Customers are often facing a compelling event such as data centre renewal\/contract\u00a0expiry\u00a0or the need to address legacy and heritage architectures \u2013 or\u00a0very often\u00a0a mix of both. As\u00a0customers\u00a0look to optimise or reduce costs, or indeed establish a basis for ongoing change\u00a0and\u00a0gain benefits, public cloud\u00a0is increasingly\u00a0considered to be the\u00a0default\u00a0or larger part of the\u00a0answer in\u00a0these scenarios.\u00a0The problem for many, however, is\u00a0how and where\u00a0to\u00a0initiate and deliver these activities and outcomes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The public cloud<\/a> migration market certainly\u00a0is\u00a0strong\u00a0and growing currently\u00a0–\u00a0and leading\u00a0cloud\u00a0vendors\u00a0are recognising\u00a0this. In July 2020, Andy\u00a0Jassey,\u00a0(former\u00a0chief executive of Amazon Web Services (AWS)<\/a>\u00a0and now\u00a0CEO\u00a0of Amazon\u00a0stated),\u00a0\u201cMigrations are a top priority, next only to the security and operational performance of the AWS platform<\/i>\u201d. Both Microsoft and AWS have\u00a0targeted\u00a0migration programmes, specifically to encourage customers to migrate and provide a wealth of materials through their cloud adoption frameworks to support such\u00a0endeavours.\u00a0<\/p>\n To reinforce this view,\u00a0there\u00a0are\u00a0market anecdotes about the state of\u00a0uptake of public cloud. The\u00a0Flexera\u00a0State of the Cloud Report\u00a02021<\/a> specifically asks about top migration challenges\u00a0organisations face,\u00a0with the understanding of application dependencies\u00a0being considered as the primary and\u00a0biggest migration challenge. They\u00a0also found that\u00a059% of organisations surveyed plan to focus on cloud migrations. Further evidence of the potential of the migration market can be seen in stats from Mordointelligence.com where they show growth from $119.13bn in 2020 to $448.34bn in 2026 (a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 28.89%).\u00a0In addition,\u00a0Gartner\u00a0predicted\u00a0continued\u00a0growth of\u00a0worldwide\u00a0public cloud\u00a0revenue\u00a0back in 2020 with\u00a06.3% forecasted growth in 2020 and\u00a0its 2021 latest prediction on\u00a0over $480bn of spend in 2022, a\u00a021.7% growth.\u00a0(source: Gartner Press Release<\/a>.) Gartner also states in their IT Roadmap for Cloud Migration, 2020 that:<\/p>\n Migrating large amount of workload from on-premise data center to the public cloud requires careful planning \u2026.. and many IT leaders don\u2019t know where to begin.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The challenges are real\u00a0but not insurmountable. As mentioned, the State of the Cloud Report profiles the top migration challenges and of these top 10, over half include references\u00a0to \u201cUnderstanding app dependencies<\/i>\u201d, \u201cAccessing technical feasibility<\/i>\u201d, \u201cAssessing on-prem vs cloud costs<\/i>\u201d, \u201cKnowing implications of BYOL<\/i>\u201d, \u201cPrioritising apps to migrate<\/i>\u201d, \u201dMigrating\u00a0the app and data<\/i>\u201d\u00a0and \u201cSelecting the right cloud provider<\/i>\u201d. Of key importance is that\u00a0most\u00a0of these\u00a0can be said to be in the planning and preparation of any migration \u2013 not\u00a0in its\u00a0execution.\u00a0<\/p>\n In our experience, most customers struggle to understand\u00a0the scope of what\u00a0they\u00a0actually have\u00a0to migrate.\u00a0This issue\u00a0is\u00a0further\u00a0compounded as the IT estate scales to hundreds or thousands of servers, virtual\u00a0machines,\u00a0and applications.\u00a0This appreciation of what they have, in order to understand what to do with it \u2013 and address those\u00a0top challenges in any cloud migration is therefore at the core of a successful migration. As a suitable analogy if you employ a removal company when\u00a0moving to a new house, you\u00a0are unlikely\u00a0to get a\u00a0realistic idea\u00a0of cost and time unless you can tell them the size of house, number of rooms and at least an approximation of\u00a0the\u00a0items being moved \u2013 and\u00a0identify those\u00a0items of\u00a0high value. In some way,\u00a0any migration to public cloud can be thought of in similar terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n What makes a successful public cloud migration?<\/b><\/p>\n Version 1 is a veteran of many public cloud migrations and here we share\u00a0some of\u00a0our top\u00a0tips on what makes any migration a success \u2013 and\u00a0you will\u00a0see\u00a0here\u00a0that this starts\u00a0before a single\u00a0Virtual Machine or Server\u00a0has been moved.\u00a0<\/p>\n Discover, Discover, Discover!