Migrating corporate data, enterprise-grade applications, and different key business resources to the cloud have been on the to-do list for most businesses for some time now. The efforts to migrate to a cloud ecosystem have only ramped up with the coronavirus outbreak followed by stay-at-home orders and lockdowns. Businesses are accelerating the pace of cloud migration because they have to support a remote workforce.

Despite feeling a strong need for cloud solutions, enterprises cannot and should not approach migration without a strong strategy. That is why we are sharing three recommendations that will help businesses migrate to a cloud environment effectively.

Recommendation #1: Ensure the cloud strategy aligns with the business strategy

Business strategies vary to a great degree from one enterprise to another. So, it is important for infrastructure and operations leaders and enterprise architects to hammer out a cloud strategy that is in sync with an organization’s overarching business strategies. Whether the organization follows a B2B model or a B2C one, the alignment between its business strategy and cloud strategy is integral.

Recommendation #2: Prioritize cost reduction as the key driver

Questions related to the cloud’s cost always buzz in the mind of a business leader who is planning to migrate to a cloud environment. Is cloud cheaper than other on-premise alternatives? The answer to this question depends on multiple factors; these factors include the nature of workloads, the variety of cloud services opted for, and an organization’s specific circumstances. Generally, most businesses that have successfully carried out cloud implementations benefit from speed and innovation instead of costs.

Recommendation #3: Analyze all the potential migration routes

For most businesses, a cloud strategy comprises a concrete plan that features the possible routes of moving to an off-premise environment. Generally, these routes include rehosting, refactoring, and rebuilding. Businesses leverage rehosting for migrating an application with nominal efforts. On the other hand, refactoring enables businesses to use a cloud-managed database instead of moving the legacy databases to the cloud and internally controlling them. Last, rebuilding helps businesses recreate a strategic application that has a cloud-native architecture. With this architecture, the application will have elastic scalability and will operate on a pay-per-use pricing model.

Is it time for your business to make a move?

Businesses that want to thrive in the world that has changed by the COVID-19 pandemic should embrace the cloud. However, moving to the cloud is easier said than done unless a business has a migration road map in place. For building a robust migration strategy, we have shared our top three recommendations that will help accelerate the pace at which businesses step into the cloud.