Experts predict that within the next year, an impressive 63 percent of small or medium-sized businesses’ (SMB) workloads and 62 percent of SMB data will find their new home in the cloud.

This rapid shift toward cloud adoption highlights the numerous advantages the cloud offers to SMBs, including enhanced scalability, agility, and cost efficiency. As an SMB, harnessing the power of Amazon Web Services (AWS) can propel your business forward and revolutionize your operations.

In this article, we’ll explore effective migration strategies that can help your business transition to AWS without breaking the bank.

Why Migrate to the Cloud?

Before diving into the migration strategies, let’s quickly revisit the reasons why migrating to the cloud is advantageous for SMBs:

• Scalability: Cloud computing allows you to scale your resources up or down based on your business needs. You can easily handle spikes in demand without the need for substantial upfront investments in hardware.
• Flexibility and Agility: The cloud provides a flexible and agile platform for developing, deploying, and iterating on your applications. It enables rapid innovation and allows you to respond quickly to market changes.
• Cost Optimization: With the cloud’s pay-as-you-go pricing model, you only pay for the resources you use. This eliminates the need for large upfront capital expenditures and provides cost savings through efficient resource allocation.

Now that we understand the advantages of cloud migration, let’s explore some effective strategies to ensure a smooth and cost-effective transition to AWS.

1. Assess Your Applications and Workloads

Start by conducting a thorough assessment of your SMB’s existing applications and workloads. Understand any requirements, dependencies, and potential challenges that may arise during migration. Categorize your applications based on their criticality, complexity, and interdependencies to prioritize your migration plan.

2. Define Your Migration Approach

AWS provides several migration approaches to choose from based on your SMB’s specific needs:

• Lift and Shift (Rehosting): This approach involves migrating your applications as-is to AWS infrastructure without making any significant changes. It offers a quick and straightforward migration path, suitable for applications that don’t require extensive optimization or architectural changes.
• Replatforming: Replatforming involves making optimizations to your applications during the migration process. You can leverage AWS services to modernize your applications, improve performance, and reduce costs.
• Application Re-architecture: In some cases, it may be beneficial to rebuild or replace certain applications using cloud-native services. This approach allows you to take full advantage of AWS’s capabilities and achieve greater scalability and resilience.
• Strategic Retire or Retain: Evaluate your application portfolio and determine if certain applications are no longer necessary or can be replaced with off-the-shelf SaaS solutions. Retiring or retaining applications can help streamline your migration and optimize costs.

Select the migration approach that aligns best with your business goals, timelines, and available resources.

3. Prioritize Workloads for Migration

To ensure a cost-effective migration, prioritize workloads based on their complexity, business impact, and potential cost savings. Start with noncritical workloads that have minimal dependencies and straightforward migration requirements. As you gain experience and confidence, move on to more complex workloads.

4. Leverage AWS Migration Tools and Services

AWS provides a comprehensive suite of migration tools and services that simplify the migration process for SMBs. Here are some key offerings to consider:

• AWS Migration Hub: Migration Hub provides a central dashboard to track the progress of your application migrations across multiple AWS and partner tools. It simplifies the coordination and monitoring of your migration projects.
• AWS Server Migration Service (SMS): SMS automates the migration of on-premises virtual machines to AWS. It simplifies the replication, incremental replication, and orchestration of the migration process.
• AWS Database Migration Service (DMS): DMS helps migrate your databases to AWS, including both homogeneous and heterogeneous database migrations. It supports popular databases like Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, and more.
• AWS Application Discovery Service: This service helps you discover and assess your on-premises applications, their dependencies, and performance metrics. It provides insights to facilitate the planning and execution of your migration.

By leveraging these migration tools and services, you can reduce complexity, minimize downtime, and ensure a successful migration.

5. Implement a Well-Architected Cloud Environment

During migration, it’s crucial to follow AWS Well-Architected Framework best practices. Design your cloud environment with scalability, security, reliability, and cost optimization in mind. Leverage AWS services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and AWS Lambda to build a resilient and efficient architecture.

Migrating your SMB to the cloud with AWS offers immense benefits, but it’s essential to adopt the right strategies to ensure a successful and cost-effective transition. By assessing your applications, defining your migration approach, prioritizing workloads, leveraging AWS migration tools, and implementing a well-architected environment, you can migrate to the cloud without breaking the bank.

Take advantage of the flexibility, scalability, and cost savings AWS provides, and propel your business forward in the cloud era.

We Can Help

According to a survey by Gartner, 47 percent of organizations lack the skills and expertise to manage their cloud environments. Partnering with an AWS consulting partner can provide ongoing support and help fill that skills gap. As we’ve reviewed, migrating to AWS with nClouds offers several benefits, including expertise, cost-effectiveness, scalability, security, and ongoing support.

If you’re considering a move to AWS, partnering with nClouds can help ensure a successful migration and a smooth transition to the cloud. Contact us to get a free Fast Path for Migration Readiness by nClouds.