<\/b><\/p>\n Appropriate discovery of\u00a0the\u00a0estate to be migrated is key. As we\u00a0previously\u00a0highlighted,\u00a0to move something, you need some appreciation of what you\u00a0have to\u00a0move.\u00a0We recommend time is spent up-front establishing\u00a0the scope,\u00a0challenges,\u00a0and existing technology that you will be dealing with during the migration.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n These days, discovery\u00a0can be\u00a0supported\u00a0by several\u00a0tools from both the public cloud vendors and\u00a03rd\u00a0parties. Some will come free and some with a cost. When running a discovery at\u00a0increased\u00a0scale,\u00a0tooling becomes much more important to be able to assess large volumes. However, it also should be noted that\u00a0deploying tooling can present its own challenges\u00a0in highly managed customer environments\u00a0\u2013 time to approve and deploy (particularly\u00a0when you don\u2019t have that time \u2013\u00a0as\u00a0many customers face impending deadlines\u00a0or resistance to introduce tools to managed or sensitive workloads). In such circumstances you need to think out of the box\u00a0\u2013\u00a0you need to look at how you can gather data in other ways from information already present e.g.,\u00a0do you have\u00a0a CMDB\u00a0(Configuration Management Database)\u00a0\u2013 that might be a good place to start,\u00a0or\u00a0can the hypervisor be interrogated to\u00a0extract data\u00a0on\u00a0hosted\u00a0VM\u2019s and so on.\u00a0Also remember that not all things can be automated\u00a0\u2013\u00a0tooling will not necessarily capture compelling events, plans for investment or operational issues \u2013 all of which may influence\u00a0the following analysis and profiling. Be prepared to invest some time and effort plugging any gaps.\u00a0<\/p>\n Analyse and Profile<\/b><\/p>\n When\u00a0you have gathered all the data, you\u00a0will\u00a0have\u00a0an inventory\u00a0of your servers and virtual machines, you may\u00a0also\u00a0have your list of applications and components and some view of dependencies. Now what? Well,\u00a0decisions need to be made \u2013 to do that and do that at scale, you need to profile this data. This can take various forms and may be driven by your compelling event or objectives. For example, a very simple way of profiling is to apply a RAG\u00a0status\u00a0to your\u00a0VM\u2019s,\u00a0or servers based on operating system \/ platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some older operating systems\u00a0may not be endorsed on cloud \u2013 or indeed not supported\u00a0by a given vendor. At scale you can quickly mark these red and others\u00a0green. Soon to be out of support\u00a0operating systems\u00a0may be marked amber depending on your definition. Many other ways to profile the data exist and this is just an\u00a0example\u00a0–\u00a0but\u00a0hopefully\u00a0you get the idea.\u00a0However,\u00a0do not\u00a0under-estimate the power of facts based on actual data \u2013 there are many senior stakeholders and budget holders who will be glad to see\u00a0hard facts,\u00a0figures,\u00a0and\u00a0evidence\u00a0on what they are dealing with and the challenges ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n Might you need to\u00a0plan ahead?<\/b><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve\u00a0gathered\u00a0the data, you\u2019ve profiled it and completed analysis.\u00a0Then what happens next?\u00a0This is the point that you need to start planning\u00a0how you\u00a0might tackle\u00a0the migration.\u00a0This activity also includes assessing\u00a0what migration\u00a0pattern\u00a0to use (and this may be application or workload specific), what resources will I need, how should I structure my migration project or programme\u00a0\u2013 and so on. Planning\u00a0should be considered\u00a0an important\u00a0stage to set out the\u00a0relevant\u00a0roadmap,\u00a0based on what you have found.\u00a0This\u00a0provides clarity in terms of effort,\u00a0cost,\u00a0and risks to be managed throughout the execution phase.\u00a0Pilots and Proof of Concepts may also be a\u00a0relevant\u00a0outcome of this step \u2013 or indeed you may find that you need a further deep-dive on key workloads,\u00a0applications,\u00a0or group of servers\u00a0to derive additional context and information.\u00a0<\/p>\n But remember,\u00a0all\u00a0the above\u00a0is the beginning, not the end<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n Having said\u00a0all\u00a0the above,\u00a0it is important to keep in mind that preparing for migration is just the beginning of the journey. Any discovery and planning stage should be time or resource boxed and should\u00a0conclude\u00a0quickly and provide early visibility to stakeholders. Avoid analysis\u00a0paralysis\u00a0–\u00a0make decisions and move on. We never see discovery as\u00a0a\u00a0project in its own right, it\u00a0is there to facilitate the onward execution, where much of the real work and detail will\u00a0take place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Do just enough, not too little,\u00a0not too much<\/b><\/p>\n One common trap of migration preparation is\u00a0viewing it as an enterprise architecture current state capture activity.