Cloud platforms that stay governed after the migration
We help you decide what belongs on AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud or a private platform, build the foundations securely, move workloads in controlled waves and keep costs visible.
What a cloud engagement covers
Cloud work starts with the workloads, not the provider. The scope below describes a typical migration or new cloud foundation; smaller engagements can take any single part.
A good fit when
- Servers or applications are approaching end of support and you are weighing cloud against a hardware refresh.
- Cloud accounts or subscriptions already exist, but ownership, security settings and spending are unclear.
- You need a disaster-recovery site or secure remote access without building a second server room.
- Some systems must stay on premises for latency, licensing or data-residency reasons, so a hybrid design is needed.
What the work covers
- Workload and dependency inventory, with a recommendation per application: rehost, replatform, replace, retain or retire.
- Landing zone or subscription structure: accounts, identity integration, network topology, logging and guardrails.
- Connectivity between offices, data centers and the cloud: VPN or dedicated links, DNS and routing.
- Migration waves with test plans, data synchronization, cutover windows and rollback points.
- Backup, disaster recovery and monitoring for migrated workloads.
- Cost allocation tags, budgets, alerts and a right-sizing review after the first billing cycles.
What you receive
- D1Cloud readiness assessment and migration strategy
- D2Landing zone design and configuration record
- D3Migration runbooks with rollback criteria
- D4Recovery test results for each migrated workload
- D5Operations handbook covering access, monitoring, patching and cost review
What it depends on
- An owner for each application who can confirm how it is used and accept the tests.
- Administrative access to existing servers, licences and any current cloud accounts.
- Internet capacity and redundancy sufficient for the planned workloads.
- Decisions on data classification and where sensitive data may be stored.
How a cloud engagement runs
STEP 01
Assess
Inventory workloads, dependencies, licences and costs, and agree what success looks like.
D1Readiness assessment
STEP 02
Design the foundation
Account structure, identity, network, security baselines and logging, set up before any workload moves.
D2Landing zone design
STEP 03
Pilot
Move one representative, lower-risk workload end to end to prove the runbook.
D3Pilot report
STEP 04
Migrate in waves
Group applications by dependency, schedule cutovers and keep rollback points until acceptance.
D4Wave runbooks and acceptance records
STEP 05
Optimize and operate
Right-size resources, tune backup and monitoring, and review costs every month.
D5Operations handbook
Decisions we help you make
- Which provider, or more than one
- AWS, Azure and Google Cloud differ in licensing, available services, existing staff skills and integration with tools such as Microsoft 365. We compare them against your workloads instead of recommending one by default.
- Public, private or hybrid
- Steady, predictable workloads with large data sets can cost less on private infrastructure; variable or internet-facing workloads often suit public cloud. Many organizations end up hybrid.
- Regions and data residency
- Cloud regions are chosen for latency, service availability and any regulatory or contractual limits on where data may be stored.
- Committed capacity or on-demand
- Commit only to baseline usage you have measured, after the first months of real billing data.
- Shared responsibility
- The provider secures its infrastructure; your configuration, identities, data and patching remain your responsibility, and the operating model has to say who does each task.
Common questions
Is cloud cheaper than buying new servers?
Not automatically. Cloud replaces capital spending with monthly costs and removes hardware refreshes, but always-on workloads can cost more than well-used local servers. We model both options over the expected service life, including licences, support, power and staff time.
Can we move without downtime?
Many workloads can be moved with a short cutover window by synchronizing data in advance. Some older applications need a planned outage. The runbook states the expected downtime for each system before you approve the schedule.
What happens to our Microsoft licences?
Licensing rules differ between providers and between licence types, and they change the cost comparison significantly. We review your current agreements early and confirm the licensing position with your reseller or the vendor before the design is final.
Do you manage the cloud after the migration?
If you want us to. Ongoing management is scoped separately under managed IT services and covers monitoring, patching, backup checks and monthly cost reviews.
Where will our data be stored?
In the provider regions chosen during design. We document the regions, backup locations and any service that processes data elsewhere, so you can check them against your obligations.
Related guides and scenarios
Guides
Planning a move to the cloud?
Share the systems involved and what is driving the decision. We will suggest where to start and what to assess first.