Azure Migration & Modernization : 4-Wk implementation

As a leading cloud adoption/migration partner in BeLux, we developed our comprehensive Arηs Spikeseed Cloud Adoption Framework (Arηs Spikeseed CAF), inspired from industry standards and major cloud providers

Arηs Spikeseed CAF leverages years of experience in transforming organizations businesses to cloud and defines our approach and methodology to digitally transform and accelerate an organization business outcome through innovative use of public cloud. It also identifies best practices and avoiding common pitfalls lowering common risks and securing our customer’s journey to the cloud.

Each organisation cloud journey is unique though. To succeed your Azure migration, Arηs Spikeseed will envision the desired target state, understand your cloud readiness and existing application landscape, then adopt an agile approach to closing the gaps. Migrating incrementally allows to demonstrate value quickly while minimizing the need to make far-reaching predictions, and mitigate risks related to unforeseen dependencies in complex ecosystems.

Our migration approach is composed of the following three major phases:

• Discovery & Assess: gather relevant information on your environment and the different types of application, classify applications into appropriate families, document the technical stack of each and identify dependencies
• Plan: evaluate the relevant migration strategy for each application (family), define and build the target architectural landscape for each of them, then plan migration waves according to application dependencies and criticality
• Migrate: execute the migration waves (incl. hypercare support ensuring business lines are running as expected) and ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities to your teams

Discovery & Assess phase

During the initial phase, we conduct a comprehensive assessment of your applications and users, taking into account technical, business, organizational, security, and compliance aspects.

Existing material screening: We gather and review any existing documentation, such as application architecture diagrams, inventory lists, and security policies. This helps identify potential issues and challenges that may arise during the migration process. Application dependencies: We map the dependencies between applications and infrastructure components, such as databases and servers. This understanding is crucial in developing a migration plan that ensures all dependencies are maintained, enabling a smooth transition. Workload classification: We classify workloads based on their characteristics, including performance requirements, data sensitivity, and regulatory compliance. This classification guides us in determining the appropriate cloud model and migration approach for each workload. Mapping workloads to the 7 Rs: We map each workload to the appropriate R (e.g., rehost, refactor, rearchitect) to identify suitable migration approaches. This helps us uncover quick wins and opportunities for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) migrations.

The outcome of this step are deliverables providing an exhaustive and comprehensive workload inventory which serves as a basis for the next phase;

Plan phase

During the planning phase, we classify each individual workload and map it to a migration path, assigning an application owner for each workload. The chosen migration path plays a vital role in determining the success of the migration, the potential benefits of utilizing the Microsoft Azure public cloud, and the long-term cost savings of the new operations model.

The plan phase yields multiple deliverables that articulate the migration strategy. These deliverables provide a clear explanation of the chosen migration path for each workload and outline the steps to be taken during the migration process. They serve as a comprehensive guide, ensuring that the migration is executed smoothly and in alignment with your business objectives.

Based on the deliverables on the previous steps, we execute the migration waves. Each wave focuses on migrating a specific set of workloads. This approach allows to control the migration process and ensure the stability of the systems throughout the transition.

The outcome of this phase are multiple deliverables that summarize the migration with a handover to the internal teams.