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In times of economic downturn, startups and SMBs are continuously finding ways to cut their spending and preserve their cash flow, while improving efficiency and streamlining operations. Cloud migration, the process of moving applications, data, and other IT resources from one cloud platform to another, is one solution to address these goals. Migrating from major cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud—to a more cost-effective and simple solution like DigitalOcean—can be an attractive option for startups with evolving infrastructure needs. Alternatively, migrating to the cloud for the first time can be similarly advantageous.
DigitalOcean’s 2022 Currents research report, which surveyed 554 founders, CEOs, and executives at startups and small businesses across industries, found that cloud migration is a strategy employed for reducing costs.
Aside from cost savings, cloud migration can result in enhanced performance and greater flexibility for your startup. For companies migrating cloud-to-cloud, to a platform like DigitalOcean, businesses can take advantage of simplified pricing structure and a user-friendly interface, all while increasing your product’s agility and scalability. A 2022 Forrester Total Economic Impact report, assessing the cost savings and business benefits enabled by DigitalOcean, found that companies saved 2,548 engineering hours annually in their first year of using DigitalOcean.
But cloud migration is not without its challenges. Startups may face technical hurdles, data loss risks, and compatibility issues during the cloud migration process. Moreover, ensuring minimal downtime for customers and maintaining business continuity are crucial concerns that need to be closely considered. Given the complexity and potential risks involved, businesses should follow cloud migration best practices to ensure a seamless and successful transition. By adhering to these best practices, startups can maximize the benefits of cloud migration, overcome potential challenges, and ultimately create a more efficient and cost-effective cloud infrastructure.
As a business, your goals might include cost savings, improved scalability, or greater efficiency. By defining your goals, you can better understand the benefits that cloud migration can bring, and prioritize your efforts accordingly.
As businesses grow, their requirements and demands can change, necessitating a more flexible and scalable cloud infrastructure. By migrating from one cloud platform to another—or taking a multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud approach—startups can explore new features and services that better align with their evolving needs. This can help businesses stay agile, as they can quickly adapt to new opportunities or challenges that arise, while diversifying infrastructure and avoiding vendor lock-in.
When migrating from one cloud platform to another, such as from AWS or Azure to DigitalOcean, startups can take advantage of more cost-effective plans and services tailored to their needs. This can help your business save on operational expenses and free up resources for more important endeavors. By comparing the pricing structures of different cloud providers, your startup can identify the most cost-efficient option that provides the necessary features and resources for your applications.
For startups migrating to the cloud for the first time, businesses can reduce their capital expenditures on hardware and software, instead paying for cloud services on a pay-as-you-go basis. Cloud services also enable businesses to replace costly on-premise infrastructure with a more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution. With cloud services, businesses can quickly and easily scale their computing resources up or down as needed, without having to invest in new hardware or software.
Some cloud providers, like DigitalOcean, offer simplified billing that makes it easier for startups to predict their monthly cloud expenses. This can be especially beneficial for startups operating on tight budgets, avoiding surprise charges and better managing finances. With a more predictable billing model, startups can allocate funds more effectively, ensuring that they have the resources needed to scale their operations and grow their businesses.
Cloud migration enhances security and performance by providing businesses with access to advanced security features and protocols, as well as high-speed computing resources and the latest technologies. Cloud providers typically have more resources and expertise to devote to security and performance than most businesses can afford on their own.
The right cloud provider for your startup or small-to-medium sized business will depend on your overall technical and business goals. However, consider the following factors when comparing cloud providers and choosing one to support and scale your company.
Developing a cloud migration plan will give your team a structured approach to the migration process, helping ensure that all technical aspects and dependencies are considered ahead of time. Taking the time to plot out your plan will also help you allocate resources, set realistic timelines, and mitigate potential risks—like business disruption and data loss—more effectively.
The first step in your migration plan should be taking a full inventory of your existing infrastructure including servers, storage, networking, applications, and data. Document the dependencies and relationships between these components by creating an architecture diagram using an online tool (e.g. Draw.io, Lucidchart, Visio, Gliffy, or Miro.)
Also aim to understand the efficiency and performance of your existing infrastructure. For example, establish performance baselines, including CPU and memory usage, network latency, and I/O throughput. This will allow you to effectively assess the success of the migration and compare it with the new environment.
Before proceeding with migration, ensure that you can answer the following questions:
Determine which applications and services should be migrated—and in what order—based on factors like business impact, complexity, and any existing dependencies. Consider taking a phased approach, starting with less critical or standalone components.
Then, establish a realistic timeline for migration. While the actual migration might only take up to 24 hours, factor in migration dry runs and communication into your timeline. Also allow sufficient time for testing, validation, and rollback plans.
When planning for a cloud migration, your startup needs to make a crucial decision: should you conduct the migration in-house or outsource it to a cloud partner? Each approach has its own unique set of advantages and challenges, and the right choice often depends on your company’s resources, expertise, and specific needs.
Each component on your timeline should include a directly responsible individual (DRI) from your team. Ensure you know who on your team is responsible for the following tasks:
Keep team members—and potentially customers—aware of your migration plans. This includes communicating your timeline and dependencies to internal stakeholders (e.g executives, engineering, support) and making customers aware of any potential downtime that might occur due your startup’s migration plans.
Here’s what to consider when creating your communication plan:
To ensure a smooth transition to your startup’s new cloud environment, complete a migration dry-run ahead of your actual migration. During this trial run, your team will run through the entire migration process without disabling writes or changing DNS. This process will help you identify any configuration, compatibility, or performance issues and address them proactively beforehand.
Here are the steps for follow for your migration dry-run:
To execute your cloud migration plan, follow a structured process for a smooth and successful transition to your new cloud environment. At DigitalOcean, we’ve advised and supported countless businesses on migrating their cloud environments.
While we suggest this particular framework, there are many ways to complete a migration. Ensure the process you follow aligns with your technical and business requirements.
Before initiating the migration process, verify the readiness of the new cloud environment.
Update the connection strings and configuration to point to the new host.
Migrate the state from the old host to the new environment.
Perform final testing and switch the new cloud environment.
You don’t need to approach cloud migration alone. DigitalOcean partners with migration experts that are well-versed in cloud migration to support your business’s transition—while minimizing downtime. Take the headache and hassle out of your migration plan by teaming-up with experts who can walk you through the migration process by providing valuable expertise, efficiency, and support.
DigitalOcean partners with cloud migration experts like CTO.ai, Slower.ai, Crafty Penguins, Stack, Webbar, and GlobalDots to support startups who are considering cloud migration. Get in touch to see how they can support your migration.
Thousands of businesses have successfully migrated to DigitalOcean. Scale with confidence with our simple yet comprehensive solutions and predictable and affordable pricing. Learn more about migration and speak to a migration expert today.
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