How to avoid total disaster while moving applications to the cloud or a data center migration

Whether you’re the CIO of a large corporation or run your own enterprise, it’s imperative that you understand the benefits, as well as the inevitability, of data center migrations. Migrations advance business practices by creating greater tactical efficiencies, agility and by reducing costs. Because they provide such great opportunities, migration plans are often high on the list of strategic projects for CIOs, IT managers and other managers involved in corporate plans.

However, despite the hype, companies need to understand that data center migrations are among the riskiest and most complex undertakings an enterprise can pursue.

When migrating company applications from one location to another, or from one platform to another, you present a host of new risk for an organization. According to Gartner, 70 percent of data center migrations will experience significant time delays or even unplanned downtime, which is largely due to improper planning. Still, many companies undergo the arduous process to better their business.

For many enterprises, a data center migration is part of a corporate IT cost-reduction initiative. They happen when old hardware or software platforms grow outdated and are no longer supported by new vendors, therefore requiring a migration to a more modern infrastructure. They also occur during mergers or acquisitions, as they usually result in the consolidation of multiple data centers in efforts to eliminate redundancies and maximize cost efficiencies when combining companies. One of the most common reasons however, is the growing trend of moving to private and public cloud platforms.

No matter what the motivation is to migrate, there are three universal challenges that are inherent in every data center migration project:

• The need to understand your application-connectivity dependencies in detail might
• Minimizing disruption to the business
• Ensuring systems are secure and compliant

These challenges create a number of "unknowns" that may derail migration plans and result in unplanned and unacceptable business downtime opening the company up to unnecessary security risks. Failing to mitigate these challenges can cause major delays and even increase project costs.

So how you can ensure that your data center migration goes according to plan while maximizing business continuity and security? Check out these simple steps you can take to avoid a total disaster during your migration:

Consolidate the Data Center Metadata


One of the immediate planning problems is compartmentalization between different teams within IT (applications, network operations, security, etc). Each IT team has its own language and focus. As a result, collaboration between different IT teams is not always smooth. So, before diving into project planning for data center migration, all information should be acquired and consolidated.

Map the Network


Equally, having an up-to-date network diagram and clear view of production traffic is critical to making sure your migration goes right the first-time. Although many companies set out to keep an eye on their network traffic, over time their network diagram is not always updated. Without a clear understanding of the current topology and how the data flows, you are going into a migration project blind.

Application-connectivity dependencies must also be taken into account throughout the planning phase. Why? Mapping out these dependencies assures that once applications are migrated, connectivity between applications is maintained so business users experience minimal downtime for their applications. Furthermore, mapping the network also assures that security policy compliance remains in order.

Check the Numbers


It’s now time to sense-check and validate the information before you begin the transition. Moving ahead with a migration using assumptions based on incorrect information can result in investing in the wrong areas or expecting returns on your investment that just don’t exist. You may experience great cost-savings from migrating to cloud or other disruptive data center technologies, but it’s also worth considering whether or not you need to hire more people to help integrate the new and existing infrastructures.

With these key considerations drawn into your migration roadmap, you should be set for any challenge you encounter along the way.

Photo credit: alphaspirit / Shutterstock

Reuven Harrison is CTO and Co-Founder of Tufin. He led all development efforts during the company’s initial fast-paced growth period, and is focused on Tufin’s product leadership. Reuven is responsible for the company’s future vision, product innovation and market strategy. Under Reuven’s leadership, Tufin’s products have received numerous awards and wide industry recognition. Reuven brings more than 20 years of software development experience, holding two key senior developer positions at Check Point Software, as well other key positions at Capsule Technologies and ECS. He received a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Philosophy from Tel Aviv University.