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Cloud Infrastructure & Migration

Cloud migration consulting services
for Google Cloud.Decide what moves, whether it should, and how.

A migration plan starts with what you run today: every workload, what depends on what, and what it would cost on Google Cloud. From there each workload gets an approach, from lift and shift to a rebuild, and a place in the order of moves.

Plan your migrationRehost, replatform or refactor?

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What is cloud migration consulting?

Cloud migration consulting decides whether, what and how to move before anything moves: an inventory of your workloads and their dependencies, a total cost of ownership business case, an approach for each workload, and the batches and order they move in.

Google splits a migration into four phases: assess, plan, deploy and optimize. Consulting covers the first two. Google's Migration Center does the discovery: it scans servers and SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, maps application and network dependencies, and produces total cost of ownership reports. Deploying and optimizing is the migration itself.

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What a migration plan covers

Inventory

Every workload, and more than workloads: the servers, databases and data that come with them.

Dependencies

Which applications and networks depend on each other, so related workloads move together.

Business case

What the target environment would cost to own, from Migration Center's cost of ownership reports.

Approach per workload

Rehost, replatform, refactor or another of Google's migration types, chosen workload by workload.

Batches and order

Workloads and data grouped into batches, with first movers chosen so your team builds experience.

Rehost, replatform or refactor?

Google's migration types, from the least change to the most. A plan picks one for each workload.

ApproachWhat changesOften fits when
Rehost (lift and shift)Minimal or no changesThere's a deadline, such as a data center exit, and the workload runs fine as it is
Replatform (lift and optimize)Move first, then tune for the cloudThe workload is sound but would gain from managed services after the move
Refactor (move and improve)Modify the workload to use cloud capabilitiesThe application is actively developed and the team can change it
Re-architectChange how the code works, for example a monolith split into microservicesThe current design limits how the application scales or changes
Rebuild (remove and replace)Retire the application and rewrite it for the cloudThe application is due for a rewrite anyway
RepurchaseReplace a purchased on-premises product with a SaaS equivalentA SaaS product already does the job

Google's four migration phases

Consulting plans the move. The migration makes it.

Assess and plan come first, and they decide what the deploy and optimize phases look like.

1. AssessInventory, dependencies, costBuild the inventory, catalog workloads by their properties and dependencies, and calculate the cost of ownership.
2. PlanApproach, batches, orderSort workloads, choose an approach for each, group them into batches and set the order.
3. DeployLanding zone and the movesThe landing zone, then the workloads, moved with Google's migration tools.GCP Design & Migration 4. OptimizeTuning after the moveResources and configurations tuned for cost and performance once workloads run.GCP Design & Migration

Cloud migration consulting FAQ

What IT and finance leads ask about cloud migration consulting services before they decide to move.

Not sure where to start?

Tell us what you run today and where, and we'll talk through how a migration plan would start.

(888) 545-3685Plan your migration
Is cloud migration strategy consulting different from the migration itself?

Yes. It decides whether, what and how to move: the inventory, the business case, an approach for each workload and the order of moves. The landing zone, Google's migration tools and the cut-overs are the migration itself, on our GCP Design & Migration page.

Should we lift and shift, or rework applications first?

Often both, workload by workload. Rehosting moves a workload with little or no change and suits a deadline; refactoring or re-architecting changes the workload to use cloud capabilities and takes longer. Many plans rehost first and rework an application once it runs on Google Cloud.

Which workloads should move first?

Not necessarily the most important ones. Google's guidance is that the first workloads you migrate are the ones that let your team build knowledge and experience on Google Cloud, and that choosing the right first movers is crucial.

Does planning differ if we're moving from another cloud, not a data center?

Not much. The steps are the same: Migration Center's discovery covers workloads running in AWS and Azure as well as servers and databases in a data center.

Related services

Cloud Infrastructure & MigrationPlan, compare, build and move, then useGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP) Design & MigrationLanding zones, then VMs and databases movedCloud Strategy & Multi-Cloud ConsultingArchitecture, governance and cost modelingSecurity Assessments & Risk ManagementWorkspace and Google Cloud security audits

Plan your migration before you make it

Tell us what you run today, where it runs and what's prompting the move.

  • Google Cloud Premier Partner, working only on Google Cloud and Workspace for more than a decade
  • U.S.-based support team

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