Cloud migration: how to properly transfer your IT infrastructure to the cloud

Moving to the cloud has long ceased to be a “fashionable trend” — today it is a strategic necessity. Cloud technologies allow you to increase the fault tolerance, flexibility and scalability of your IT infrastructure. However, migrating to the cloud is not just copy-pasting servers onto virtual machines. The wrong approach can lead to increased costs, downtime of business processes and even data leakage.

In this article, we will analyze the key stages of proper migration and what you should pay attention to in order not to step on the rake.

Why should a business move to the cloud?
1) Flexibility — easy to scale resources as the load increases or decreases;
2) Cost reduction — refusal to purchase and maintain hardware;
3) Availability — systems operate 24/7 from anywhere in the world;
4) Fast recovery — advanced DR scenarios and backup;
5) Security — cloud providers invest more in cybersecurity than many companies can afford.

Main approaches to migration:
Lift-and-shift (rehosting)
The fastest, but not the most effective way — transferring applications and data “as is” to virtual machines. Often used as a temporary solution.
Refactoring / Re-architecting
Deep adaptation of infrastructure to the cloud environment: microservices, serverless, containerization. This approach requires more time and expertise, but opens up the maximum benefits of the cloud.
Replatforming
Something in between — you adapt applications to the cloud platform without rewriting the code from scratch (for example, transferring a database to a managed service).

Step-by-step migration strategy

1. Analysis of the current infrastructure
   Conduct an audit: which services are critical, which are outdated, and which are not used at all. This will help you avoid dragging “dead weight” to the cloud.

2. Choosing a cloud model
   IaaS — infrastructure as a service (e.g. AWS EC2);
   PaaS — platform as a service (e.g. Azure App Services);
   SaaS — ready-made applications (e.g. Google Workspace).

3. Choosing a cloud provider
   Evaluate not only the price, but also: availability of data centers in the required regions, SLA level, certifications (ISO, SOC2, GDPR), integrations and automation tools.

4. Migration planning
   Divide the migration into phases (by applications or departments)
   1) Set up backups;
   2) Test on a pilot project;
   3) Think over a rollback plan//

5. Security and compliance
   1) Set up IAM (access management);
   2) Encrypt data "on the fly" and "at rest";
   3) Provide audit of actions and monitoring /

6. Training and support
   Staff must understand how to work with the new infrastructure. Support from a provider or MSP company will help reduce risks at the start.

Common mistakes during migration
❌ Migrating everything at once - chaos and downtime are guaranteed
❌ Lack of disaster recovery and backup
❌ Underestimating costs (especially for storage and outgoing traffic)
❌ Ignoring compliance issues
❌ Moving without optimizing applications is a waste of money

Conclusion
Migration to the cloud is not just a change of hosting, but a transformation of the entire IT infrastructure. Approach it strategically: assess the risks, prepare people and think through the architecture for future tasks. Then the cloud will not become an “expensive toy”, but a powerful driver of growth for your business.

If you need help in this process, then contact our team of professionals.

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