\u00a0On the flip side, getting the output from\u00a0a discovery tool (e.g., list of VMs)\u00a0and calling it a day\u00a0at that point\u00a0might\u00a0also\u00a0not quite get you where you want to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n In any migration it is important that you do just enough to get where you need to be. Preparing for migration is not a root and branch review of everything \u2013 and indeed at scale\u00a0can become\u00a0an impossible task.\u00a0However,\u00a0it should also not\u00a0be glossed\u00a0over\u00a0as an easy transactional step.\u00a0One analogy I like to make relates back to the State of the Cloud Report and the no 1 migration challenge \u2013 that of understanding application dependencies. A common trap\u00a0for any migration is attempting to catalogue every single integration that exists \u2013 at scale this can be a mammoth task unless you have a \u2018here is one I prepared earlier\u2019 interface catalogue.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you do have one then great, use it. If you do not have one, don\u2019t try and boil the ocean either \u2013 in this example, you might look to understand broad dependencies over individual interfaces e.g., knowing application A has a dependency on application B is often enough. It is not necessary to know that consists of several dozen interfaces or data flows, volumes, frequency, and so on.\u00a0<\/p>\n Finally,\u00a0remember what you are trying to address!<\/b><\/p>\n As it is easy to become overwhelmed by data and its related analysis throughout this process, it can be easy to forget what your original remit is or was. We have found that, for many customers, their strategic compelling event such as a DC exit deadline can often get mixed with (for example) real operational issues or critical systems that may be due for investment according to their own timescale. It is important therefore to keep sight of your original organisation\u2019s priorities and don\u2019t make assumptions about them. <\/p>\n Not all workloads may be lift and shift, as you may find good reasons to look at different migration paths or even look to completely replace an application with a new cloud native approach. These options are valid if there are good and solid reasons to do so. Another example may be that you want to conduct discovery to better understand the economics of cloud v on-prem or even to compare public cloud vendors against each other. Depending on what you\u2019re trying to address, this may strongly influence the steps you take with the data collected.\u00a0<\/p>\n About Version 1<\/strong><\/p>\n Version 1 proves that IT can make a real difference to our customers\u2019 businesses. We are trusted by global brands to deliver IT services and solutions which drive customer success. Our 1300+ strong team works closely with our technology partners to provide independent advice that helps our customers navigate the rapidly changing world of IT. Our greatest strength is balance in our efforts to achieve Customer Success, Empowered People, and a Strong Organisation, underpinned by a commitment to our values. We believe this is what makes Version 1 different and more importantly, our customers agree.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At Version 1, we have seen steadily growing interest in\u00a0technology workload migration to\u00a0public cloud across\u00a0both public\u00a0and private sectors in recent times. Customers are often facing a compelling event such as data centre renewal\/contract\u00a0expiry\u00a0or the need to address legacy and heritage architectures \u2013 or\u00a0very often\u00a0a mix of both. As\u00a0customers\u00a0look to optimise or reduce costs, or indeed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7748,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-7747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"translations":[{"blog_id":1,"post_id":7747,"name":"Europe","code":"EN-GB","hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.version1.com\/blog\/secrets-of-success-cloud-migration\/","is_current":false},{"blog_id":13,"post_id":7747,"name":"Americas","code":"EN-US","hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/www.version1.com\/en-us\/secrets-of-success-cloud-migration\/","is_current":true}],"yoast_head":"\nAre the challenges real?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Automate as much as you can <\/h2>\n