In today’s complex business operations, the need for flexible, scalable, and cost-effective IT infrastructure has become crucial for their success. Cloud migration is essential for organizations looking to modernize their operations, improve efficiency, and stay competitive. By leveraging cloud migration, businesses can move their on-premises applications and unlock a range of advantages, including enhanced scalability, cost savings, and robust security, all while ensuring compliance with industry standards.

What is cloud migration?

Cloud migration involves moving an organization’s digital assets such as data, applications, and workloads from on-premises environments to the cloud or between different cloud platforms. This migration is a transformation that can significantly enhance a business’s operational agility and efficiency. Whether it’s a full or partial migration, cloud migration services enable businesses to utilize the cloud’s capabilities.

What are the types of cloud migration?

Several types of cloud migration strategies cater to different business and IT scenarios.

These include:

Rehosting (lift and shift): Moving applications to the cloud with minimal changes. This straightforward approach allows for a quick transition but may not fully leverage cloud benefits.
Refactoring: Modifying applications to better utilize cloud features. This often involves re-architecting applications to enhance performance and scalability.
Replatforming: Making minor adjustments to optimize applications for the cloud without changing their core architecture.
Solution Transitioning: A strategy combining on-premises and cloud resources, allowing businesses to migrate certain workloads to the cloud while keeping others on-premises.
Retaining (hybrid migration): Delivers software applications to end-users via the internet.
Retiring: Retiring refers to phasing out outdated or redundant applications and services that no longer provide value. This approach helps organizations streamline their IT portfolios and reduce maintenance costs by eliminating unnecessary resources.

Read about comparative analysis of cloud service models: IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

Cloud migration stages

Cloud migration is a complex, multi-phase journey that requires strategic planning and structured execution. While specific tools, technologies, and approaches may vary depending on the organisation’s needs and workloads, every successful migration typically follows these six core stages:

Define Strategy

The first step in any cloud migration is to establish a clear strategy. This involves understanding the why behind the migration — whether it’s to increase scalability, reduce costs, improve performance, ensure business continuity, or drive digital innovation.

During this stage:

Identify the business drivers and expected outcomes.
Assess current infrastructure and applications as well as future needs.
Identify the application dependencies, response time and connectivity needs
Determine which workloads should move to the cloud and why.
Choose the right cloud model (public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud).
Identify the data and application security and compliance needs
Set initial KPIs to measure success.

Read about public cloud vs. private cloud in depth and which is the right model for your business.

Plan

Once the strategy is defined, the next step is detailed planning. A robust migration plan ensures alignment between IT goals and broader business objectives.

This stage includes:

Performing a detailed workload and application inventory.
Identify the network architecture required to support the workload on the cloud
Identify the governance requirements and observability needs to support and maintain the infrastructure after the cloud migration
Identify the training needs of the IT personnel to run the infrastructure on the cloud
Define the testing strategy and test cases as well as rollback strategy in case problems arise.
Prioritising workloads based on business impact and technical feasibility.
Choosing the appropriate migration approach (e.g., rehost, refactor, rearchitect, rebuild, or replace).
Defining timelines, dependencies, and responsibilities.
Planning for data security, compliance, and business continuity.

Ready

Before the actual migration begins, it’s critical to prepare both the source (on-premises) and destination (cloud) environments.

Key activities during this phase include:

Conducting a readiness assessment of infrastructure, skills, and processes.
Setting up the landing zone in the cloud with network, identity, access, and governance structures.
Preparing the organisation by upskilling teams and establishing new operating models.
Performing test migrations or pilot projects to validate assumptions and processes.

Migrate

This is the execution phase, where workloads, applications, and data are moved to the cloud. The migration process should be seamless and minimally disruptive to operations.

Typical actions include:

Executing migration waves or batches based on the priority plan.
Using automation tools and migration frameworks to streamline the process.
Testing workloads in the cloud to ensure functionality and performance.
Addressing compatibility issues or optimisation needs post-migration.
Validating data integrity, connectivity, and user access post-deployment.

Govern

Once workloads are operational in the cloud, governance becomes essential to ensure security, compliance, and cost control.

Activities in this stage include:

Establishing guardrails for resource usage, permissions, and policy enforcement.
Setting up cost management and optimisation tools.
Implementing continuous monitoring for security threats and compliance risks.
Standardising tagging, auditing, and reporting mechanisms.
Aligning governance frameworks with business and regulatory requirements.

Manage

Cloud management is an ongoing process that ensures workloads remain optimised, secure, and cost-effective.

