Cloud Migration Strategy

Roadmap: How to Bring Cloud

Costs Down While Retaining
Value in Every Step
IBA Group

© 2024 IBA Group

Contents
Introduction 03

The Key Stages, Info Resources 04

and People Required
Planning 05

Environment choosing 08

Migrating 09

Validating 10

Common Mistakes & How 11

to Prevent Them

How to Choose the Right Cloud 14

Migration Partner

About Us 16

IBA Group | Contents 2

Introduction

According to a recent survey by McKinsey & Company, which explored the value

derived from cloud adoption, it has been shown that true value in the cloud comes

from focusing on business operations and achieving scalability. The findings

emphasize that effective cloud utilization at scale should prioritize return on

investment (ROI) over the sheer number of cloud workloads. It was found that

ROI breakeven points for migrated workloads vary and need to be assessed

individually to determine the optimal level of cloud adoption. For instance, a 40

percent adoption rate is necessary to achieve a positive eight-year ROI, whereas

exceeding an 80 percent adoption rate results in more costs than benefits.



Therefore, crafting a deliberate strategy is more crucial than ever to maximize the

effectiveness and financial benefits of cloud technologies.

IBA Group| Introduction 3

The Key Stages, Info

Resources and People

Required

Planning 05

Environment choosing 08

Migrating 09

Validating 10

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 4
In a nutshell, each cloud migration

project has four stages:

Planning

First and foremost, you need to agree on an approach that your cloud migration partner

will use. At the planning stage, you may also request that the architecture be adapted to

reduce expenses on infrastructure. 


In some cases, you’ll need a brand-new infrastructure; at IBA, our goal is to help the

Customer decrease the total cost of ownership and introduce new features, if necessary.

Some legacy systems arrived before the introduction of cloud computing. While you can

migrate most of these systems to the cloud, planning is essential. When planning, it is vital

to decide whether legacy resources require re-platforming, refactoring, or replacing.

To plan a successful migration, you must have 100% visibility and comprehension of all

organizational resources and workloads—dependencies included. You should also assess

which workloads are best suited for the cloud based on various factors such as bandwidth

requirements, data volume, and security and compliance considerations.

A sound idea to understand whether there are any cost advantages to capture is

to perform an expense breakdown using a calculator offered by a cloud provider

of your choice:

AWS Google Cloud Platform

Microsoft Azure IBM Cloud

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 5
The cloud has democratized access to technology, and there are offerings that cover every

possible customer need, from multiple architectures to varying services and performance

levels. This explosion of choice can cause costs to spiral out of control when not managed

with shared accountability across a business.

That is why we recommend that our clients start their cloud journey with an infrastructure

assessment, so they can maximize the value of the cloud. Our technology experts and

enterprise architects focus on your specific requirements and desired outcomes of the

data migration. Together, we build a roadmap that meets your exact needs.

What will you find inside:

01. 02.
a clear breakdown of what the project needs in ideas for optimizing the solution in the new

terms of resources and costs, along with stack (it may require re-platforming,

options that suit various budget requirements. refactoring, or replacing, and architecture

This approach allows you to make informed changes)

decisions that align with your financial plan

and business goals

03. 04.
recommendations to enhance data security and compliance requirements and

consolidation, storage, and analytics recommendations, as moving to the cloud

requires a different security approach than on-

premises infrastructure

05. 06.
list of technical risks during the migration list of opportunities for business innovation

due to the implementation of predictive

modeling and analytics

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 6
We encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities for your

business to cut unnecessary costs and save time, and to explore the cutting-

edge possibilities of cloud computing before making investment decisions.

Ordering the infrastructure assessment will be completely free and does not

oblige you to cooperate further with us. As your cloud data management

implementation partner, we see the necessity for businesses to refocus

from aggressive growth to maintaining a healthy balance as never before.

GET YOUR NO-CHARGE INFRASTRUCTURE ASSESSMENT

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 7
Environment

choosing

The range of cloud models you can adopt

is vast—private, public, hybrid, or multi-

cloud. The final decision on which to pick

must be made based on your needs and

application requirements. Suppose you

have two types of data, namely sensitive

data and your regular transactional data;

in this case, it would be wise to opt for a

hybrid model to provide an extra layer of

security where it’s critical.

There are two general guidelines for

cloud pricing: the cloud can be less

expensive than on-premises or more

costly than on-premises. Whether these

guidelines hold depends on the particular

circumstances. Current market

tendencies indicate that hardware and

infrastructure expenses are decreasing

while computer processing power is

improving continuously , reducing

computing power costs.

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 8
Migrating

After you have carefully planned out the

process and made a choice regarding the

environment, you can proceed with the

migration itself. The main objective you

should concentrate on is ensuring

maximal uptime for the end user while

the migration is being carried out.

Otherwise, you may suffer significant

financial losses, not to mention

reputational ones.

