Cloud Migration

On-prem last call.
Cloud's first day.

We move you from an aging server room to AWS, GCP, Azure or a hybrid model in measured phases — with rollback ready and zero-downtime cutovers. Not just a virtualised copy, but real cloud-native gains, FinOps-driven cost reductions and a clean operating model.

"Just lift-and-shift, let's be quick" doubles the bill by month six. The right order: assess, architect, only then migrate. We never skip the sequence.

Live migration RUN-1
On-Prem DC
High CAPEX
erp-svc
api-gw
postgres-db
queue-worker
analytics-job
Cloud
AWS GCP AZ
ec2 / gke
rds / aurora
s3 / gcs
eks / aks
Elastic OPEX
Discover
Assess
Plan
Pilot
Migrate
Optimize
Operate
Zero downtime

Why DIY migration breaks

Cloud migration is not "copy-paste". A wrong migration scales your problems and bills them back.

70% of teams who lift-and-shift their VMs onto cloud find — by year one — that OPEX exceeds the on-prem CAPEX they wanted to escape. Reasons: lift-and-shift misses cloud-native gains, long parallel runs duplicate cost, undiscovered dependencies cause cascading outages, and security policies don't translate one-to-one, opening new attack surface. All known traps — but without discipline, every team falls into each one.

01

Lift-and-shift has no savings

Copying a VM into the cloud means paying for the same-size box monthly. Without managed services (managed DB, serverless, auto-scale) you're paying the old bill in a new format.

02

Dual-run bleeds money

When on-prem and cloud run in parallel for months it means two bills + two ops teams. Without a cutover plan, 3 months stretches to 18 — budget burns, cutover postpones.

03

Unknown dependencies

Forgotten crons, shared file paths, clients pinned to fixed IPs — the chain breaks after migration. Skip discovery, dependencies fall over in production.

04

Security doesn't translate 1:1

On-prem firewall rules must map to cloud security groups + IAM + KMS. Direct copy produces both over-permissive holes and missing protection.

05

Network & DNS miscalculated

Cross-AZ traffic, NAT gateways, VPC peering, egress data — surprise line items. Wrong architecture inflates the monthly bill 3-5×.

06

No rollback plan

If cutover day surprises you, how do you fall back to on-prem? Teams that say "we can't" take a big risk; we keep rollback open at every stage.

Visual migration panel

Transparent tracking: which workload, where, what cost curve, which 6R decision.

Kanban — workload flow

Each workload is its own card.

On-Prem

REHOST
legacy-erp
RETAIN
tape-backup

Migrating

REPLATFORM
order-api
REHOST
billing-svc
REFACTOR
checkout-fn

Cloud-ready

DONE
auth-svc
DONE
cdn-edge
DONE
events-bus

CAPEX → OPEX shift

Locked capital turns into flowing operations.

CAPEX OPEX Savings Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7

CAPEX

−68%

OPEX

+42%

Net

−31%

Map of the 6 Rs

We pick the right strategy per workload — not blind migration.

R

Rehost

Move as-is. Lift-and-shift; fastest, lowest gain. Process improves, cost flat.

R

Replatform

Move with small changes. Managed DB, automated backups. Medium effort, real savings.

R

Refactor

Rewrite. Serverless, microservices, event-driven. High effort, highest savings.

R

Repurchase

Switch to SaaS. Replace custom legacy with standard SaaS. Fast process, model shifts.

R

Retire

Switch off. Services nobody uses get shut down — never migrated.

R

Retain

Keep on-prem. Regulation, latency, capex — some things don't move.

Who it's for

Eight typical moments when the cloud decision starts to make sense now.

01

Enterprise hardware refresh

Servers are 5-7 years old, warranty expired, refresh quote on the desk. Converting the same spend to a 3-year cloud commit is the moment.

02

SaaS outgrowing colo

Customer count climbed, cabinets are full, opening another colo is a scale mistake. Multi-region cloud is the right answer.

03

E-commerce hardware ceiling

Black Friday and campaign peaks stress the box; without auto-scale, you lose customers.

