Clear strategy for using private and public cloud
Since both private and public cloud often offer a similar portfolio of services, it should be clearly defined for which purposes the respective cloud type will be used. This ensures that there are no discrepancies in the planning process prior to migration.
Very good knowledge of the IT landscape
The systems and apps to be migrated should be sufficiently well documented to be adequately considered in the planning process. This includes documenting the amount of servers and apps, the responsible persons in the company and the business criticality, as well as technical documentation. The better and more extensively a system is documented, the fewer technical and organizational hurdles can impede the migration.
Determining the scope of the migration
It should be determined prior to migration which systems and apps will be migrated to the cloud in each case. The selection can be made based on business units and processes as well as geography and lifecycle status of the respective systems. This approach ensures that the migration scope is clearly outlined and that the scope does not change unscheduled during the migration process (so-called "scope creep").
"Start small, think big"
A cloud migration is a complex undertaking. Since there is often little experience at the beginning of a migration, it is recommended to start the migration with few and non-critical systems and apps. On the other hand, planning should be sufficiently long-term and anticipate an increase in migration speed to be able to migrate even large landscapes. Thus, it is possible to start with low risk at the beginning and keep the migration risk limited in the further course of the project.
For mass migration: use a migration factory
A cloud migration is to a large extent an individual project. Even though each system and app functions and acts uniquely, recurring activities, such as testing the systems and apps, can still be bundled. It is advisable to set up a so-called Migration Factory, which has the task of centralizing tasks that can be standardized and at the same time granting cloud technicians flexibility to solve special issues.