How to successfully perform a cloud migration in Africa

Posted by Xebia Middle East on October 5th, 2021

Organizations across the globe are investing a lot into the cloud to drive their businesses to gain competitive advantages. They hire a suitable Digital Transformation Agency in SA for this purpose to become more agile, provide better customer experiences, and improve the efficiency of their systems and processes. An optimized infrastructure may have different parameters for every organization but consists usually of a combination of the private, public, and traditional IT environments. Regardless of whether the company hires an agency or ventures on their own on the cloud migration, here are a few things that can give them success.

Develop a strategy

Any cloud migration in Africa or anywhere else in the world needs to start with a clear strategy. This should establish the baseline of the IT infrastructure and map the assets, workloads, applications, and more. This baseline will help define the key performance indicators of the system once everything has migrated to the cloud. This strategy development should include higher management to ensure that the business objectives are prioritized over technology. The involvement of higher management will also help define any disruptions to the business and take suitable steps to mitigate them. 

Identify the applications and the cloud

The first step that any Digital Transformation Agency in SA takes is to make a list of the different applications, software, and other complexities typical to the system at an organization. Not every application is cloud-friendly and may require choosing between a hybrid, private, or public cloud or tweak its code in some manner. Such an analysis will define the architecture and implementation requirements for the migration. This assessment will also help decide which tools and environments may be required to help provide the organization support and traction. The selected cloud should also be able to handle complex tasks. 

Data integrity and continuity

Managing the risks is a crucial part of any cloud migration in Africa. Sensitive data of the organization may get exposed during migration and needs to be verified post-migration. This is critical to building any automated processes without disrupting any of the operations. A digital transformation agency will usually adopt an end-to-end approach for most cloud migrations. This is a proven and effective methodology that addresses all concerns of the migration process. It also helps manage complex transactions as mentioned in the agreements and milestones. This ensures that the migration process proceeds as per the defined and expected results.

Perform the cloud migration

Any organization or Digital Transformation Agency in SA that has followed the previous steps properly should be able to move all data, applications, software, and more easily to the cloud. But one must keep in mind that this migration in itself is dependent upon the architecture and complexity of the applications and data. One should also ensure that after a successful move of the entire community of resources to the cloud, the system is tested to ensure it works as expected. Some organizations prefer a piecemeal approach to ensure businesses are not entirely disrupted during cloud migrations.