Next steps

In this strategy document, we introduced the preparation and implementation steps required for large migrations to the AWS Cloud. Analyzing your current state, building a plan, and iterating the work breaks a large migration into manageable activities for efficient implementation. Looking at a migration as an organizational change project empowers you to build buy-in and maintain communications through each stage of the process. Build a business case and refine the return on investment as the project progresses. Use the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) to analyze your environment through the different perspectives of business, people, governance, platform, security, and operations. This analysis gives you a complete view of which areas need improvement before you move forward with a large migration effort. Use a migration factory construct and iterate on migration patterns to create an optimal move to the AWS Cloud. Today, AWS customers have shifted from asking, “Why migrate to the cloud?” to asking, "When?" Building an effective migration strategy and plan will allow you to respond, “Now!”

Migration is just the beginning of what is possible. After you migrate an application, you can consider your migration experience as a capability that you can use for the optimization phases for this application. You will have a current architecture and a future design. You will implement, test, and validate changes. You will cut over and go live. You now have a new IT capability that can drive speed, agility, and business value for your organization and your company.