Migration is a scheduling problem before it is a technical one.
The hard part of moving to the cloud is rarely the technology. It is sequencing the move so the business keeps running — and that is exactly what we plan around from day one.
Not everything should move.
Lift-and-shift of a workload that was never designed for elastic infrastructure often produces a more expensive version of the same problem. Some systems are cheaper and safer where they are, at least until they are due for replacement anyway.
The assessment sorts your estate into four buckets — move as-is, move with changes, replace, and leave alone — with the reasoning written down for each. You will usually find at least one system in the last bucket that somebody assumed was going.
A migration plan that cannot tell you what it is not moving has not been thought through yet.
Where we work, and how deeply.
Deep, production-tested coverage across all three major clouds. This shows where we lead the work directly and where we bring specialist depth alongside our own engineers.
| Workload | Microsoft Azure | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual machines & networking | Primary | Primary | Supported |
| Identity & access management | Primary | Supported | Supported |
| Managed databases | Primary | Primary | Supported |
| Object & file storage | Primary | Primary | Supported |
| Backup & disaster recovery | Primary | Primary | Supported |
| Containers & orchestration | Supported | Primary | Supported |
| Data warehousing & analytics | Supported | Supported | Primary |
Primary means we have delivered production migrations on it and lead the work end to end. Supported means we deliver it to the same standard, drawing on partner specialists where a workload calls for niche depth.
The work, in detail.
Expand whichever is relevant. Most engagements use three or four of these, not all seven.
A full inventory of what is running, what depends on what, and what each system costs you today. Produces the four-bucket sort, a sequencing plan ordered by dependency and risk, and a cost projection with its assumptions stated. This is the deliverable you keep whether or not we do the migration.
Moving servers, applications, and databases with a tested rollback for each cutover. Every migration window has a defined abort point and a named person who can call it. Nothing moves on a Friday.
Directory integration, single sign-on, conditional access policies, and multi-factor rollout. Usually the first thing to move and the thing that causes the most user-visible disruption if it is done carelessly — so it gets its own communication plan.
Backup policy, retention, and — the part usually missing — scheduled restore testing. A backup nobody has restored from is a hypothesis, not a plan. We agree recovery time and recovery point objectives per system rather than one number for the whole estate.
Right-sizing, reserved capacity where usage is predictable, and alerting on spend anomalies. Cloud bills grow quietly; the controls need to exist before the first surprise, not after it.
Network segmentation, encryption at rest and in transit, logging and retention, and evidence collection for whichever regime applies to you. Where you have a specific certification target, we will say plainly whether we can take you there or whether you need a specialist auditor alongside us.
Patching, monitoring, capacity review, and incident response after the migration ends. Optional — plenty of clients hand back to their own team, and the documentation is written on the assumption that they will.
Six stages, in this order, for a reason.
The order matters more than the speed. Skipping the pilot to save three weeks is how eighteen-month migrations happen.
Inventory
What is running, what talks to what, and what nobody has logged into for two years.
Sort & sequence
The four buckets, ordered by dependency. Low-risk systems first to prove the pipeline.
Landing zone
Networking, identity, policy, and monitoring built before any workload arrives.
Pilot migration
One real but non-critical system, migrated end to end, including a rehearsed rollback.
Waves
The rest in grouped waves, each with its own window, abort point, and verification.
Decommission
Old infrastructure retired only after the new one has run a full billing and backup cycle.
Start with the inventory.
Before committing to any platform, get a written picture of what you have and what it costs. That assessment stands on its own — and it is yours to keep.