3 Tips to Make Data Migration Easier

Federal mandates and economic concerns are pushing businesses and government agencies to migrate their IT services to the cloud. As a result, decision makers must consider how to proceed in a way that meets compliance requirements in a timely, affordable and secure fashion.

Two data migration experts at experienced commercial organizations recently offered their advice to organizations that are just beginning on the data migration trail or are well on their way but hitting a few bumps in the road.

Sujit Mohanty, the chief technology officer for U.S. Defense Department work at Microsoft, says moving to a cloud-based operating architecture is one way to get applications into production rapidly, but admits many agencies have less than 20 percent of their budgets available for IT-based innovations that improve mission outcomes. Consequently, they must make wise moves when dealing with data migration.

Randy De Meno, chief technologist of Microsoft products and Microsoft partnership at Commvault, says his company’s collaboration with Microsoft is helping drive innovation despite budget constraints.

To help ease organizations’ transition into the cloud, Mohanty and De Meno offer these tips:

• When organizations consider migrating to the cloud, they should understand their workload and application portfolio. By performing an application rationalization process, agencies can determine which applications can be turned off first and which can be repurposed or replaced entirely during the migration process. Part of an organization’s applications—usually about 20 percent to 30 percent—can often be entirely shut off, retired or repurposed during the migration process. Determining the most efficient migration path for the remaining 50 percent to 60 percent of applications is most important.
• Organizations should focus on the migration strategy that best supports this process. “Being able to understand the data, being able to classify it, discover meaningful relationships and utilizing that data for a greater purpose—value for the mission—has been key,” Mohanty shares.
• Determining who can do what with the data or how long should it stay around should be based on policy. One advantage of moving to a cloud environment is that it provides the flexibility and power to help drive innovation across an organization. In the Defense Department, for example, this approach enables the collection of situational information data streams from sensors on the battlefield. Cloud-based services can then be combined with operational data to provide military personnel with a clearer operational picture of the current mission, Mohanty explains.

Recently, Mohanty and De Meno blended their expertise in a free webinar available now on demand online. “Advance Your Mission With a Secure Digital Transformation Strategy” includes additional advice organizations can incorporate to facilitate the move to the cloud.