Transitioning Your Solutions from On-Premise to a Multi-Cloud Platform. (Guest blog from TCS)
Author: Verity Greig, Cloud Evangelist, TCS
Introduction
First, a quick reminder of the benefits of migrating on-premise workloads to the cloud:
- Release citizen-facing apps in a single click, remove the need for multi-layer approvals
- Access to the latest technology. In the cloud you can be assured of high application performance.
- Improve service uptime helping reduce citizen and employee frustration
- Unlock insight through a single source of truth
Migrating to Multi-Cloud
Here are the guiding principles to take to smoothly migrate applications to multi-cloud.
Implement collaborative governance. Appoint a Steering Committee. Schedule regular progress discussions, highlight risks and call out information needed. Define an Acceptance Process. Acceptance criteria should include the required performance levels and the required functionality.
Gain a deep knowledge of business dependencies to ensure a seamless experience for employees and citizens during the transition
Assess and categorise the applications and services you are going to migrate. Use the 5R methodology - Retire, Rehost, Refactor, Rebuild and Replace. Thorough assessment can be achieved through interaction with application support teams to gather knowledge through a series of workshops and by shadowing the team.
Use a project plan to detail dependencies, thus mitigating risks in migration. Your project plan will enable you to visualise timelines, milestones and track progress. Publish your project plan to enable collaboration across your move groups. Your project plan will give you end-to-end clarity about what to do in which order.
Form Move Group Teams, and for applications that are tightly integrated, ensure these teams work in parallel. Move the services into your development/acceptance environment first and once testing is signed off, deploy the service in the production environment.
Follow regular sprint cycles and share status dashboards throughout the cycles. Highlight progress status and potential blockers that need addressing, monitor milestones and call out dependencies when needed.
Introduce Changes into Live Environment in Agile manner. Use a DevOps tool to manage your agile approach. This will allow your teams to plan work, collaborate on code development, and build and deploy applications.
Use all the latest technologies embedded in the Cloud to make the path smooth. Technologies such as serverless to provision code without provisioning infrastructure. Containerisation for easier application lift and shift. Cost Management for recommendations on cost optimisation.
Don’t forget to benefit from loyalty offers and discounts from the Cloud provider making it more cost effective for you.
Conclusion
If your organisation is reticent to move some applications to the cloud, start with a business case. Demonstrate cost savings, carbon reduction, highlight the risks of continuing with an on-prem environment, and demonstrate that CAPEX saved in IT can be used for real world projects that directly benefit the citizens you serve.
Imagine your organisation in 2030. Will you be Cloud Native, running applications designed for continuous change and improvement?
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Sue Daley
Sue Daley
Sue leads techUK's Technology and Innovation work.
This includes work programmes on cloud, data protection, data analytics, AI, digital ethics, Digital Identity and Internet of Things as well as emerging and transformative technologies and innovation policy. She has been recognised as one of the most influential people in UK tech by Computer Weekly's UKtech50 Longlist and in 2021 was inducted into the Computer Weekly Most Influential Women in UK Tech Hall of Fame. A key influencer in driving forward the data agenda in the UK Sue is co-chair of the UK government's National Data Strategy Forum. As well as being recognised in the UK's Big Data 100 and the Global Top 100 Data Visionaries for 2020 Sue has also been shortlisted for the Milton Keynes Women Leaders Awards and was a judge for the Loebner Prize in AI. In addition to being a regular industry speaker on issues including AI ethics, data protection and cyber security, Sue was recently a judge for the UK Tech 50 and is a regular judge of the annual UK Cloud Awards.
Prior to joining techUK in January 2015 Sue was responsible for Symantec's Government Relations in the UK and Ireland. She has spoken at events including the UK-China Internet Forum in Beijing, UN IGF and European RSA on issues ranging from data usage and privacy, cloud computing and online child safety. Before joining Symantec, Sue was senior policy advisor at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). Sue has an BA degree on History and American Studies from Leeds University and a Masters Degree on International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Birmingham. Sue is a keen sportswoman and in 2016 achieved a lifelong ambition to swim the English Channel.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2055
- Twitter:
- @ChannelSwimSue,@ChannelSwimSue
Laura Foster
Laura Foster
Laura is techUK’s Associate Director for Technology and Innovation.
She supports the application and expansion of emerging technologies, including Quantum Computing, High-Performance Computing, AR/VR/XR and Edge technologies, across the UK. As part of this, she works alongside techUK members and UK Government to champion long-term and sustainable innovation policy that will ensure the UK is a pioneer in science and technology
Before joining techUK, Laura worked internationally as a conference researcher and producer covering enterprise adoption of emerging technologies. This included being part of the strategic team at London Tech Week.
Laura has a degree in History (BA Hons) from Durham University, focussing on regional social history. Outside of work she loves reading, travelling and supporting rugby team St. Helens, where she is from.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- www.linkedin.com/in/lauraalicefoster
Authors
Verity Greig
I’m a Leader who believes that technology can be a force for good for Public Services. As a Cloud Evangelist, I have the privilege of leading TCS' cloud strategy for the UK Public Sector. Recently TCS was named the Number One IT Services Provider in the UK by TechMarketView. A moment of pride for us but also a moment of obligation. Prior to that I was an Azure Product Manager at Microsoft tailoring the Azure service to meet Public Sector needs. As the mum of two daughters, I’m particularly passionate about inspiring more women into STEM industries.