Navigating the Cloud Migration Process From Assessment to Validation

Migrating to the cloud can seem daunting. But with the right strategy, any business can achieve it seamlessly. 

Planning a structured cloud migration process right from the initial phases helps streamline the entire transition and keeps the migration from going off-track in case of unforeseen challenges. From planning what to migrate to ensuring proper integration of the migrated data post-migration, businesses, and their IT teams must plan to streamline every part of the process.  

And for such strategic planning, a company needs four essential frameworks: assessment, segregation, migration, and validation.

In this guide, we will simplify these frameworks and explain how they can help businesses have a smooth migration. 

1. Assess: pre-migration analysis 

The industry standard cloud data migration starts off with pre-migration assessment. Performing in-depth assessments in this stage helps set the entire migration up for success. Let’s look at what to prioritize during this pre-migration assessment. 

Discovery and assessment of the migration solution  

The first critical assessment involves learning about third-party cloud migration solutions and exploring them more deeply. Here is an efficient process for this:  

• Discovery: It is best first to shortlist a few cloud migration solutions and schedule a discovery call to learn more about the tool, the migration service provider’s methodologies, and ballpark pricing.      

• Demo or POC: Next, conduct a demo or POC of the shortlisted cloud migration solutions with a pilot batch of a few user accounts to understand their capabilities and limitations fully.   

• Finalization: After analyzing the migration tools' performance during the demo or POC session, finalize the tool that best meets your company’s migration, pricing, and security needs. 

Pre-migration assessment of the source cloud(s) 

Another critical pre-migration assessment is thoroughly analyzing the source cloud(s). This helps gain insights into several areas, like:  

• Source cloud usage patterns: With a proper assessment, your team can gain insights into several types of usage patterns in the existing source cloud(s), such as dependency on a specific cloud (whether all or partial users are using it), functionality usage (whether users are using all or specific apps and functionalities of the cloud as their daily driver), and organizational-level reliance (the features, apps, and other resources of the cloud that your company needs for operational continuity and efficiency).  
• Collaboration between users: Equally important is understanding how users collaborate in the current cloud(s), which helps plan the cloud migration process accordingly. What shared drives, libraries, and chat groups do the users use every day? Do they rely on third-party collaboration apps integrated into the existing cloud platform? Gaining clarity in these areas with a proper source cloud assessment informs the migration planning. 
• Admin-level privileges: Understand the administrative structure of the existing clouds your company is using. This way, your team can plan replication of the hierarchy and admin roles in the target cloud(s) to ensure the privileges and management structure do not change post-migration. This replication ensures consistency in access privileges and management, preventing any disruptions to a team's workflows or security protocols.

Assessment of the planned scope of work 

After planning the scope of work, it is crucial to review it extensively before finalizing it and signaling a go-ahead to the migration vendor. Here are some of the critical parameters to review during this step:  

• Total size of the migration: The size of the migration’s scope plays a big role. Not only does a greater migration size extend the timeline, but it also increases the cost. Carefully assess the total number of user accounts, files, folders, and metadata types planned for migration. Exclude ones that are no longer needed post-migration and finalize mission-critical ones.  
• Exclusive file types: Cloud migrations that involve moving from a certain type of cloud to a significantly different target cloud can have file compatibility challenges. For example, businesses planning a Box to SharePoint migration must have a plan or a solution in place to migrate Box Notes files in ways that SharePoint Online supports them post-migration. Identify any exclusive file types and plan for their cloud integration or conversion to avoid access issues post-migration.  
• Hyperlinks migration: Hyperlink breakage is a common cloud migration problem. If your company is planning to migrate a lot of files, the odds of encountering this issue become high, as most files are likely to have hyperlinks. Make sure to plan around using a link-fixing tool to mitigate this risk.  

Assessment of the planned roadmap and timeline  

Another critical step is to perform an in-depth analysis of the planned roadmap and timeline. 

Does the roadmap factor in all the nuances of the scope of work? Is the timeline reasonable in comparison to the size of the migration? Analyzing these parameters can help tune the roadmap and timeline.  

2. Segregate: create migration batches  

The next critical stage of planning a structured cloud migration process is creating migration batches. Instead of migrating all the users and data in one single take, it is best to migrate them in batches to avoid cloud data migration challenges, such as  API rate limiting, and simplify the monitoring and validation process. 

To start off, your team needs to map the total user accounts to be migrated. These accounts can then be divided into several equal batches. For example, if your company has a total of 5000 users to migrate from the source to the target cloud, your team can divide them into 5 batches of 1000 users each.  

After creating the migration batches, you need to decide how to sequence them. You can take any of the following approaches here:  

• CSV mapping-based sequence: The simplest way to sequence the migration batches is to follow the sequence used in the CSV user mapping, migrating a specific batch or set of users first and scheduling the remaining users in subsequent phases.   

• Priority-based sequence: Another way to sequence batch-wise migration is according to priorities. It may be important to migrate a specific set of users, such as the management team, HR team, team members with admin roles, and the IT team, first.
• Alphabetical list sequence: If none of the above options align with your company, then planning the sequence of the batch-wise migration to go out alphabetically might just be the simplest approach.  

