While larger corporations had been basking in the benefits of cloud since quite some time now, many mid-size and smaller companies are still sitting on the fence regarding migrating their data to cloud. Amongst many reasons (or we can say, lack of knowledge/ awareness), the misconception about complexity of the process makes up for a major cause behind that.

Dispelling that thought, here we’ve compiled a list of six basic yet often ignored steps which will serve as an easy step-by-step guide to ease your data migration worries.

Step 1: Source Assessment

Thoroughly evaluate your data and refine what needs to migrate and what need not along with filling up the gaps in data fields to avoid disjointed strings later.

Step 2: Defining Migration Process & Timelines

Outline the process depending upon magnitude of migration and accordingly bring into picture the technical architecture needed for migration. Don’t forget to attach timelines to all activities.

Step 3: Tandem Testing During Development Phase

Start making smaller subsets of data – let’s say one category and do simultaneous testing on the new platform to get hold of any anomalies on either side, in the nip of time.

Step 4: Live Testing

After the build-phase testing, it’s time for full-throttle testing with real data in the actual environment to understand the accuracy level of the implementation.

Step 5: Migration

After successful testing, it’s time to take the plunge.

Step 6: Audit

Post the implementation has gone live, there’s no time to sit back. Instead, set up an audit to check the precision of migration and do requisite course-correction, if any.

Switching to cloud is proving to be a profit strategy for businesses given the large number of benefits associated with it such as disaster recovery, easy scalability, extensive security etc. However, a correct implementation is the only way to secure those benefits and these essential, yet often under-looked steps will act as a handy compass or a checklist when you’re walking that path.