Seven steps to a successful cloud migration

The five fingers of one hand alone are no longer sufficient to list the arguments in favor of cloud computing: They are already exhausted with the higher flexibility, scalability, availability and security, as well as the cost advantages of cloud resources. In addition, there are the inherent cloud capabilities for disaster recovery and the speed of innovation with which cloud providers continue to develop their platforms. But simply moving to the cloud rarely works. Rather, cloud migration must be carefully planned and implemented if it is not to become a disaster. Cloud service provider Couchbase outlines the most important steps on the way to the cloud:

1. Evaluation: Cloud computing only begins in a few greenfield startups. As a rule, it is built on top of existing systems (legacy), with which it is combined in hybrid structures. The first step evaluates the existing IT infrastructure and decides which applications and workloads are to be moved to the cloud - and which are not.
2. Planning: The migration plan based on this defines the timeline, the budget and the necessary resources for the cloud migration, such as equipment, personnel or the costs for accompanying service providers.
3. Preparation: Before the start of the migration, the systems, applications and data concerned must be made cloud-ready. This includes any necessary security measures, performance tuning, and data backup and recovery.
4. Migration: After these preparatory steps, the actual migration of systems, applications and data to the cloud can begin, accompanied by appropriate performance and validation tests.
5. Integration: Since not all IT services are usually migrated to the cloud, cloud services and the remaining on-premises legacy systems must be brought into productive harmony with each other. This applies above all to data and security management.
6. Optimization: Cloud services have enormous potential for optimization if they are fine-tuned to meet specific requirements. The most important parameters for this are performance, scalability and cost efficiency.
7. Maintenance: Like the legacy systems, the cloud systems must also be constantly maintained after commissioning. At the top of the maintenance list are the monitoring of all services and any updates to systems and applications.

"A well thought-out migration strategy is a critical success factor for cloud projects," explains Paul Salazar, Senior Director Central Europe at Couchbase. "It paves the way for a smooth transition and ensures that the benefits of cloud computing can be realized quickly and efficiently."

Source and further information: Couchbase