Cloud Migration Best Practices for 2025

The biggest mistake? Rushing into migration without a solid strategy. Take time to map out what you have, where it's going, and why. Not everything belongs in the cloud – some legacy systems might be better left alone. Create a realistic roadmap with priorities. What absolutely must move first? What can wait? What might not need to move at all?

That old inventory system that somehow still works? It might not play nice in the cloud without major changes. Before moving anything, document dependencies, performance requirements, and compliance needs. I once saw a company move an app to the cloud only to discover it relied on an obscure internal system nobody remembered. Expensive lesson.

Cloud security is different from on-premise security. You need to think about identity management, encryption (both for data sitting still and data moving around), and network controls. Enable multi-factor authentication everywhere – yes, people will complain, but they'll thank you when you avoid a breach. And remember: the cloud provider secures the platform, but securing YOUR data and applications is YOUR job.

Here's something nobody tells you: cloud can get expensive fast if you're not careful. Just because you CAN spin up 100 servers doesn't mean you should. Right-size your resources from the start. Use reserved instances for predictable workloads. Set up billing alerts before your finance team has a heart attack over next month's invoice.

Moving large amounts of data takes longer than you think. Internet connections have limits. Sometimes physically shipping hard drives is actually faster and cheaper than transferring terabytes over the network. Budget extra time, test thoroughly, and always – ALWAYS – validate your data after migration. Check row counts, run checksums, whatever it takes.

Cloud providers are reliable, but not infallible. Things can and do go wrong. Have a backup strategy that actually works – and test it. I mean really test it, not just assume it works. Know your recovery time objectives and make sure they're realistic. Can you afford 4 hours of downtime? 4 minutes? Plan accordingly.

Stop clicking through web interfaces to set up your infrastructure. Use tools like Terraform or CloudFormation to define everything in code. This might seem like extra work upfront, but it saves massive time later. Need to spin up a test environment identical to production? Done in minutes instead of days. Made a mistake? Roll back to the last working version.

In the cloud, you can't just walk over to a server room and check if something's wrong. Set up comprehensive monitoring from day one. Track performance metrics, set up alerts for anomalies, and actually pay attention to what the monitoring tells you. The best monitoring setup is worthless if nobody looks at it.

Your infrastructure team is probably great at managing on-premise systems. Cloud is different. Different tools, different cost models, different security considerations. Invest in training and certifications. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud all have extensive training programs. Use them. The money you spend on training is tiny compared to the cost of mistakes.

Don't try to move everything at once unless you enjoy stress and chaos. Start with non-critical applications. Learn from that experience. Refine your process. Then tackle the more important stuff. A phased approach gives you room to make mistakes when they don't matter as much, and apply those lessons to critical migrations.