Assess cloud migration readiness and complexity for on-premises technologies

Overview

Cloud readiness is not a binary attribute and is not uniformly distributed across the technology portfolio. Technologies exist on a spectrum from fully cloud-ready to inherently on-premises, with a continuum in between that could be migrated with varying degrees of rework, dependent-application impact, and operational adjustment. Without a systematic cloud readiness assessment applied consistently, migration cost and complexity are routinely underestimated before commitments are made.

Best Practice

Conduct a cloud readiness assessment for every on-premises technology being considered for migration, addressing five dimensions: architectural readiness; infrastructure dependencies on specific on-premises hardware or network configurations difficult to replicate in cloud; data and compliance constraints restricting cloud deployment options; performance requirements cloud deployment may not meet in its initial configuration; and integration complexity, drawing on Technology Spread analysis to identify how many dependent applications would be affected and how complex adapting them will be.

Figure: Cloud Migration Readiness Heatmap — Cloud migration should be based on readiness, complexity, and economics rather than ideology.

Benefit(s)

Cloud readiness assessment produces migration plans grounded in the actual characteristics of the technologies being migrated. Migration costs are estimated more accurately because the architectural work required is understood before commitments are made. Migration sequencing is informed by readiness, and the organization avoids the most common and costly cloud migration failure mode: discovering mid-program that remaining technologies require substantially more work than initially assessed.