Cloud migration enables organisations of all sizes to transform how they do business by accelerating operational speed, removing the constraints of on-premises data centres, and reducing data centre operational costs. Our AWS cloud migration strategies guide outlines the benefits and processes.
The key to successful cloud migration is a robust and compelling business case that clearly identifies specific business benefits an organisation will achieve by migrating to cloud services. A robust migration strategy is the key, and AWS provides a 5-phase migration process with 7 common strategies.
Build a Business Case for Cloud Transformation
Initially, organisations must build a business case before using a migration framework. A robust and thorough business case is critical to justify why your organisation needs a migration strategy. The core of building a business case for cloud migration is to determine the outcome for the organisation.
What to Consider When Building a Migration Business Case
What advantage do you want to gain from a cloud migration strategy? For example, your IT team will spend significantly less time managing on-premise infrastructure and upgrades, which in turn, removes the need for large upfront investments in hardware and software or managing ongoing maintenance.
Pulsion partners with AWS to ensure clients can create a strong business case for cloud migration based on sound planning and preparation. This helps to accurately determine the cost of the current on-premise data centre, the anticipated costs of the cloud migration, and the costs of a new AWS solution.
Building the business case provides answers to some key questions, including:
- What is the estimated Return on Investment (ROI)?
- When will the project provide a positive cash flow?
- What are some other business value benefits of cloud adoption, beyond cost savings?
- What is the potential business impact of migrating a select group of applications first?
- What factors help determine if a hybrid cloud solution would be the best option?
- What indicators are used to estimate how long the process will take?
- Which key performance indicators (KPIs) can measure the progress and success of cloud migration strategies?
Building the business case for cloud migration is an important step. As the process evolves, you’ll be able to consider the many ways this transformation will impact the overall organisation for the better.
AWS Cloud Value Framework (CVF) for a Data-Driven Migration Business Case
Organisations can create a data-driven migration business case with the AWS cloud value framework. The more comprehensive migration framework for calculating the cloud value for a business case can help organisations determine whether they’ll improve ROIs and estimate the initial investments.
Additionally, the AWS cloud value framework focuses on five pillars, not only ROIs and investment costs. Amazon Web Services (AWS) allows an organisation to build a business case that focuses on cost savings (TCO), staff productivity, operational resilience, business continuity (agility), and sustainability.
Proven Advantages When Organisations Leverage Cloud Native Capabilities
A faster time to market, improved productivity, and greater transparency into operational costs are some of the most common reasons our customers migrate to AWS. Other frequent business drivers are increased operational agility that enables the organisation to react to changing market conditions.
Firstly, a recent Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) report revealed that organisations save up to 66% TCO by migrating an on-premises data centre to AWS cloud infrastructure. Additionally, the report found a 66% reduction in networking costs and a 69% reduction in storage costs.
The report also found that organisations improved productivity and operational efficiency, reduced business risks, and enhanced business agility. Meanwhile, the Baker Hughes Case Study shows how the company had a 40% reduction in HPC costs and improved operational speeds by 26%.
Furthermore, the Pos Malaysia Case Study reveals how the business reduced downtime by 100%, sped up the time to market by 80% for new products, and reduced IT infrastructure costs by 50%. Finally, the Hackett Group published the following business value advantages since migrating to the AWS cloud:
- 43% faster time to market for new products, features, and functionality
- 66% productivity increase for administrative tasks
- 20% overall cost reduction for infrastructure and core architecture
- 45% reduction in security incidents and cyber threats
- 29% improvement in staff innovation focus
How to Build a Data-Driven Business Case With AWS
Building a data-driven business case for AWS cloud computing migration outlines the best strategy for migrating legacy systems, whether organisations need cloud-native capabilities, and operational and technical incompatibilities to ensure clients remain seamlessly connected during migration projects. Our digital strategy consultants can guide organisations through the 3-step business case preparation.
Step 1 – Cloud Migration Strategy Data Collection
A cloud migration team can help organisations gather data from an on-premises platform, including the typical operational and configuration constructs for service-oriented architecture or the workload’s existing storage. Provide cloud providers and teams with the following data to help quantify other pillars:
- Organisational annual revenue
- Number of employees
- Workloads percentage
- On-premises data centre location
Step 2 – Cloud Migration Strategy Analysis
Next, the cloud provider or migration team will analyse the data for estimated data centre operational costs and the potential to reduce costs when migrating workloads using distributed load balancing to ensure workloads remain intact, especially for business-critical workloads.
Step 3 – Cloud Computing Results Review
Finally, our cloud providers migration team will present the results in graphs and diagrams to show the cloud instance for different strategies. Enterprises typically decide to migrate vendor-based applications, other software, and inefficient legacy frameworks or platforms based on quantitative data.
The data shows a positive business case with possible outcomes both negative and positive to meet the five pillars of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) framework, after which the preparation for the actual migration strategy begins in the 5-phase process.
The AWS 5-Phase Migration Process
The 5-phase cloud migration process built by AWS guides an organisation through the migration of tens, hundreds, and even thousands of applications. This is a way to envision the key milestones throughout the cloud migration journey. Our cloud expertise enables our team to guide organisations through the 5-phase process. Contact us to discuss expert teams doing this process for your business.
