Lift-and-shift to cloud or re-architect right away?
Lift-and-shift first if you have an on-prem deadline. Re-architect afterwards per app where it really pays off. Doing both at once turns 6-month migration into 18.
Try this first
- 1Lift-and-shift goal: speed out of the data center, predictable cost. Use Application Migration Service / Azure Migrate / Migrate for Compute Engine.
- 2Don't expect lift-and-shift to be cheaper than on-prem on day one. Cloud economics needs re-architecture, lift-and-shift is usually more expensive per month.
- 3Don't stop at lift-and-shift. Plan a re-architect decision for each moved app within 12 months: stay-as-is, refactor, or replatform.
- 4Good re-architect candidates: web frontends to serverless, batch to queues, file shares to object storage. Those are the quick wins.
- 5Bad re-architect candidates: legacy COTS software whose vendor doesn't move with you, self-built monolith without tests.
When to bring us in
For a migration with a hard on-prem data-center deadline, a migration plan with phases, cost model and exit strategy is usually worth the first week's work.
See also
- Everyone logs in with the AWS root accountRoot is for emergencies and billing. Day-to-day work belongs in IAM users or SSO.
- Every developer has AdministratorAccessAdministratorAccess everywhere is convenient now, painful later. Start with role-based policies.
- Everyone has individual IAM users with their own passwordIdentity Center (formerly AWS SSO) links to your IdP and issues temporary credentials per session.
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