Moving to the cloud can feel daunting. Our essential checklist ensures a smooth, secure, and cost-effective transition.
Migrating from on-premise servers to the cloud (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) unlocks flexibility, but a poor migration strategy can lead to data loss and downtime. Follow this checklist to stay safe.
Step 1: The Audit
Before moving anything, audit your current applications. Which ones are "cloud-ready" and which ones are legacy apps that need to be refactored? Not everything can simply be "lifted and shifted."
Step 2: Choose Your Model
Do you need Public Cloud (cheaper, shared), Private Cloud (more secure, expensive), or Hybrid? For most SMEs, a Hybrid approach works best initially.
Step 3: Security & Compliance
Security in the cloud is a shared responsibility. Ensure you have configured:
- Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles.
- Data encryption at rest and in transit.
- Regional compliance (GDPR/CCPA) based on where your data is stored.
Step 4: The Backup Plan
Always assume the migration might fail. Create a full offline backup of your data before initiating the transfer. Test your rollback procedures.
Step 5: Staff Training
The best cloud tools are useless if your team doesn't know how to use them. Invest in training for Microsoft 365 or your chosen collaboration platforms.