Cloud Migration
Embracing cloud migration: A smarter way to evolve your tech stack
Cloud migration is no longer just a forward-thinking idea—it has become a practical move for businesses seeking greater agility, efficiency, and resilience. Cloud migration is often a key phase within a broader cloud transformation, which involves comprehensive changes to both IT infrastructure and business operations to fully realise the benefits of cloud computing. By moving to the cloud, organisations can simplify their IT operations, reduce unnecessary spending, and respond more effectively to market shifts. It’s a strategic way to unlock business value, align technology with organisational goals, and future-proof your technology while opening new avenues for innovation.
What is cloud migration?
Cloud migration is the process of shifting digital assets—including data, applications, and entire systems—from traditional on-premises environments to cloud-based infrastructure. Rather than relying on internal servers, businesses adopt public, private, or hybrid cloud solutions to achieve greater flexibility and scalability.
But it’s more than just a technical transition. It’s a company-wide transformation that affects the way you manage operations, deliver services, and innovate. Before beginning this journey, organisations must evaluate their cloud readiness and select appropriate cloud migration strategies to ensure a successful transition. Whether you’re rehosting existing systems or modernising them with cloud-native features, migration has become an essential step for businesses of all sizes looking to modernise their digital landscape.
The benefits of cloud migration
Migrating to the cloud delivers a wide range of benefits that go beyond IT enhancements. From lowering infrastructure costs and improving responsiveness, to speeding up innovation and enhancing customer experience—cloud technology helps businesses become more adaptable and competitive. Teams are able to build and deploy faster, gain real-time insights, and reduce maintenance burdens—all while increasing operational flexibility.
Choosing the right cloud solution is essential for organisations to overcome common cloud migration challenges such as infrastructure incompatibility, security support, application dependencies, and migration costs, ensuring they maximise the benefits of migration.
Modernise your UK infrastructure
No matter where you are in your cloud journey, SADA provides the technical expertise to support you. Their specialists are well-versed in complex cloud architectures, including hybrid and multicloud strategies. As your business scales, SADA helps you innovate confidently and efficiently, ensuring your infrastructure grows in line with your ambitions. Working with the right cloud vendors is essential for building robust hybrid and multicloud architectures.
Maximise your value
Optimise your cloud investment with cost-saving strategies tailored to your environment. Monitoring and managing cloud costs is essential for ongoing cloud infrastructure optimisation, ensuring you maintain cost-effectiveness as your needs evolve. SADA’s FinOps experts ensure you’re only paying for the resources you actually need, helping you avoid overspend while maintaining operational efficiency. From infrastructure reviews to ongoing optimisation, every penny is aligned to drive core business outcomes with room to grow.
Reduce risk
While cloud migration offers significant benefits, it’s a critical undertaking that needs proper planning. SADA works alongside you to avoid common pitfalls, ensuring minimal disruption and a smooth transition. With the right roadmap in place from the outset, you gain peace of mind as you progress towards deployment.
Additionally, understanding and aligning service level agreements is essential to minimise risk and maintain the expected service quality throughout and after the migration process.
Scalability
One of the key advantages of moving to the cloud is the ability to scale effortlessly. Whether you're responding to a surge in users or preparing for long-term growth, cloud resources adjust dynamically. There's no need to invest heavily in hardware that may go unused—cloud environments expand and contract with your needs.
Performance
Cloud infrastructure is designed for high performance. Businesses benefit from faster application speeds, greater reliability, and higher availability than traditional on-site systems. With cloud services, downtime is reduced and performance levels improve, delivering a better experience for both users and internal teams.
Cost
Switching to the cloud allows organisations to shift from large capital investments to manageable operational costs. Instead of buying and maintaining servers, you pay only for what you use. This flexible pricing model supports smarter financial planning and reduces unnecessary waste.
Digital experience
With faster, more reliable systems running in the background, businesses are able to deliver improved user experiences. Whether it's seamless service delivery or personalised interactions, the cloud empowers organisations to meet digital expectations and stand out in a competitive market.
A tough critique of your own tech environment
Preparing for migration naturally prompts a thorough review of your current technology. This review includes evaluating each existing application and identifying legacy applications that may need to be retired, replaced, or modernised as part of the migration process. This process often reveals outdated tools, inefficiencies, or security gaps—creating an opportunity to rethink your IT setup and improve business continuity before moving forward.
AppDev agility
Developers benefit greatly from cloud environments, with access to modern development tools, pre-configured platforms, and streamlined workflows. The cloud supports agile practices and shortens release cycles, making it easier to deliver updates, features, and products more quickly.
