Solutions
Cloud Migration Advisory Services
When you know you need to move to the Cloud
Overview
You know the future is in Cloud computing. You may have even decided on a cloud platform. However, you may not have the experience to understand the migration challenges and how to best mitigate risks. That’s why Syntax Migration Advisory Services exist. We are here to help you understand what it will take to move your mission critical applications to the Cloud, to gain the efficiencies that cloud computing provide.
The Migration Advisory Services are two key components
The Assessment and Planning services provide the details necessary to successfully and efficiently migrate your applications to the Cloud. Each service provides clear deliverables and, while they can easily be linked into an efficient whole they can be accessed separately.
The goal of the Syntax Cloud Migration Advisory Services is to ensure you gain the benefits of cloud computing as quickly and as efficiently as possible, so that you can quickly realize the total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits that the Cloud will provide.
Migration Readiness Assessment
It is better to measure twice and cut once. Modern computing, whether on-premises or in the cloud, is a complex process. While the initial evaluation can provide the scope of the project, the Migration Readiness Assessment is a deep investigation into detailing all the software, hardware, and networking on-premises and in the cloud, and the migration process itself.
The first phase of the assessment is understanding the “As is” state of the systems. For instance, what are the:
- Existing servers & logical connections (Including “adjacent workloads”)
- Core ERP applications in use
- Related applications that access and are accessed by SAP
- Required service levels
Identifying servers is critical because many systems have “ghost servers”, hardware missing official documentation. Related applications also matter, because migration isn’t only a process for the core applications. Some related applications may also be moved to the cloud while others must remain on-premises. Identifying which is which is critical in designing a workable cloud solution.
The second phase of the assessment is the “To Be” state of the systems. In support of that, AWS, as an example, has published a “Well Architected Framework” for designing a cloud infrastructure. Syntax has decades of experience with ERP and cloud computing, and can quickly create the needed design leveraging the best practices of AWS, SAP and Oracle.
The resulting deliverables end with the technical details of migrating your applications onto the cloud. They provide information on account strategies and operational models that will help you leverage the business benefits of the cloud.
Migration Readiness Planning
Now that it is understood what systems you have and what you will need, Syntax provides Migration Readiness Planning to mitigate the costs and risks of your critical move to the Cloud.
Readiness has three core components:
The migration plan
A cost estimate
An operating model
Knowing what you have and what you need are important, but just as important is how you get from “What Is” to “To Be”. While this includes creating the accounts, instances, databases and other critical components of a cloud system, there is also data transportation involved. How do you get your information from on-premises to the cloud platform? That planning is in this phase. It can include by networked transfer and physical storage system movements. For example, the AWS Snow Family is a tiered set of offerings to help move data to where it needs to be.
The details from the Migration Readiness Assessment and the migration plan are used to create a detailed cost estimate. This helps to minimize surprises.
The final component of the planning is the operational model. Don’t forget that you must also do a switchover to the cloud systems. The migration plan and operating model must provide system parallelization and a switchover schedule needed to achieve the benefits of your new cloud paradigm.