2. Re-platform (Referred to as “lift, tinker, and shift.”) Make a few cloud optimizations to achieve a tangible benefit. You will not change the core architecture of the application. For example, reduce the amount of time you spend managing database instances by migrating to a database-as-a-service platform like Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), or migrating your application to a fully managed platform like AWS Elastic Beanstalk. A large media company migrated hundreds of web servers that it ran on-premises to AWS. In the process, it moved from WebLogic (a Java application container that requires an expensive license) to Apache Tomcat, an open-source equivalent. By migrating to AWS, this media company saved millions of dollars in licensing costs and increased savings and agility.

3. Re-factor / Re-architect  Re-imagine how the application is architected and developed using cloud-native features. This is driven by a strong business need to add features, scale, or performance that would otherwise be difficult to achieve in the application’s existing environment. Are you looking to migrate from a monolithic architecture to a service-oriented (or server-less) architecture to boost agility or improve business continuity? This strategy tends to be the most expensive, but it can also be the most beneficial if you have a good product-market fit.

4. Re-purchase Move from perpetual licenses to a software-as-a-service model. For example, move from a customer relationship management (CRM) to Salesforce.com, an HR system to Workday, or a content management system (CMS) to Drupal.

5. Retire  Remove applications that are no longer needed. Once you have completed discovery for your environment, ask who owns each application. As much as 10%-20% of an enterprise IT portfolio is no longer useful and can be turned off. These savings can boost your business case, direct your team’s attention to the applications people use, and reduce the number of applications you have to secure.

6. Retain (Referred to as re-visit.) Keep applications that are critical for the business but that require major refactoring before they can be migrated. You can revisit all applications that fall in this category at a later point in time.

1. Migration Readiness and Planning
2. Application Discovery
3. Discovery Tools
4. Migration Planning
5. Technical Planning
6. The Virtual Private Cloud Environment
7. Security
8. Operations
9. Platform
10. Design
11. Build
12. Integrate
13. Validate
14. Monitoring and Support

AWS developed the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF), which helps organizations understand how cloud adoption transforms the way they work.

AWS CAF is organized into six areas of focus, which span your entire organization. We describe these areas of focus as Perspectives: Business, People, Governance, Platform, Security, and Operations.

AWS CAF provides a mental model to establish areas of focus in determining readiness to migrate and creating a set of migration execution workstreams.

It’s important that we create a migration plan which considers and incorporates the necessary requirements across each area.

Business: Business support capabilities to optimize business value with cloud adoption. Common Roles: Business Managers; Finance Managers; Budget Owners; Strategy Stakeholders

People: People development, training, communications, and change management. Common Roles: Human Resources; Staffing; People Managers.

Governance: Managing and measuring results in business outcomes. Common Roles: CIO; Program Managers; Project Managers; Enterprise Architects; Business Analysts; Portfolio Managers.

Platform: Develop, maintain, and optimize cloud platform solutions and services. Common Roles: CTO; IT Managers; Solution Architects

Security: Designs and allows that the workloads deployed or developed in the cloud align with the organization’s security control, resiliency, and compliance requirements. Common Roles: CISO; IT Security Managers; IT Security Analysts; Head of Audit and Compliance.

Operations: Allows system health and reliability through the move to the cloud, and delivers an agile cloud computing operation. Common Roles: IT Operations Managers; IT Support Managers.

Migrating to Cloud is an iterative process that evolves as your organization develops new skills, processes, tools, and capabilities. The initial migrations help build experience and momentum that accelerate your later migration efforts. Establishing the right foundation is key to a successful migration. Our migration process balances the business and technical efforts needed to complete cloud migration. We identify key business drivers for migration and present the best strategies for planning and executing a cloud migration.