This stage focuses on:

Monitoring performance, availability, and user experience.
Continuously optimising cloud resources and scaling as needed.
Automating operations and incorporating DevOps practices.
Managing backups, disaster recovery, and incident response.
Regularly reviewing and refining the cloud environment based on evolving business needs.

What are the benefits of cloud migration ?

Scalability: One of the key benefits of cloud migration is the ability to scale IT resources according to business needs. Cloud environments offer unmatched flexibility, allowing businesses to quickly adapt to changing demands.
Cost efficiency: Moving to the cloud can lead to significant cost reductions by eliminating the need for large upfront investments in hardware and software as well as continuous updates and upgrades of the infrastructure along with maintaining a dedicated relatively large manpower in-house to make sure uninterrupted services. The solution allows businesses to optimize their IT spending by only paying for the resources they use.
Added security: Cloud providers offer advanced security features, including data encryption and compliance with industry regulations, ensuring that your data remains secure during and after migration.
Improved agility: Cloud migration enables rapid deployment of applications and services, allowing businesses to respond quickly to market changes and customer needs. A well thought out cloud migration approach facilitates this agility by streamlining the migration as well as lifecycle management of the applications on the cloud.
Business continuity: Cloud migration enhances disaster recovery and business continuity by providing flexible and reliable backup and recovery options, ensuring minimal disruption in the event of an IT failure.

Learn more about how your organization can make the transition from on-premises to cloud using Sify’s cloud migration services.

How does the cloud migration process work?

The cloud migration process typically involves several critical steps. Here’s a look at the key steps and how Sify simplifies it for organizations:

Assessment and planning: This initial phase involves evaluating the current and future business demands and existing IT infrastructure, identifying workloads suitable for migration, and selecting the appropriate cloud migration strategy. This is a critical step which requires involvement of business as well as IT to work together to create a future ready IT transformation to cloud.
Migration execution: This step covers the actual transfer of data, applications, and workloads to the cloud. Sify’s cloud migration services ensure a smooth and secure transition, minimizing disruptions to business operations. This often requires a phased and a multi-step approach to ensure least disruption to the business.
Post-migration monitoring and optimization: After the migration, it’s essential to optimize the cloud environment for performance and cost-efficiency. Sify’s cloud migration services provide the necessary tools to monitor, manage, and optimize your cloud infrastructure.

What are the challenges of cloud migration ?

While cloud migration offers numerous benefits, it also presents several challenges.

Data security: Protecting transit data during migration is critical. Ensuring that all data is encrypted and compliant with regulations is a top priority in cloud migration.
Downtime and business disruption: The migration process can cause temporary downtime. Careful planning and phased execution are essential to minimize disruption.
Compatibility issues: Legacy applications may require modification or re-architecture to function effectively in a cloud environment. Addressing these compatibility issues is a key aspect of successful cloud migration.
Complexity: Managing the complexities of cloud migration, especially in large enterprises with intricate IT environments, requires expertise and the right tools.

Sify’s cloud migration services

Sify provides comprehensive cloud migration services designed to address the unique needs of businesses across various industries. With a focus on minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency, Sify ensures that your cloud migration is seamless and secure.

Cloud advisory services: Sify’s expert advisory services help businesses assess their current IT infrastructure and develop a tailored cloud migration strategy. Our cloud framework ensures a well-planned and executed migration.
Seamless migration execution: Sify uses advanced tools and technologies to manage the entire migration process, from planning to execution, ensuring minimal downtime and disruption. Our expertise in cloud migration makes the transition smooth and secure.
Post-migration optimization: After completing the migration, Sify offers ongoing management and optimization services to ensure your cloud environment remains efficient and cost-effective. Our cloud management platform provides the necessary tools to monitor, manage, and optimize your cloud infrastructure.
Security and compliance: Sify prioritizes security at every stage of the migration, implementing robust measures to protect your data and ensure compliance with industry standards.

Sify’s cloud migration services ensure secure, agile, and cost-effective transitions tailored to your business operations. Read how Sify enabled a seamless SAP migration from on-prem to AWS for a leading conglomerate, resulting in improved performance and scalability.

Conclusion

Cloud migration offers a transformative opportunity for businesses to modernize their IT infrastructure, reduce operational costs, and improve scalability and agility. However, a successful migration requires more than just the right tools. It demands expert guidance and strategic execution.

By carefully planning the migration process, addressing potential challenges, and leveraging the right strategies with the support of a trusted partner, organizations can achieve a seamless transition to the cloud. This move not only enhances business efficiency but also positions companies to better respond to changing market demands.

Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more about how our cloud migration services can help your business achieve a seamless and secure transition to the cloud.