Pay-per-use model
The cloud's pricing model is based on actual usage. Rather than paying for capacity you don’t use, your organisation only pays for the compute, storage, and bandwidth it consumes. This makes budgeting simpler and eliminates hidden costs often associated with legacy infrastructure.
Self-service provisioning
Cloud platforms empower teams with self-service capabilities, giving them direct access to deploy and manage resources without waiting for IT intervention. This autonomy accelerates project delivery, supports rapid experimentation, and encourages a more agile development culture.
Constant innovation
Cloud providers continuously upgrade their platforms with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and edge computing. Businesses benefit from regular access to cutting-edge tools without having to manage updates or maintain infrastructure manually.
How does the cloud migration process work?
Migrating to the cloud is a crucial milestone for today’s organisations aiming to enhance scalability, agility, and cost-effectiveness. However, it’s far from a simple switch. To ensure a successful transition, it is essential to develop a comprehensive cloud migration plan and a well-structured cloud migration strategy that aligns with business goals and guides every phase of the process.
Cloud migration is a structured, multi-phase process that demands strategic planning, precise execution, and ongoing management to realise its full value. Here’s a breakdown of the key stages involved in a typical migration journey.
Strategic planning and initial assessment
A successful migration begins with careful groundwork. Organisations must gain a clear understanding of both their current IT landscape and overarching business objectives. This stage lays the groundwork for a smooth migration and ensures the cloud strategy supports long-term business goals.
Define business objectives
It’s essential to establish the purpose behind your migration. Are you seeking greater flexibility, cost reduction, global scalability, or modernised infrastructure? Defining specific objectives from the outset helps teams align efforts, prioritise workloads, and select an appropriate migration strategy.
Assess current applications and infrastructure
Conducting a thorough assessment of your existing environment is key. This involves cataloguing existing applications, identifying dependencies, and reviewing performance metrics. Such analysis enables you to decide which systems are cloud-ready, which require re-architecting, and which are better retired.
Risk and compliance analysis
Security and regulatory considerations must be addressed early, especially in highly regulated sectors such as healthcare and finance. Ensuring compliance with standards like GDPR or HIPAA is vital. Early identification of compliance risks minimises issues further along the migration process.
Migration design and planning
With a clear picture of your environment and goals, the next step is to design a detailed migration strategy. This phase ensures your cloud setup is robust, scalable, and aligned with your future needs.
Develop a migration plan
Your migration plan should outline each phase, including timelines, ownership, and contingency steps. Workloads should be categorised based on complexity and business criticality. Whether opting for lift-and-shift or re-architecting, the plan should reflect practical timelines and risk mitigation tactics. Selecting appropriate migration tools is also essential to ensure an efficient and reliable migration process.
Design cloud architecture
An effective cloud architecture must accommodate performance, scalability, and resilience. Factors to consider include data locality, network latency, regional availability, and failover design. A thoughtful architecture ensures your systems can scale seamlessly and remain reliable under pressure.
Choose the right tools and technologies
Cloud migration tools, whether native or third-party, are essential for streamlining and automating the migration process, enabling efficient transfer of data and workloads to various cloud platforms. The tools you choose should align with your migration method and integrate well within your chosen cloud ecosystem. Automation, monitoring, and workload assessment tools are particularly valuable.
Migration execution
With the blueprint ready, it’s time to execute the migration. This phase involves transferring data, moving applications, and conducting comprehensive testing to ensure everything functions as expected.
Data transfer and replication
Data migration is typically the first technical step, involving moving data from on-premises systems to the cloud provider's servers. Depending on data volume and infrastructure, this may be done using physical appliances or online methods. Techniques such as real-time replication and incremental syncing help to minimise disruption and ensure consistency.
Application migration
Once data is in place, applications can be migrated in stages. Differences in operating systems between on-premises and cloud environments can present compatibility challenges during migration. Less critical applications are usually moved first to identify any issues early. Some applications may be moved without changes, while others may need updates or complete reworking for cloud compatibility.
Testing and validation
Before full transition, rigorous testing is essential. Functionality checks, performance testing, and data integrity verification ensure everything works correctly. It’s also important to test disaster recovery processes, access permissions, and system integrations to confirm operational readiness.
Post-migration optimisation and operations
Migrating to the cloud is just the beginning. Ongoing maintenance, optimisation, and support are essential to ensure long-term success and to get the most from your cloud investment.
Effective cloud operations are crucial for managing and optimising your new cloud infrastructure. Additionally, organisations should plan for potential cloud-to-cloud migration in the future as business needs and technology requirements evolve.
Monitoring and management
After migration, continuous monitoring is vital. Using cloud-native monitoring tools, teams can keep an eye on system performance, availability, and security. These tools enable rapid response to issues and help maintain optimal performance across all services.
