If the cloud is a destination you have planned for any of your enterprise workloads, then you need to be prepared to navigate the journey that is the cloud migration process. It’s not unlike planning for a physical trip to a fabulous destination (or maybe we’re just really really ready to start traveling again). Either way, we’ve got some travel tips to ensure that your cloud-bound workloads have a great trip.
Determine the purpose of the journey.
There’s a big difference between a vacation and a business trip. And even within the category of vacation, there are lots of different potential objectives. Do you want to read on a beach all day long? Or would you prefer to fill your holiday with museums and restaurants and culture? Or maybe you’re happiest active and in nature. It’s the same with the cloud. You’re not going to undertake the effort of moving workloads into the cloud just for the sake of being in the cloud—you’re doing it because it will enable you to accomplish something specific for your business. You need to start your cloud journey by setting your cloud migration goals and priorities.
Select your destination.
Once you know the purpose of the journey, you need to determine exactly where you want to go. Florida, Majorca, or Fiji? NYC, Paris, or Tokyo? Skiing the Alps, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, or kayaking down the Amazon River? Likewise, there are private clouds and public clouds—not to mention a variety of cloud service providers to choose from. And don’t forget on premises, because that may be the best spot for certain workloads (staycation, anyone?).
Choose your transportation.
Another choice you have to make is how you’ll be traveling. Depending on where you’re going, you may have options on planes, trains, automobiles, and boats to get you there. “How?” is also an important question on your cloud journey. You can get from here to the cloud via rehosting (AKA lift and shift), replatforming, refactoring, replacing, or rebuilding, and the option you choose will have a significant impact on the effort, timeline, budget, skills, and other important factors required.
Understand local conditions.
Before you set off on your journey, you need to know certain things about your destination—such as the weather, currency, language, etc.—so you’re prepared to interact and transact easily when you get there. Similarly, before you migrate your workloads, you need to understand how they will behave in the new cloud environment to ensure you’re getting the benefits of the journey without sacrificing performance or incurring higher-than-expected costs.
Pack smartly.
Deciding what to bring with you on your trip, and where to put it, requires some planning. You don’t want to overpack and then lug around a heavy suitcase full of stuff, but you also don’t want to travel too light and be missing some necessities. And where you put it matters; for example, it would be a big mistake to pack your passport in the suitcase you plan to check. Your cloud journey also requires an intelligent, prioritized plan. This means that before migrating your workloads to the cloud, you need to put them into the right move groups.
Plan for contingencies.
Savvy travelers think through potential problems before departure day and have backup strategies in place. Examples include bringing an umbrella in case it rains, keeping photocopies of their passport in the event it gets lost or stolen, bringing a letter from their doctor describing any medications they take translated into the local language, or even opting for travel insurance. You also want to understand the potential challenges of cloud migration and have a plan to avoid those pitfalls.
Virtana is with you every step of the way on your cloud journey.
Virtana can help you get hybrid cloud migration right the first time, every time. Virtana Migrate, powered by Virtana Observe, provides you with full visibility into existing on-premises workloads and the tools to make the best decisions about application priorities, grouping, and deployments so you can plan smarter and get cloud migrations right the first time, every time. Request a free trial
Mark Heslop
Director of Product Marketing, Virtana
