Cloud Migration: Planning for Success

Every week I talk to a business owner who says "we need to move to the cloud" but has no idea where to start. Usually they've been told by someone that their ageing server is a ticking time bomb (it probably is), or their staff are fed up of not being able to work remotely. Both are good reasons to move, but rushing in without a plan is how you end up with a mess.

Here's how to do it properly.

First, Be Honest About Why You're Moving

The cloud isn't magic. It solves specific problems:

• Your server is old, unreliable, and expensive to maintain
• Your team needs to work from home/site/wherever
• You're paying too much for hardware that sits idle 80% of the time
• Your disaster recovery plan is "hope nothing goes wrong"

If none of these apply, you might not need to move yet. But if you're nodding at two or more, yeah, it's time.

The Practical Steps

Know What You've Got

Before you move anything, write down every system, application, and data store your business uses. Every. Single. One. That includes the random Access database that Sandra in accounts has been running since 2014. You need to know about it before migration day, not after.

Pick the Right Approach

Not everything needs to be rearchitected for the cloud. Some stuff you just lift and shift (move it as-is). Some stuff you replace with a cloud-native alternative (like swapping your on-premise email for Microsoft 365). And some stuff you retire because nobody's used it in three years anyway.

Choose Your Platform

For most UK SMBs, the answer is Microsoft. Microsoft 365 for email and collaboration, Azure for servers and applications. AWS is great too but tends to suit more technical organisations. We work with both, and the right choice depends on what you're already using.

Security First, Not Security Later

The number of businesses we see that migrate to the cloud and then think about security afterwards is genuinely frightening. Set up MFA, Conditional Access, and proper user permissions BEFORE you move data. Not after.

Test Before You Commit

Run the new system alongside the old one for at least a week. Check everything works. Send test emails. Make sure the printers still work (they won't, but that's a separate conversation). Have a rollback plan for each phase.

Train Your People

This is where most migrations fail. The tech works fine, but nobody showed the team how to use Teams properly so they're still emailing spreadsheets to each other. Budget for training. Seriously.

We do cloud migrations for UK businesses pretty much every week, from 5-person startups to 200-seat organisations. We handle the planning, security, migration, and training. Our managed IT service then keeps everything running smoothly afterwards.

Drop us a line if you want to talk through your situation. No commitment, just a straight conversation about what makes sense for your business.