2020/06/10 10:29:36

Check list: what not to forget when migrating to the cloud?

TAdviser continues a series of publications in a new format - "Check List." In these materials, we share useful application information on the use of various technologies. In this material, we collected practical advice on how to move to clouds easily and quickly. Georgy Megrelishvili, Executive Director of SBClaud, helped to understand the intricacies of preparing the company's own IT systems for migration to the clouds and in choosing a provider.

Before migration

Identify the business tasks to be addressed by the migration to cloud

Key tasks usually include:

overcoming the limitations of own IT systems and the ability to increase capacity at peak loads; Transforming CAPEX into OPEX by reducing the cost of developing IT infrastructure, building and upgrading its own data centers; Decrease in time-to-market faster launch of new information systems; reduced risks when predicting requirements for computing resources.

Шаблон:Quote 'author = Georgy Megrelishvili, Executive Director of SBClaud

Monitor performance In order not to schedule the consumption of redundant cloud resources, experts strongly recommend monitoring the performance of existing IT systems before migration.

Inventory all items that are preparing to migrate The most important thing is to conduct an "audit" of what is planned to be transferred to the cloud. It is important to understand the equipment on which applications operate, which operating systems, what specialized and application software is involved. Some servers may no longer be used for operating systems or the amount of available resources may be redundant. It is advisable to take performance monitoring data into account when performing an inventory.

Identify Cloud Resource Needs Based on the results of the inventory, it is necessary to determine the need for resources, operating systems, application and specialized software, as well as information security tools.

Provider Selection

Decide on cloud model choices

There are two models: The first is the cloud minimum - the provider ensures exclusively the availability of virtual machines. There is a more comprehensive approach: the provider provides resources, infrastructure (IaaS), and software (SaaS), as well as provides integration and technical support services. In this case, the provider plays the role of an integrator and takes on the assessment of resource requirements, planning and conducting migration of data and applications, organization of maintenance. This is especially useful if migration inevitably disables existing IT systems.

Evaluate Partner Reliability

When choosing a cloud provider, it is important to take into account the reputation of a potential partner and the presence of similar cases in his portfolio.

Assess the adequacy of the quotation The low price of cloud service providers can mask unsatisfactory quality and high risks, or an iceberg marketing, where hidden payments or the inability to flexibly manage cloud infrastructure costs lie under an attractive starting price.

A more humane and technologically advanced way is to give the client the opportunity to independently determine where his resources are located - in a more "expensive" or "democratic" segment of the cloud, combine these segments, transfer resources from one to another segment on their own. We implemented this ideology, for the first time in Russia, combining segments on different hypervisors - VMware and KVM - in the same cloud, as part of a single control panel, says Georgy Megrelishvili.

Check the availability of a certificate for the right class of personal data protection

The personal data operator is the customer himself, and he must know what class of personal data protection the resources of the provider leased by him should correspond to.

Agree on SLA It is important to make sure that all participants in the process have a common understanding of the tasks and how to implement them, an SLA agreement (on the level of service provision) has been reached, and the areas of responsibility are delimited. All agreements must be documented - in the contract, regulations, instructions.

Migration and follow-up

Transfer Data

Information from the customer's own infrastructure to the provider's infrastructure will be transmitted over a specially created high-power channel via the Internet or VPN.

Test the functionality of systems deployed in the cloud

Once the migration is complete, you need to verify the integrity and availability of the data. To avoid problems, it is recommended to keep the old site operational after switching to the new infrastructure for 1-2 weeks. Only after making sure that everything is working correctly, you can turn off the old site or save it as a standby resource ("cold reserve" data center).

Check list: what not to forget when migrating to the cloud?

Content

Before migration

Provider Selection

Migration and follow-up

See also