Phase 1 – Assess: Streamline Business & Migration Planning With A CCoE Team
Developing a sound business case required taking business objectives into account, along with the age and architecture of existing applications and any constraints as outlined by the quantitative data. It’s the cornerstone of migration planning using AWS services and cloud-native capabilities.
Engaged leadership, frequent communication, and purpose clarity with aggressive but realistic goals and timelines encourage an entire organisation to get on board and support the decision to migrate. The data from the business case should help teams and leaders pursue migration to cloud environments.
Here’s a breakdown of data required for the migration team during the process:
- Business goals and objectives for the migration strategy (based on data from the business case)
- Well-defined technical requirements for application migration with app and data constraints
- Estimated cloud migration costs and the opportunities for higher ROIs with estimated timelines
- A priority list of application migration data and workloads, including migrating additional workloads
Interestingly, a Project Management Report reveals that project overruns typically occur because of changing project scopes or objectives during implementation (56%), unanticipated risks or dependencies (46%), and inaccurate cost projections (39%). Ensure the scope is well-defined for teams.
Next, establish a Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE) team to build and maintain support from the entire organisation throughout the cloud migration project in phase one. The CCoE structure will evolve and develop as the organisation and strategy transform and roles will be assigned in phase two.
However, the CCoE team will manage the following from the initial phase until the roles evolve:
- Get executive buy-in which will lead to an organisation-wide commitment to cloud migration
- Implement organisational change management to make a change culture the company norm
- Embrace the change of applications, IT systems, infrastructure, and business direction as outlined
- Make operating model decisions that determine how people will fill roles to achieve business goals
On a side note, the CCoE team may encourage executive buy-in by knowing how to reduce cloud hosting costs, one of the greater concerns among leaders and decision-makers. Additionally, knowing how to avoid cloud migration failure could convince decision-makers to adopt cloud migration.
Phase 2 – Mobilise the CCoE Application Migration Team for Pilot Migration
An analysis of your hardware/software portfolio with mapped interdependencies and migration strategies outlines the complexity of applications and the level of the business impact that influences how you migrate to a native cloud, use hybrid cloud migration, or opt for a VMware Cloud version.
Beginning the migration process with less business-critical applications provides a solid learning opportunity for the CCoE team to contribute to the migration iterations that expedites migration faster in an Agile approach and fill skills and process gaps while reinforcing cloud migration best practices.
The CCoE plays an integral role in identifying the roles and responsibilities of smaller migration teams. It’s vital to gain familiarity with the operational processes that an organisation will use on AWS, which helps the workforce build experience and identify patterns that can help accelerate the process.
Besides, HR Analytics reveals that 86% of team members with role clarity are more effective at their responsibilities while 83% are more productive. Role clarity also shows that team members perform 25% better on average when they understand what’s expected from them.
The roles and responsibilities within the CCoE and smaller teams based on the complexity of application migration from legacy systems to the intended cloud infrastructure include a core team of cloud experts like cloud architects and developers.
Each team and member needs and will be responsible for the following:
- Full access to the well-defined strategies with timelines, milestones, and key deliverables
- A comprehensive understanding of the efficient regulatory governance from AWS cloud
- A list of efficient cloud-based alternatives for systems not being migrated to the AWS cloud
- The technical requirements to guide the operation and configuration of the new infrastructure
- The initial migration strategy for pilot data, workload, and application migration with roles and responsibilities for whom will handle which aspect of the migration strategy
Phase two simplified decisions about assigning roles and responsibilities to ensure the entire CCoE team collaborates for internal and external success. Additionally, all CCoE team members can contribute to the migration strategy of local data centers using cloud-native capabilities.
Phases 3 & 4 – Migrate: Application Design, Full-Scale Migration, & Validation
These two phases combine as they’re typically executed simultaneously. The focus shifts from a limited or pilot portfolio level to individual applications and full-scale migration. Each application is designed, migrated, and validated according to one of the seven application migration strategies.
During phase 3, organisations, CCoE teams, and smaller migration teams implement the following:
- Use the insights, data, and results from the pilot migration strategy for migrating other workloads, applications, and on-premises data storage centres
- Start cloud optimisation strategies to streamline application migration architecture to benefit from the features, functionality, and tools of the AWS cloud provider
- Continuously monitor and review the security, TCO goals, and performance with key performance indicators, adjusting the strategies as necessary
Interestingly, a Project Management Report shows that 31% of project failures and overruns occur because of missing financial controls and tracking. Monitoring and reviewing KPIs can help organisations avoid the potential for cloud migration failure.
Additionally, read “What is cloud migration strategy” to learn more about the actual stages of our cloud migration strategy in phases three and four. Full-scale cloud migration strategies are carefully planned and implemented by our CCoE and architecture teams to ensure faster validation.
Phase 5 – Modernise the Operating Model With Continuous Improvements
Organisations must optimise and improve the new cloud services foundation, turn off the old systems, and constantly iterate toward a modern operating model after application migration and validation. The operating model will become more sophisticated as your migration accelerates.