You should also make sure to reflect

changes you make to the source system

in the target one until the migration

process is successfully completed so that

nothing gets lost along the way and all

elements operate as intended in the new

environment.

Most expenses associated with cloud

migration are related to labor rather than

infrastructure and platform services.

Therefore, employing a migration-ready

solution that incorporates various

available tools and best practices can

expedite your transition to the cloud

while reducing costs.

Numerous companies jump into the

cloud due to the hype surrounding it and

the fear of missing out (FOMO) coming

from their C-level executives. Embarking

on cloud migration without considering

all the implications, however, can lead to

increased costs, reduced security during

the transition, and a potential failure.

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 9
Validating

Once you’ve migrated to the cloud, you need to validate if everything works as intended

and if there is no malfunctioning. One way to do that is through running unit, system,

volume, online application, and batch application tests. Another is to compare the pre-

and post-migration performance of your application, both in technical and business

terms, for which you’ll need a baseline (more on that below).

To build a proper roadmap, McKinsey advises that you answer the following

questions in advance:

Dependencies on other Security controls required by

applications the application

Services consumed by the Data required by the application

application

The underlying The business risks

technology architecture of performing migration

The costs of cloud-

deployment options

As for the professionals required, their number and

roles will vary depending on your particular case. For

an MVP, IBA provides a 3.5-FTE team dedicated to

your project, which consists of at least five

members: 2 Data Engineers, 1 DevOps Engineer, 1

Data Architect, and 1 Manager (SCRUM-master,

delivery manager). Although this number is sufficient

to generate noticeable value, it can be expanded

upon request based on your specific needs. From

your side, we’ll need representatives from the IT

department and business units to answer questions

that may arise during development.

IBA Group| The Key Stages, Info Resources, and People Required 10
Common Mistakes &
How to Prevent Them

IBA Group| Common Mistakes & How to Prevent Them 11

Some of the common strategic mistakes
organizations make when moving to the cloud are:

Neglecting
migration KPIs
Before proceeding with the cloud migration
project, you need to determine which areas you
want to improve specifically and the exact
extent of that improvement.

For that, you need to have a pre-migration

performance baseline at the ready. Without it,
you won’t be able to tell whether migration to
the cloud has brought anticipated results to
your business operations.

Not differentiating
between the clouds
It is a common misconception that all cloud
environments are the same—a subscription-
based platform that stores data, requires no
hardware investment, and allows access from
anywhere. The truth is that each cloud
environment is configured differently, with
distinct functions and capabilities.

To avoid issues and unanticipated delays in the

middle of migration, conduct thorough research
and select the cloud environment that best
meets your requirements in advance. You must
also carefully study your new cloud
environments once they appear upon migration.

IBA Group| Common Mistakes & How to Prevent Them 12

Failing to consider

post-migration expenses
To determine whether your cloud environment has met the desired benchmarks and
whether it’s appropriate to shut down the original systems, you need to comprehend the
performance of your current environment, not only its expenses. Without this knowledge,
you may end up maintaining parallel environments (on-prem and cloud) for much longer
than intended.

When calculating the cost of migration, find the average cost of running parallel
environments, and add to that everything you spend on software, network, and labor. Then
divide that amount by the number of periods it will take the original target environment to
retire successfully.

IBA Group| Common Mistakes & How to Prevent Them 13

How to Choose the Right
Cloud Migration Partner

IBA Group| How to Choose the Right Cloud Migration Partner 14

When picking a cloud migration partner, you must
do your own research. It might be helpful to ask
the following:

Projects that have been finished;

Experience of working with legacy;

The span of the tech stack;

Categories of customers in the

portfolio (for when you need
narrow expertise, e.g., in banking);

Ongoing post-migration support

and knowledge transfer;

MVP scope and what comes with it;

The availability of consulting (TCO,

turnkey or not, etc.);

The SLA and deliverables (e.g., issue

identification and resolution;
responsibilities; timeframes; logging
and claiming).

IBA Group| How to Choose the Right Cloud Migration Partner 15

About Us
No matter which cloud services provider you choose, we at IBA Group will always help you
migrate seamlessly with our cloud solutions, which provide turnkey analysis of the current
landscape, the design of an optimal solution for the target infrastructure, the
implementation of the solution and data migration, verification of the implemented
solution, and warranty support.

Unlike migration by your in-house specialists, the provided solution is built from a wide
range of available tools and best practices, allowing you to implement migration
seamlessly without affecting your business from the first release.

Despite the fact that today's cloud technologies are booming and seem like the go-to
solution for everything, we strongly recommend starting with a rethink of your data
architecture. You see, what worked in the past might not be the best fit for your current or
future business needs. Jumping straight into migration might not always be the wisest
move by default. It's crucial to tailor your approach to what your business really needs,
rather than following the tech trend of the moment.

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IBA Group | About Us 16