Should enterprises move their business-critical systems to the cloud? Most enterprises, especially the ones looking to modernise their legacy systems & processes would answer in the affirmative- ‘a resounding yes!’

Cloud adoption is the latest computing paradigm that has taken over the IT industry. Enterprises are adopting cloud computing services to transfer increasingly significant pieces of their business to the cloud to make themselves much more competitive. By leveraging cloud services, they can deploy their software systems over a pool of resources. Recently, Fitbit moved all the data associated with its Care Management and Coaching Platform for healthcare providers to Google Cloud —giving Fitbit the scale it needs to integrate with large hospitals and insurers. Similarly, Kroger Co. USA’s biggest supermarket chain migrated all its websites and mobile applications to cloud. Cloud-based services have amassed popularity among public organisations as well, with almost half of the US government organisations actively using cloud services.

Cloud-based services have gained attention across the industries, however, the potential for increased uptake of the technology is still large. As per Gartner 2019 forecast report over the next three years, 44.6 percent of smaller organisations along with 37.7 percent of midsize and 40.4 percent of larger organisations plan to migrate to the cloud. However, ‘how to migrate to the cloud?’ is still an unanswered question for many organisations. To minimise the potential risks associated with the migration, it is important to have the right migration framework to improve the maturity level and consequently trust into legacy-to-cloud migration.

To ensure successful cloud migration, enterprises should focus on how to move to the cloud. Cloud is more than just a hosting platform and simply moving all the data to a cloud platform cannot be classified a successful migration as it is not sufficient to tap into the possibilities that a good cloud migration strategy could render. It prevents you from taking advantage of the cloud’s unique capabilities to create something entirely new, the right way. Some case studies have illustrated that having the right cloud migration strategy can be a significant differentiating factor between a successful migration vs. failure of investments. 

A successful cloud migration requires the planning and execution of a comprehensive strategy that sets migration goals, creates a timeline, anticipates challenges, and defines the project’s success.

Here are four important stages to ensure a fast and uneventful move to the cloud: