Many businesses are hampered by outdated and complex systems that are holding them back. The IT migration process is often vital to boost innovation and efficiency. At the same time, IT migrations are complex, require large-scale change management efforts with significant investment and risk which need to be carefully planned and managed. So how do you get it right?
The COVID-19 pandemic has encouraged businesses to be agile and also adapt to a fast-changing environment, and for an adaptive IT environment, the cloud-base environment is the answer. Migrating to the cloud system is not easy and requires a well-thought strategy. More than ever, legacy application migrations are critical to helping companies stay in business and ahead of their competition.
If you are wondering what could help in the IT migration process, here are some high-level migration tips:
Systems that run in parallel
When moving into IT migration, one of the tips to be considered is to keep the systems run I parallel. The old system should be kept functioning while the new one is being built. This is very important since helps you prevent operational stops and reduce the risk of unexpected activities.
Data inputs identification
Instead of trying to understand everything about the legacy system, it is suggested to nail down the data input and also the places where the data needs to be sent. This is at the same time efficient and effective.
Intelligence
You will need intelligence to understand both the business rules and also the old system, this will help minimize confusion and faster the process. It is a strategical and tactical action in IT migration, which allows you to ultra-focus on the delivery.
Establish operations first
If your company has adapted DevOps methodology, here comes the good news, you will be able to have an efficient migration. It is important that before everything else you focus on building a CI/CD platform for your development team. The team needs to be accountable for their work and also work in a more proactive way, which will lead to fixing the problems on short notice.
Divide and conquer
Use microservices to divide and conquer. This will allow you to tackle different problems by following different approaches and use different data models. Deploying microservices in containers can also improve traceability, reliability, and portability.
Security
During your IT migration process pay special attention to modernizing security practices and make sure to do so as early as possible. Why? Because new technologies can threaten old security systems. This means that organizations need to revisit their investment in DevOps and in shifting security left.
Depending on the nature of their business, some companies can settle on one migration plan that works across the board. For others, though, a hybrid cloud migration approach may be needed to achieve the best results for migrating data.
There is no "magical action" to move your applications to a new environment. Each business application is different, and consequently, the migration event for each application must be carefully planned.
IT migration shouldn’t be viewed as a necessary evil, instead a fantastic opportunity to boost innovation and efficiency. It’s a moment that allows a CIO or IT team to take a step back and think about business goals, and how technology will help the business get there faster. These steps – to a structured and well-thought-out IT migration – will help to unlock the innovation and efficiency that this process can offer.
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