Moving to the cloud can reduce costs, improve reliability and make it easier for your team to work from anywhere. But a poorly planned migration can lead to downtime, surprise bills and security gaps.
This checklist walks through the key steps we follow with Australian businesses to make cloud migrations smooth and predictable.
1. Audit what you have today
Start with a clear picture of your current environment:
- Servers, applications and databases, and what each one does
- Who uses each system and when
- How systems connect to each other
- Current costs, including hardware, licences, power and support
This inventory often uncovers old systems that can simply be retired, which makes the migration smaller and cheaper.
2. Define your goals
Be clear about why you are moving. Common goals include:
- Reducing the cost and hassle of maintaining physical servers
- Improving uptime and disaster recovery
- Supporting remote and hybrid work
- Scaling quickly during busy periods
- Modernising applications to ship new features faster
Your goals will shape every decision that follows.
3. Consider data sovereignty and compliance
For many Australian organisations, where data is stored matters. All major cloud providers offer data centres in Australia, so you can keep sensitive data onshore.
4. Choose the right approach for each system
Not every application should be moved the same way. Typical options are:
| Approach | What it means | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Rehost | Move as-is to cloud servers | Quick wins and tight timelines |
| Replatform | Small changes to use managed services | Databases and common workloads |
| Refactor | Re-architect for the cloud | Core apps that need to scale |
| Replace | Switch to a software-as-a-service product | Email, file sharing, accounting |
| Retire | Switch it off | Systems no one really uses |
5. Plan security from day one
The cloud can be very secure, but only when it is configured properly. Make sure your plan covers:
- Multi-factor authentication for every admin account
- The principle of least privilege for users and services
- Encryption of data at rest and in transit
- Centralised logging and alerting
- Regular, tested backups stored separately
6. Keep costs under control
Cloud bills can grow quickly without guardrails. Set up budgets and alerts, tag resources by project or team, right-size servers after migration and switch off resources that aren't needed outside business hours.
7. Migrate in stages and test thoroughly
Start with a low-risk system to prove the process, then move more critical workloads. For each stage:
- Test functionality and performance in the new environment
- Agree on a rollback plan in case something goes wrong
- Schedule the cut-over at a quiet time and communicate with users
- Monitor closely for the first few days after go-live
8. Optimise after you move
Migration is the beginning, not the end. Review performance, security and costs regularly, and look for opportunities to automate deployments and modernise applications over time.
Need a hand?
We plan and deliver cloud migrations with minimal disruption, keeping your data secure and your costs predictable. Learn more about our cloud and DevOps services or get in touch.
- Cloud
- Migration
- Data sovereignty