Why – Understand the Need

Why is the client migrating?

• OS / Software End Of Life
• Licensing Issues
  • License locked to an IP
  • Require a USB or similar Hardware device for authentication?
• Missing desired / required features
  • Auto Scaling / HA / DR
  • Compute / RAM / Performance
  • Storage
• System Compromised?
• Security Requirements?

What – Understand the Current State

What is moving?

• List of Servers / Services
  • OS
  • Applications
    • License Requirements
    • Authentication
  • Total Compute
    • Current Utilization / growth
  • RAM
    • Current Utilization / growth
  • Disk Space
    • Current Utilization / growth
  • Network Requirements
    • F/W
    • VPN
    • Public and Private Networks
    • Bandwidth
      • Current utilization / growth

How – What tools and resources will be required

• AWS
  • SCP / SFTP
  • Snowball
  • DirectConnect
  • Storage Gateway
  • Simple Migration Service (VMWare)
  • CloudFormation
• Azure
  • Azure Site Recovery
    • Is a config server required (Dedicated and/or proprietary cloud)
  • Express Route
  • Azure Files (SFTP to Azure Blob storage)
  • Azure Automation (AWS CloudFormation?)
• Google
  • …

Where – Future State

• Well-Architected Framework
  • Security
  • Reliability
  • Performance Efficiency
  • Cost Optimization
  • Operational Excellence
• Does the architecture support the requirements
  • compute/storage
  • security
  • additional compliance issues?
• Are there any legacy systems that must be maintained
• Required or strongly recommended upgrades?
• Outline of the system/network topology
  • Visio
• Will the migrated services continue to interact with remaining systems within required parameters

When – Project Management and Urgency

What happens if the migration is not completed by the completion date?

• Added costs?
  • License expirations / costly renewals?
  • Additional CapEx costs?
  • Lost/missed compliance dates?

Project Management

• RFQ (Request for Quote) / RFP (Request for Proposal)
• Exploration meeting
  • Get the Why, What,Where and When (Urgency)
  • Install exploration tools (auto-discover, etc.)
• SOW (Scope of Work) / JEP (Joint Execution Plan)
  • Designated points of contact
    • Company
    • Client
  • Current state and Future state
  • Project plan
    • Timeline of events and responsibilities
  • Project completion KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
  • Final test timeline
  • Project costs
  • Projected ongoing production costs
    • Compute, Database, other infrastructure and bandwidth
    • Management (See Continued Support)
• Project completion
• Payment agreement

Who – Statement of Work / Joint Execution Plan

• Company Primary Contact
• Client Primary Contact – Must be able to make decisions!
• In scope and out of scope
  • What will be done, what will NOT be done
  • Cost (monetary and/or time) of change requests.
• POC (Proof of concept) required?
  • If so, who builds, who pays?
  • Test metrics
  • Setup, Test and completion dates
• Company and Client must determine roles and responsibilities
  • Company: Design Future State & SOW
  • Client: Approve
  • Company: Build infrastructure
  • Company with Client support: Migrate data
  • Client: Test
  • Company + Client: Complete any finalizations
    • database / software change updates
    • DNS
    • Connection strings

Project Close

• Project acceptance sign off
• Decommission/cancel previous resources.

Continued Support

• Monitoring
  • Infrastructure
  • Performance
  • Security (Log monitoring)
• Cost Optimization
  • Unused Resources
  • Reserved Instances
• Security and Penetration tests
• Backups
• System Recovery / Disaster Recovery testing
• Patching and Updating
• DevOps
  • Orchestration and Automation
  • Version Control