Cost and performance optimisation
The cloud’s pay-as-you-go model is beneficial but can also lead to overspending if left unchecked. Regular reviews of usage, automated scaling, and the elimination of idle resources help to control costs and ensure resources are used efficiently.
Training and support
Adapting to a cloud-first environment requires a shift in both technology and mindset. Providing comprehensive training, clear documentation, and accessible support allows staff to operate effectively within the new system and take full advantage of its capabilities.
Migration deployment models
Selecting the appropriate cloud deployment model is a crucial step in any cloud migration journey. The main models—public, private, hybrid, and multicloud—each come with unique benefits tailored to different business objectives, regulatory frameworks, and workload demands. Hybrid clouds combine public and private environments, and hybrid cloud migration strategies enable organisations to balance flexibility and control when moving and managing workloads across both on-premises data centers and public cloud environments. Gaining a clear understanding of these models enables organisations to develop a cloud strategy that fosters innovation, scalability, and operational resilience.
Public cloud
Public cloud services are provided via the internet by external vendors who oversee the infrastructure and associated resources. While these services are shared across multiple customers, each tenant’s data and applications remain securely partitioned.
This model is valued for its scalability, agility, and pay-as-you-go cost structure. It is particularly appealing to start-ups, SMEs, and enterprises seeking rapid expansion without significant capital outlay on hardware. Despite offering access to leading-edge technologies and worldwide reach, it may raise concerns for businesses dealing with highly confidential data, particularly around data sovereignty and compliance.
Private cloud
A private cloud is dedicated solely to one organisation, ensuring exclusive access to computing resources. This can be managed internally or hosted by a third party, but the infrastructure remains segregated from other clients.
Private clouds are often chosen to meet strict security and compliance requirements, allowing organisations to address regulatory and data protection needs effectively. Private cloud solutions provide heightened security, greater customisability, and are well-suited for organisations with rigorous compliance or performance requirements, common in sectors such as finance, healthcare, or the public sector. However, these benefits often come at a higher cost and require more complex infrastructure management, either in-house or via a managed service provider.
Hybrid cloud
The hybrid cloud model combines elements of both public and private cloud environments, allowing organisations to distribute workloads based on their sensitivity, compliance needs, and performance demands. This approach facilitates seamless data movement and application interoperability across platforms.
Many businesses adopt a hybrid model to keep critical or sensitive workloads in a secure private cloud or on-premises, while utilising the public cloud for more flexible, less regulated tasks. This configuration offers a pragmatic balance between control, cost-efficiency, and scalability, and supports a more phased approach to cloud adoption.
Multicloud
A multicloud strategy entails the use of services from multiple cloud providers. This approach helps minimise reliance on any single vendor, enhances redundancy, and allows organisations to tap into best-in-class capabilities across different platforms.
It offers significant flexibility—organisations can select specific tools or services based on performance needs, regional availability, or pricing advantages. That said, a successful multicloud deployment demands strong integration frameworks, consistent governance, and robust security measures to prevent fragmentation and ensure streamlined operations.
Partnering with experienced service providers can help organisations manage the complexity of multicloud environments and ensure seamless integration.
Types of cloud migration
Cloud migration is far from a one-size-fits-all endeavour. The right approach depends on your organisation’s specific goals, IT environment, and long-term vision.
When planning to migrate to the cloud, organisations can choose from several approaches. Understanding the different types of cloud migrations is essential for selecting the right strategy.
There are six main strategies that businesses frequently adopt when transitioning to the cloud.
Rehosting
Rehosting, often known as “lift and shift,” entails moving applications to the cloud without altering their core structure or underlying code. It’s a popular choice for organisations looking to migrate swiftly with minimal disruption. While it may not take full advantage of cloud-native capabilities, it’s a straightforward and cost-effective entry point into cloud computing.
Replatforming
Replatforming goes a step beyond rehosting by making modest improvements to better align applications with the cloud environment. This might involve upgrading components, switching to managed services, or introducing limited automation. It strikes a balance between performance gains and minimal development effort, making it a pragmatic option for many teams.
Repurchasing
With repurchasing, businesses move away from their existing solution in favour of a cloud-native alternative, such as transitioning from on-premises software to a SaaS platform. This strategy is ideal when legacy systems become too costly or inefficient to maintain and when a modern replacement offers superior features and scalability.
Refactoring
Refactoring requires re-architecting or rewriting applications to be fully optimised for the cloud. This may involve adopting modern technologies such as containers, microservices, or serverless frameworks. Though it requires more investment in terms of time and resources, refactoring enables organisations to unlock maximum cloud value through greater scalability, agility, and long-term innovation.