04

Post-M&A consolidation

Two companies, three datacenters, four stacks. Cloud is the canvas to unify on a single target.

05

Regulated industries + location

KVKK, banking, finance, health — data residency + audit trail are mandatory. Cloud with the right region simplifies compliance.

06

Startup graduating PaaS

You hit Heroku/Render/Vercel limits; you need real architectural control. Cloud + IaC is professional grade.

07

Gov & education modernization

On-prem is old, capex budget tight; OPEX model + elastic capacity is the only path.

08

Manufacturing + IoT data

Sensor data from the floor needs an edge + cloud layered architecture. On-prem alone falls short.

10 disciplines, one team

Migration, architecture, FinOps, security — same room, same sprint.

Splitting cloud migration across vendors = scattered accountability, risks slip between gaps. One team + one roadmap means every phase reinforces the next; decision latency disappears.

01

Discovery & assessment

Automated inventory, dependency mapping, usage profiling. Which workload fits which 6R bucket.

02

TCO modeling & business case

3- and 5-year TCO; Reserved/Savings/Spot mixes; board-ready business case.

03

Target architecture design

Multi-AZ, multi-region, well-architected; failover, DR, RTO/RPO targets.

04

Pilot migration

Two low-risk workloads to build knowledge + confidence; reference for the next waves.

05

Database migration

PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, MongoDB — cutover with minimal interruption.

06

Network & VPN

Site-to-site VPN, Direct Connect/ExpressRoute, VPC peering, hybrid DNS.

07

Security policy mapping

On-prem firewall + AD + GPO → IAM + SCP + KMS + audit. No permission lost.

08

FinOps & cost optimization

Right-sizing, scheduling, RI/SP planning, anomaly detection, showback/chargeback.

09

Runbooks & operational handover

Run procedures, alarm sets, on-call training; a system handed to your team.

10

Post-migration optimization

First 90 days of cost + performance tuning; continuous improvement loop.

Process

From discovery to steady operation: a phased path in 6 steps.

  1. 01

    Week 1-3 · Discovery & assess

    Automated scan + on-site workshop; every workload, dependency, usage profile.

  2. 02

    Week 3-6 · Plan & TCO

    Target architecture, 6R decisions, wave plan, 3-5 year TCO, rollback path.

  3. 03

    Week 6-10 · Pilot

    2 low-risk workloads; landing zone, IaC, monitoring, runbook drafts proven.

  4. 04

    Week 10-26 · Migration waves

    2-3 week waves; each wave ends with acceptance test + rollback armed.

  5. 05

    Week 26-32 · Optimize

    Right-sizing, RI/SP purchase, automated scheduling, anomaly detection.

  6. 06

    Week 32+ · Operate & handover

    Runbooks, alarms, training, handover; continuous improvement + monthly FinOps review.

Tools we use

Discovery, migration, automation, FinOps — industry standard.

AWS Migration Hub Azure Migrate GCP Migration Center CloudEndure Carbonite Migrate Velostrata Terraform Ansible Datadog CloudHealth Apptio

Client stories

Different sectors, same discipline, measurable outcome.

Manufacturing DC −47%

Multi-site manufacturer

2 datacenters, 180 servers moved to AWS. After 14 months DC cost fell 47%; hardware refresh budget cancelled outright.

SaaS 8 weeks

B2B SaaS — 200 services

200 microservices migrated to EKS in 8 weeks; average deploy 42 min → 6 min.

E-commerce MTTR −73%

High-traffic retailer

Multi-region cloud + edge cache; MTTR 4 h → 65 min; zero downtime on campaign day.

Fintech PCI ✓

Payment platform

PCI-DSS compliant landing zone + hybrid; data residency preserved, entered audit cycle.

Media −58% / 3×

Publishing platform

Video transcoding on spot + lambda; monthly bill −58%, throughput 3×.

Logistics Real-time

Parcel & tracking

Real-time tracking on Kinesis + DynamoDB; on-prem batch system retired.

