IT environments are more complex and larger than ever before. A strategic approach is required to migrate IT assets and operations from existing IT environments to AWS.
Cloud customers must consider their licensing and existing infrastructure as well as their business drivers for migration. It is equally important to find an AWS partner who understands your business.
There is no one-size-fits all migration strategy. However, it is important to assess your readiness and to implement key procedures to ensure a smooth transition to cloud computing.
Rebura is a top AWS Consulting Partner and has helped many organizations move to the cloud. We have identified five core best practices in cloud migration that should be the foundation of any AWS migration strategy.
Let’s take a closer look at these steps to see how they fit in the overall picture.
#1 Define your business driversFirst, decide what you want from AWS cloud. This could be digital transformation, reduced operational cost, or increased productivity.
Depending on the stage of your business, the drivers for migration might include:
Increased business agility
Operational resilience and enhanced security
Innovation is faster and time to market is shorter
Cost savings
Operational resilience
App development and new technologies
Consolidation of datacenters
Productivity increases
Faster disaster recovery
Collaboration and work performance between teams has been improved
#2 Assess your current licensing situationConsider your licensing situation, too. Many software companies won’t allow users move their licenses from the on-premises to cloud. Publishers may restrict software use in certain areas. Failure to comply could result in heavy fines.
Licensing can take up a significant portion of your IT budget. No business can afford to spend money on something they don’t use or need. An AWS Optimization and Licensing Analysis (OLA), can help make a big difference.
AWS OLAs include a free assessment of your existing on-premise or cloud infrastructure and custom recommendations. The assessment will reveal exactly how much resources you are using for each type and what services you require, as well as the best ways to reduce costs. These insights will help you reduce licensing costs and improve your business efficiency.
The program allows users to create a migration proof of concept and simulate different scenarios. This allows them to calculate the cost of moving their licenses to the cloud, or switching to new services, and to identify savings opportunities.
#3 Understanding the AWS shared Responsibility ModelAWS uses a shared responsability model that means both AWS customers and AWS are jointly responsible for security compliance in the cloud.
Source: AWS
AWS protects the global infrastructure that supports it, and ensures the cloud environment is secure. This infrastructure includes software, hardware, as well as networking applications.
Security in the cloud is the responsibility of the user. It is up to you to take the necessary steps to secure your data, grant user permissions, and protect your workloads from malware and other forms of cybercrime.
#4 Work with an AWS certified partner
AWS partners go through extensive training and pass an exam to get their certification. They are familiar with all aspects of cloud migration, including workload placement, infrastructure performance, and cost estimates.
A single point of contact makes it easier to manage your cloud business operations and avoid technical issues.
#5 Establish post-migration performance metrics. Finally, ensure you have measurable success criteria to support your post-migration analysis. Establish cloud performa