Whether you are just thinking about migrating to the cloud or have been thinking about it for some time, there are substantial benefits to incorporating cloud technology into your business. From increased productivity to lower costs, cloud technology can go a long way in helping your business accomplish its goals. In other words, by adopting AWS cloud technology, you can provide better outcomes and experiences for your customers, your colleagues, and your organization as a whole.
If you are considering migrating to the cloud, you would be smart to do so through AWS’s Cloud Adoption Framework. You can also rely on AWS’s Migration Evaluator to help you make the business case for the switch. Ultimately, by using these two items in tandem, you can make your migration to the cloud much easier and faster.
Understanding the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework
To better understand how to migrate to AWS cloud, it is helpful to discuss what the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework and Migration Evaluator actually are.
Let’s start with the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework. The Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF) is a way of thinking about and planning for your organization’s cloud adoption journey. Essentially, what we did is designing a series of important things to contemplate as you are migrating to the cloud. We categorized them into six specific areas of focus and deemed them perspectives.
There are six different perspectives in the AWS CAF. Those six perspectives are 1/ the business perspective 2/ people perspective 3/ governance perspective 4/ platform perspective 5/ security perspective, and 6/ operations perspective. You can read more about these six different kinds of perspectives by clicking here.
At their core, each of these six perspectives can help your company create workstreams to better navigate the cloud migration. For instance, the people perspective is specifically focused on helping HR professionals and personnel management prepare for the migration. The people perspective does this by helping HR professionals update their processes to incorporate cloud-based competencies. In other words, the goal is to help personnel management with things like updated training requirements, identifying new skills, and creating a new compensation program to incentivize the adoption of a cloud-based IT model.
All of this goes to how AWS has put significant thoughts into how you can make the cloud migration process much easier. By incorporating these perspectives into your organization, you will have a much more seamless transition.
Understanding the Migration Evaluator
From there, let’s move on to explore AWS’s Migration Evaluator. As defined, the Migration Evaluator is a “migration assessment service that helps you create a directional business case for AWS cloud planning and migration.” In other words, it looks at your current organization and projects and how much it would cost to migrate to AWS.
One of the great things about Migration Evaluator is that it is helpful at any stage of the migration process. Whether you are just thinking about successfully migrating to the cloud or are in the middle of doing so, you can rely on Migration Evaluator to make the process dramatically easier. The AWS team understands that migrating to the cloud can be complicated and complex, so Migration Evaluator is there to help you and your colleagues make the switch.
Upon completing a pre-migration assessment, for instance, Migration Evaluator gives you a simple, one-page report. That one-page report contains insights that can help you understand the financial costs of leveraging AWS cloud services in your organization. AWS categorizes this report as “Quick Insights” and they can go a long way in making your migration much easier.
From there, AWS offers another feature for interested organizations. Whether your organization is large or small, you have the power to request something called a Migration Evaluator Business Case. You can think of the Migration Evaluator Business Case as a way to get even more personalized insights about your migration journey. Upon requesting a Business Case, AWS solution architects will get in touch with you to better understand your migration objectives. From there, those solution architects will go to work. By evaluating the data they received from your migration objectives, they will propose migration patterns that are best suited for your organization.
Ultimately, the Business Case is made up of five different sections. Those sections include the makeup of 1/ the business assessment 2/ an executive summary 3/ a breakdown of the component of on-premises costs 4/ “what-if” scenarios for repurchasing and bring your own licenses, and 5/ recommendations on next steps for a successful migration.
As you can see, the Business Case is a comprehensive look at how you can get from point A to point B. At the end of this process, both you and your colleagues can have an even greater sense of turning your migration goals into a reality.
Combining the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework and the Migration Evaluator
Both the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework and the Migration Evaluator are fantastic tools in your cloud migration journey. That being said, you don’t need to use them in a vacuum. In fact, by combining both of them, you can put your organization in the best place to successfully migrate to the cloud.
One way to look at the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework and the Migration Evaluator is that the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework presents a macro view and the Migration Evaluator presents a micro view. What do we mean by this? Basically, you can use the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework to understand the six most important things that you must consider when moving to the cloud. AWS put some deep thought into designing the six perspectives that are the foundation of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework. You and your organization should certainly keep them in mind as you are completing your own work.
But then with the Migration Evaluator, you can get an up-close and personal view of what your organization specifically needs to do to successfully migrate to the cloud. Working closely with AWS solution architects, you can have a much better understanding of the costs and logistics of making the move. At the same time, you can design a plan that meets your organization’s individual needs and meets the overall objectives within the CAF.
To put it another way, you get the best of both worlds here. Not only do you minimize the risk of error by following the CAF, but you can get a better practical understanding of the switch through the Migration Evaluator. Ultimately, there’s a lot to like here.
Going Forward with Your Migration
Migrating to the cloud can be intimidating. It can be complex and, at times, confusing. But having said that, AWS can make the process much easier. By adopting the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework and Migration Evaluator, you can easily migrate to the cloud and focus on getting the most benefits from cloud technology. In the end, by leveraging these two tools, you are that much closer to reaching your business goals.