-risk approach to shifting capacity to the cloud without modifying operating systems or the applications themselves.

Full Rebuild

The final option is to completely redevelop applications in the cloud. Applications are designed using cloud-native frameworks and features to fully exploit the advantages of cloud computing. Because redevelopment is resource- and time-intensive, organisations should consider this only for selected business-critical systems. It is essential to assess whether the high investment in redevelopment is justified.

Technically, custom applications are broken down into scalable components and recoded in the cloud. While this approach requires significant investment, it allows you to fully leverage cloud-native functionality and achieve maximum cost efficiency.

Comparing the Four Cloud Migration Approaches

The comparison of migration approaches demonstrates that there is no ultimate solution for moving applications to the cloud. Each method has its advantages, disadvantages and associated risks. You may even use more than one approach if you plan to migrate multiple applications. Understanding your company’s priorities, circumstances, and the specifics of each application will help you make the right decision.

Master the Cloud Migration

These considerations show that organisations need to clarify far more than just preferred services or data centre locations before starting a migration. Once you have developed a detailed migration plan, based on your cloud strategy and the decision to migrate a particular application—with milestones, activities and dependencies for each application—you are ready to start the actual migration. Pay close attention to interfaces, information flows, and processes that must be interconnected.

What If the File Is Too Large for Migration?

Cloud provider tools can help you move data both into and out of storage. Objects such as files can usually be migrated with native tools without issue. If your data exceeds the capacity of conventional migration tools, import/export options are available, allowing you to ship physical drives with local data to the cloud data centres.

It is generally recommended to test and pilot migrations thoroughly before transferring an application fully to the cloud. During migration, have a contingency plan in place. Ensure that workloads run according to the plan before decommissioning your local infrastructure. Perform drilldowns to verify that backup and disaster recovery solutions behave as expected.

Once the migration is successfully completed, you have taken a major step towards the cloud. The next phase explains why establishing cloud provider management is essential and how to iteratively measure your cloud’s success.

Step 4: Establish Cloud Provider Management and Iteratively Measure Cloud Success

The cloud allows organisations to make IT infrastructure and applications available faster and more flexibly. However, moving to the cloud also brings additional responsibilities for both procurement and management of cloud services.

Common Challenges in Cloud Transformation

Managing cloud services can quickly become complex because:

• Organisations often source services from multiple public and private clouds.
• Companies collaborate with different providers.
• Various user groups access cloud services.
• Cloud usage must comply with security and regulatory requirements.

Having identified your cloud potential, developed a strategy and planned the migration, the final step is to understand why effective provider management is necessary and why it requires organisational change.

If You Fail, Fail Fast – Iteratively Measure Success and Draw Lessons Early

Cloud management should be considered from the very beginning of your cloud journey. Why?

As a permanent part of the sourcing strategy, cloud sourcing expands the scope of provider management. With increasing depth of operations in the cloud, opportunities for direct control and oversight of cloud services shift. Organisations must anticipate that using multiple cloud operating models will be more the norm than the exception. This means you are likely to work with various providers, each with their own contracts, service catalogues, and support models.

This diversity of services and providers naturally impacts administrative effort. IT organisations must adapt from running internal systems to managing cloud services provided externally. This requires the establishment of cloud-specific governance models.

For this reason, it is essential to implement cost control specifically for cloud initiatives. The goal is to establish reliable oversight despite different billing models, metrics, and pricing structures.

Finding the Right Cloud Provider

Operating in a multi-cloud environment adds even greater complexity. Cost structures from different cloud providers are often not directly comparable. Each provider offers its own management tools, which are rarely compatible with each other. Unified Performance Management (UPM) tools provide a practical solution for monitoring all cloud components. A comprehensive list of such UPM providers is available, for example, in the extensive cloud study by Crisp Research.

What Requirements Should a Cloud Service Provider Meet?

It is important to assess whether cloud management and automation tools can help reduce complexity when sourcing and using services across different operating models. Cloud provider management is typically far more automated than in traditional IT outsourcing. As a result, your cloud management team usually needs to work within the provider’s standard monitoring framework, with limited flexibility.

Flexibility: The Key to a Successful Cloud Transformation Journey

Your organisation must be prepared for the responsibilities of cloud provider management. Moving to the cloud changes not only the operating model but also your internal organisation, requiring adjustments to internal processes. Regardless of which cloud management approach your company chooses, you must be ready to constantly review old practices and embrace new ways of working. Cloud services deliver their full value primarily when they are used flexibly.

Cloud Monitoring: Define Metrics and Benchmarks

Set your own metrics to measure not only costs but also the overall success of your cloud initiatives. This allows you to learn from your cloud projects and derive actionable recommendations for the future.

What Matters in Cloud Monitoring?

In addition to defining scope and goals during the strategy phase, ongoing measurement of progress is essential. Metrics can help create transparency and provide insights. For example, track:

• Time: planned effort vs. actual effort
• Quality: expected errors vs. actual errors
• Budget: planned costs vs. actual costs

These indices make it possible to present and review the health of your cloud initiatives at any time. Regular reviews also help identify issues early so that corrective actions can be taken promptly.

Conclusion: Cloud Migration Journey – Step by Step to a Successful Cloud Adoption

Looking back at the IDG Cloud Migration study (2018), companies generally report a positive experience with their cloud migration projects. 94% of respondents consider the move to the cloud worthwhile.

Our step-by-step guide provides a clear overview of the necessities, requirements, and options in the cloud. The journey to the cloud must be thoroughly planned and carefully prepared. Given the complexity, it is advisable not to migrate your entire IT environment at once. Instead, take a pragmatic approach and identify which bits and bytes actually contribute to the flexibility required to implement change effectively.

Evaluating the technical components of the cloud is necessary but not sufficient. Broaden your perspective and ask strategic questions about which services and new business models could be realised with cloud solutions in the future. Be creative and consider data-driven or even disruptive business models.

Start your personal paradigm shift today and begin the journey to the cloud with your organisation.