FAQ

The 8 questions clients ask most

There's no single right answer; we decide per workload. If you have a hard datacenter exit deadline and the service won't benefit much from cloud-native features (e.g. a rarely-used internal tool), lift-and-shift is sensible. But for product-critical components (high-traffic APIs, primary databases, queue infrastructure) replatform or refactor cuts cost 30-60% from year one. The right approach: 6R-analyse every workload, then run mixed waves. A hybrid strategy is always more realistic than a pure one. We also avoid all-or-nothing migrations; phased lift-and-improve protects timeline and budget.
AWS has the widest catalogue and the broadest ecosystem; usually a safe default. GCP shines for data/ML workloads and Kubernetes (GKE) with cleaner network primitives. Azure is preferred by enterprises tied to the Microsoft stack (AD, .NET, SQL Server, M365) thanks to tight integration. Multi-cloud isn't required and tends to add complexity. Instead, we recommend building on cloud-agnostic layers (Kubernetes, Terraform); you keep portability later. The choice is driven by your team's experience, target market, regulation and existing commercial agreements.
It depends on scale. A mid-size estate of 20-50 servers takes 3-6 months; an enterprise environment with 100-300 servers + several databases runs 6-12 months; large multi-site portfolios can take 12-24 months. What matters isn't total months but the wave rhythm: 2-3 week waves moving 5-15 workloads each. That distributes risk, lets your team learn, and keeps rollback open. We refuse big-bang cutovers — a small surprise that day can turn into a major crisis. Phased is always safer.
Designed correctly, yes — 20-50% net savings is normal. Designed wrongly, cloud is more expensive. Sources of saving: auto-stop in off-hours, 40-65% off with Reserved Instances + Savings Plans, 70-90% with spot for batch, lower ops staff cost via managed services. Sources of overshoot: cross-AZ traffic, egress data transfer, over-provisioned instances, ignored test environments. That's why FinOps discipline is mandatory: monthly usage analysis, anomaly detection, right-sizing recommendations. 88% of our clients operate below the old TCO within 12 months.
Target is 0-30 minutes per workload. Stateless web apps go zero-downtime via blue-green. Databases follow two approaches: (1) continuous replication with AWS DMS / Google DMS / Azure DMS — at cutover we wait 1-5 minutes for lag, then flip DNS; (2) planned maintenance window, typically a 2-6 hour late-night slot. We pick per business needs. Every cutover is rehearsed in staging so there are no surprises live. If something exceeds the plan, the rollback we kept armed returns traffic to on-prem.
Usually yes, with conversion. VMware or Hyper-V backups can be converted to AWS/GCP/Azure formats and booted — that's often the first pilot, standing up a copy from backup to test data and compatibility. But a backup isn't a migration; the config may be stale, licensing may behave differently, networking must be rebuilt. Still, backups are a major accelerator. We also build a cloud-native backup strategy alongside the move: snapshot automation, cross-region replication, immutable backups — resilient even against ransomware.
For Türkiye-based clients we use AWS Istanbul region, Microsoft Azure Türkiye region or Turkish hyperscaler partners. For EU operations we recommend Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Dublin + a GDPR-aligned landing zone. Critical controls: residency-guaranteed region selection, encryption-at-rest + in-transit, 7-year audit log retention, IAM role-based access, monthly compliance report for the DPO. Hybrid models — keeping sensitive workloads local while moving the rest to public cloud — are also possible. We prepare a compliance matrix with your legal team.
Yes — we plan for it at every stage. In the first 90 days rollback is easiest; the on-prem system is still live, flipping DNS back is enough. Between 90 and 180 days the on-prem footprint shrinks; returning needs renewed hardware contracts, but data is still synced so it's possible. After 12 months a full rollback isn't practical; however, switching to a hybrid mode and pulling some critical workloads to a private datacenter remains an option. The "cloud is irreversible" feeling is wrong; the right plan preserves flexibility. To minimise vendor lock-in we build cloud-agnostic layers (Kubernetes, Terraform, open standards).

From the on-prem weight to a disciplined cloud.

A free 30-minute call to review your infrastructure, hardware refresh date and migration scenarios — leave with a crisp 3-step roadmap.

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