Retaining
In some cases, it makes sense to keep certain workloads or systems on-premises, either temporarily or permanently. Regulatory requirements, data sovereignty concerns, or technical limitations may make cloud migration impractical for specific applications. Retaining these systems allows businesses to focus cloud efforts where they deliver the most value, without forcing a full migration.
Retiring
Through the assessment phase, some applications may be flagged as no longer useful or duplicative. Retiring these systems helps reduce operational clutter, cut costs, and simplify the technology stack. It’s a vital step in ensuring that only necessary and value-driving workloads make the move to the cloud.
The challenges of cloud migration
Although migrating to the cloud offers a range of benefits, it also comes with several challenges that must be navigated carefully to ensure a smooth and effective transition. Migrating legacy applications, transitioning from on-premises infrastructure, and protecting sensitive data are among the most significant challenges organisations face during cloud migration. Businesses can expect to encounter both technical complexities and organisational hurdles throughout the journey.
Network latency
Transferring applications and data to the cloud can introduce latency issues, particularly when frequent interaction with on-premises systems is still required. Such delays can affect system performance and responsiveness. To address this, organisations may need to upgrade their network infrastructure or consider hybrid cloud configurations that balance local and cloud-based operations.
Data residency
In many sectors, strict data residency requirements govern where data can be stored and processed. Cloud migration must therefore be planned with these rules in mind, especially when working with global cloud providers whose data centres span multiple regions. Ensuring compliance with these geographic constraints is essential to avoid legal and regulatory pitfalls.
Complexity
Migrating to the cloud is rarely straightforward. It can involve the movement of numerous applications, legacy systems, and tightly integrated workflows. Managing this level of complexity demands clear governance, highly skilled teams, and robust project management to ensure each stage aligns with strategic business objectives.
Data and application security
Security is a critical concern throughout the migration lifecycle. The process of transferring data and updating systems can expose vulnerabilities if not properly controlled. To mitigate risks, organisations should apply strong encryption, implement strict access controls, and follow cloud-specific security best practices at every stage.
Organisational changes
Cloud migration is not just a technical shift—it often requires a cultural one. Teams may need to adapt to new tools, develop different skill sets, and embrace revised processes. Supporting staff through training and change management is crucial to ensuring they are equipped and confident to operate in the new environment.
Business support
It’s important to secure executive sponsorship for any successful cloud migration. Without clear backing from leadership and collaboration across departments, projects can face resistance or lose momentum. Effective communication and visible support from senior stakeholders are vital to drive the initiative forward and maintain alignment with business goals.
Six cloud migration steps
Migrating to the cloud is more than just relocating data—it’s a strategic move that redefines how your organisation functions. There is a six-step approach designed to simplify the migration journey while ensuring minimal disruption. Each phase is built on the last, offering a clear and secure path towards a successful cloud transition.
1. Discover
Begin by gaining a full picture of your current IT estate. This includes identifying applications, workloads, data sets, and interdependencies within your on-premises data center. During this discovery stage, assess which components are ready for cloud adoption and which may require updating or replatforming. A thorough understanding at this point helps avoid complications later and provides a solid base for the next stages.
2. Design
With your current environment mapped out, the focus shifts to designing your future cloud architecture. This step involves selecting suitable cloud services, defining the target operating model, and choosing the right migration strategy—whether that be lift-and-shift, replatforming, or a complete rebuild. A considered design promotes flexibility, durability, and long-term cost-effectiveness.
3. Build
Now it’s time to create your cloud environment. This involves provisioning resources, setting up networking, configuring access permissions, and implementing essential security protocols. Your team will also develop automation tools and deployment pipelines, helping to streamline the upcoming integration and testing activities.
4. Integrate
Integration is crucial to ensure that cloud services operate seamlessly with existing systems. This might include synchronising data streams, establishing APIs, and aligning business logic. It’s also an ideal opportunity to modernise workflows, eliminate duplicate systems, and improve operational efficiency.
5. Validate
Before moving into production, the new environment must be rigorously tested. This includes running performance checks, conducting security reviews, and engaging users in acceptance testing. Any issues uncovered can be addressed proactively, reducing the likelihood of setbacks during launch.
6. Cut Over
The final step involves shifting from your legacy system to the new cloud-based setup. This transition should be tightly managed to keep disruption to a minimum. Once live, continuous monitoring ensures that all systems perform reliably and that any issues are swiftly resolved, supporting a smooth and confident go-live experience.