Continuously improve and innovate with new cloud technologies, cloud-native capabilities, and features according to the review results that validated whether migration startegies worked or not in the last two phases. That way, organisations can create a fully managed platform on AWS with continuous upgrades.
A continuous improvement approach is recommended. The level of project fluidity and success frequently depends on how well the CCoE team applies the iterative methodology in these core phases. The best way to constantly reduce data centre operational costs and improve productivity is innovation.
Continous improvement in an iterative model is the cornerstone of ongoing success for cloud migration. Leverage cloud-native capabilities and their benefits by adopting an Agile approach. The Agile methodology is successfully implemented globally in software development and project management.
A Project Management Report shows that Agile practices improved the ability to manage changing priorities by 88%, increased productivity by 83%, sped up the time to market by 75%, and enhanced business alignment by 73%. Agile or iterative cloud migration is integral to success.
Some innovative cloud technologies for improving existing applications, features, services, tools, and infrastructure are available on the AWS marketplace. However, a custom software development company can give organisations a competitive advantage tailor-made to the industry.
The 7 Rs of Cloud Migration: Effective AWS Migration Strategies
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to cloud migration. The focus should be on grouping each of the IT portfolio’s applications into buckets defined by each of the strategies before implementing the design and validation stages of the AWS 5-phase process.
Identifying which migration strategy will best suit different parts of the organisation’s hardware and software portfolios simplifies the process. Similar applications in a portfolio can be grouped and moved to the AWS cloud environment simultaneously. Here are the 7 R’s or cloud migration strategies:
R1: The Rehost Migration Strategy – Rehost, “Lift and Shift”
The rehost “lift and shift” model allows organisations migrating workloads to move applications without making any architectural or environmental changes. The Rehost Migration Strategy or Rehost, “Lift and Shift” method works for the following scenarios:
- Organisations want to reduce costs while having the option to scale later
- To migrate entire workloads to a serverless platform with future update potential
- To keep an application’s existing architecture during the initial migration stages
R2: The Replatform Migration Strategy – Replatform, “Lift, Tinker, and Shift”
The replatform migration strategy as a “lift and reshape” model to migrate workloads and an application’s existing environment to the cloud while optimising the architecture. The replatform migration strategy works for the following scenarios:
- To reduce costs by migrating to fully managed platforms
- To improve security and compliance with regulatory standards
- To migrate applications running on a single operating system to multiple operating systems
R3: The Repurchase Migration Strategy – Repurchase, “Drop and Shop”
The repurchase method is used when organisations replace existing apps with cloud versions containing new licences to gain more business value and reduce hosting costs. The repurchase migration strategy works for the following migration needs:
- Moving infrastructure from traditional to SaaS licencing
- Integrating version controls or third-party equivalents
- Replacing custom applications stored in on-premises data centres
R4: The Refactor Migration Strategy – Re-Architect, “Adopt Cloud-Native”
The refactor or re-architect model allows organisations to move applications to cloud providers while improving the architecture with cloud native-capabilities. The refactor or re-architect migration strategy works for the following scenarios:
- Existing apps and on-premises infrastructure can’t meet the demand of consumers anymore
- The legacy system’s code is prehistoric and maintenance costs are too high
- An application’s test coverage is low and testing/debugging becomes an issue
R5: The Retire Strategy– Retire, “Decommission or Archive”
This strategy is used when organisations choose to archive or decommission applications no longer needed. In that case, the entire server containing the tech stack and data is shut down. Use the retire strategy for the following applications and groups:
- To decommission legacy software systems and redundant workloads
- To retire applications or portions of data no longer necessary for business operations
- To start with new applications on a cloud server by shutting down the old systems
R6: The Retain Strategy – Retain, “Review and Revisit”
An organisation retains portions of the IT portfolio in on-premise data centres and servers because of information sensitivity or security. Additionally, the retain method is used when applications are complex or too challenging to migrate. Use the retain strategy for the following scenarios:
- To retain information organisations aren’t prepared to share on a serverless platform
- To retain control over resources when considering a hybrid migration approach
- To revisit sensitive data like security, compliance, dependencies, and high-risk information
R7: The Relocate Strategy – Relocate, “Transfer and Disperse”
The seventh method is to relocate, transfer, or disperse applications and data to a large number of servers or use the Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS). Organisations also disperse data to a virtual private cloud. Use the relocate strategy for the following data, applications, or groups:
- To ensure applications are always available to customers and internal users
- For applications running on VMware and Kubernetes servers
- To disperse applications across multiple servers without a need for cloud-native features
Leverage a Successful Migration Strategy Today
Migrate legacy systems to cloud services to reduce costs, benefit from cloud resources, and leverage cloud capabilities. Meanwhile, a company will benefit from efficient regulatory governance with a well-defined and managed AWS migration strategy.
Expedite cloud migration with a trusted AWS cloud partner in the UK to ensure seamless transitions. Our cloud migration and management services include the setup of a virtual private cloud, cloud optimisations, cloud-native deployments, and migration to the leading cloud providers worldwide.