Once the migration batches are created and sequenced, you can move on to planning the one-time and delta migration timelines for every user batch. While having a broad timeline for the overall migration is a must, it is also important to dedicate a timeline for the one-time and delta migration of every user batch. For example, if the overall migration timeline is planned for five months, your team may consider dedicating a month’s timeline for every user batch’s one-time and delta migration and validation. 

3. Migrate: perform one-time and delta migration of each user batch  

This is undoubtedly the most critical stage of planning a cloud migration process. It is where your team must prepare for the user and data transfer process and initiate it strategically. Here are the three parts to this stage:  

Preparation 

It is only when the preparation is right that initiating the migration becomes smooth and on time. Here are some steps that ensure proper preparedness for the migration:  

• Prepare cloud admin login details in advance: Having the necessary admin login details ready is crucial, as the authentication process can take longer than anticipated. This is especially true during migrations from standalone cloud storage to a cloud that’s part of a broader cloud suite, such as a Dropbox to Google Drive migration. Ensuring these details are ready on time prevents delays and allows for a smooth access control setup.  
• Create data backup: Most cloud migration processes and approaches include data backup as an important security step. Creating a backup of the source cloud data can help safeguard your company’s data during the transition.  
• Infrastructure preparation: Another step in the cloud migration process is preparing the migration infrastructure. Perform sanity tests of the servers to be used for the migration and ensure proper resource allocation for managing and monitoring the migration. 

Perform the one-time migration of each batch 

Upon ensuring proper preparation, start the one-time migration of each user batch. Here are the steps you can follow:  

• Cloud authentication: The first step is to add the source and destination clouds to the migration tool and authenticate them. This process is common in migration tools that use the secure OAuth process and API-based migration method. 
• User mapping path upload: Most third-party cloud migration tools need to populate user mapping paths from CSV mapping files. If this applies to your team, make sure to validate the accuracy of the mapping when uploading the CSV mapping file to the tool. Then, you can let the tool populate the mapping data.  
• Permissions and metadata configuration: Before initiating the one-time migration, review the permission mapping that the tool generates based off the user mapping paths. Also, review the types of metadata that the tool can migrate and finalize the ones your company needs to ensure smooth operations continuity post-migration.  
• Migration initiation: The final step is to start the one-time migration for every user batch. You can either migrate them one at a time or create multiple instances based on the finalized migration roadmap and timeline. 

Perform the delta migration of each batch 

After the one-time migration of each user batch is completed, start the delta migration process. With delta migration, the goal is to transfer all the incremental changes built up in the source cloud during the one-time migration. This is usually a result of the users continuing to work during the migration process.   

4. Validate: approve the one-time and delta migration of each user batch 

The cloud migration process does not end when the one-time and delta migrations are completed. Prioritizing validation is also important to ensure that the one-time and delta migrations are properly done.  

Validate the one-time migration of each user batch  

First off, start the validation process by validating the one-time migration of all the user batches. The best way to perform the validation is to check the migration reports of each user batch. Check some of these key metrics in the migration report:  

• Total number of users migrated: Compare the number of users included in the migration report with the total number of users allocated in one batch. The numbers should match the users of the batch migrated to the target cloud.
• Total size of data migrated: Check the total size of the migrated data, such as files and folders. Add the data size numbers from the migration reports of all the user batches and compare them with the data size included in the scope of work. When migrating file versions, the data size may double in the target cloud due to the doubling of file versions post-migration.    

Validate the delta migration of each user batch 

The next step is to validate the delta migration. Regardless of whether your team has performed single or multiple delta migrations of every user batch, it is a must to check the delta migration reports to understand the incremental changes in data.   

Unlike one-time migration, delta migration does not include user migration. Therefore, your team can check and validate only the size of the incremental changes that have been migrated.   

Check the overall migration summary reports 

Compiling all the individual migration reports for a high-level view of the overall migration completion can be challenging and time-consuming. 

A better alternative is to request the migration vendor for an overall migration summary report that includes KPI-based parameters for the entire migration job.   

Ensure proper post-migration integration  

Integrating the data migrated to the target cloud is crucial for making sense of it and ensuring continuity in user collaboration and everyday work. 

For example, if users have relied on specific third-party integrations with their shared data in the source cloud, it is important to integrate those third-party tools and applications in the target cloud and sync the migrated data with them.   

This approach helps create a sense of familiarity in the target cloud, which can otherwise be a totally alien environment for many users. Ultimately, post-migration integration helps streamline change management and preserve the collaboration and efficiency between users and their teams. 

Onboard users to the target cloud and go live  

Lastly, as part of wrapping up the cloud migration process, provide the end users with proper training sessions on using the new cloud and its tools and functionalities. Depending on your company’s priorities, your team may consider decommissioning the source cloud(s) if they are no longer needed, especially in cloud migration use cases such as consolidations. 

Once the team gains proper knowledge and confidence, onboard them to the new cloud and continue supporting them in navigating the new environment.  

Crafting a successful cloud migration

Cloud migration is a strategic process that requires careful assessment, batch planning, structured migration, and rigorous validation. By following the steps mentioned above — assessment, segregation, migration, and validation — you can ensure a streamlined transition and minimize disruption.

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Edited by Supanna Das