Cloud migration tips and best practices
While the six core steps provide a solid framework for a successful migration, adhering to best practices throughout the process helps sidestep common mistakes and ensures long-term success. Below are key recommendations from industry experts.
1. Clearly define the scope of your project
Setting a clear scope ensures that all teams are aligned, expectations are managed, and scope creep is avoided. Know precisely which workloads, data, and services will be migrated, and establish clear boundaries for timelines and deliverables. This clarity helps maintain focus and makes it easier to measure outcomes.
2. Discover dependencies and integrations
Overlooking critical dependencies can derail even the best-planned migration. Use automated discovery tools or detailed architectural diagrams to pinpoint how your applications interact. This prevents broken connections and service interruptions during the transition.
Leveraging cloud migration services can help organisations identify and manage complex dependencies during migration.
3. Find ways to add value
Seek opportunities to enhance your setup—can you streamline manual tasks, boost performance, or reduce costs with features like auto-scaling? Adding value during migration makes your cloud investment far more worthwhile.
4. Map your business processes to the new application
Understanding how teams engage with technology is essential. Mapping your business processes ensures essential workflows continue seamlessly in the cloud environment. This promotes user adoption and helps maintain operational stability.
5. Back up everything
Always create full backups before initiating any migration. Even with meticulous preparation, unforeseen issues can arise. A dependable backup ensures you can roll back quickly if needed, safeguarding your data and minimising disruption.
6. Focus on data security during and after the migration
Security should be a central consideration throughout the migration. Encrypt data during transit, apply robust access controls in your cloud environment, and conduct regular security audits. After migration, maintain continuous monitoring to detect threats and ensure regulatory compliance.
SADA's cloud services
SADA, An Insight company, delivers an extensive range of cloud services to support organisations of all sizes in unlocking the full potential of cloud technology. As a leading Google Cloud Premier Partner, SADA enables businesses to accelerate innovation, reduce operational costs, and enhance efficiency across sectors. From strategic advisory to long-term operational support, each solution is tailored to the client’s specific needs.
Google cloud services
SADA, a multi-time Google Cloud Partner of the Year, brings deep expertise across Google Cloud, from Google Workspace to GCP infrastructure, analytics, and AI. Clients benefit from faster deployments, tailored integrations, and expert-led digital transformation.
Change management
Transitioning to the cloud requires more than just technical upgrades—it demands cultural adaptation. SADA’s change management services are designed to facilitate user adoption, improve workflows, and build cloud fluency across teams. With tailored training programmes, stakeholder engagement plans, and adoption roadmaps, SADA empowers people to embrace and thrive in the cloud.
Cloud consulting
SADA’s cloud consulting services guide organisations through the planning, execution, and refinement of their cloud strategies. Collaborating closely with stakeholders, SADA evaluates existing IT infrastructure, identifies business priorities, and designs scalable, future-ready cloud solutions. Their consultative, insight-driven approach ensures businesses make confident decisions and steer clear of common pitfalls.
Cloud architecture & migration
A seamless migration begins with solid architectural design. SADA builds secure, scalable, and efficient cloud environments aligned with each organisation’s goals. Whether rehosting existing systems, modernising applications, or restructuring platforms, SADA delivers migrations with minimal disruption. The process is fully managed from initial planning and architecture to deployment and final validation.
Cloud cost optimisation
Achieving cloud success involves both performance and financial efficiency. SADA supports businesses in uncovering opportunities to optimise costs across their cloud environment. By analysing billing patterns, right-sizing resources, and applying native Google Cloud cost management tools, SADA helps clients reduce waste and ensure ongoing financial control as business needs change.
Managed cloud services
Once migrated, managing the cloud can be demanding. SADA’s managed services lift that responsibility from internal teams by providing around-the-clock monitoring, performance tuning, security oversight, and technical support. These proactive services allow organisations to focus on innovation while maintaining operational stability and security.
Hybrid & multicloud services
Some workloads are better suited to hybrid or multicloud environments. SADA works with organisations to develop strategies that combine on-premises, public, and multicloud platforms in a unified, efficient architecture. This approach provides greater flexibility, enhances resilience, and ensures regulatory compliance while maintaining optimal performance.
Location-based services
Through the power of the Google Maps Platform and advanced geospatial solutions, SADA helps businesses deliver smarter, location-aware services. From real-time tracking and logistics to targeted, location-driven marketing, these tools enable organisations to gain valuable insights and enhance user experiences. SADA ensures seamless integration of geolocation data into applications to unlock new value and capability.
FAQ
Cloud migration is the process of moving your company's digital assets, like data, applications, and IT resources, from your own on-site computers (on-premises) to a cloud computing environment (like Google Cloud, AWS, or Azure).
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