Understand what you are moving
Inventory applications, dependencies, data volumes and owners. Surprises during migration nearly always trace back to something nobody documented.
Choose an approach per workload
Not everything should be lifted and shifted. Some workloads are best retired, some replaced by managed services and some re-architected to benefit from the cloud.
Plan governance early
Decide on account structure, naming, tagging, access and budget alerts before workloads arrive. Retrofitting governance is far harder than starting with it.
Migrate in phases
Begin with lower-risk workloads to build confidence and process, then move critical systems with tested rollback plans.
Key takeaways
- Inventory before you move
- Pick a strategy per workload
- Set governance first
- Migrate incrementally
