Have you ever noticed that we often read and hear words that seem much simpler than the “reality” they describe? Maybe it’s because humans crave simplicity in the face of complexity, or maybe the truth is harder to grasp.
Take, for example, Day 0, Day 1, and Day 2 designations that are used in the software lifecycle for cloud migrations. Just saying “Day 0” out loud feels like an unholy union between time, math, and English that rarely stands up to critical thinking unless you tweak some assumptions and make some operational definitions.
Everyone knows that it takes a whole lot longer than three “days” to migrate to the cloud. That’s because days in this context are not really days but rather phases—but “days” sound simpler than “phases” and distract your mind from the reality of weeks, months, and years we all know it takes to successfully migrate to the cloud. Day 0 is planning and design, Day 1 is go-live, and Day 2 is continuous operations and everything that comes after going live—arguably, the never-ending day.
Cloud migration has its fair share of challenges—no matter what the Day—that are numerous, varied, and complex. The good news is that many have already gone down that path and learned the hard way (and have the scars to prove it) about what works well and what does not. There are some good lessons learned that can help you navigate and overcome those challenges.
Four Lessons You Could Really Use
Lesson number one is that you can’t manage what you can’t see. Architecting end-to-end visibility capabilities into your cloud migration strategy to mitigate the risk of performance, availability, and cybersecurity issues before, during, and after cloud migration is essential for success.
Lesson number two is that you need to build in security from the start, so you are prepared for your now much larger threat landscape. All the good things you have done for your legacy on-premises cyber defense need to be replicated in the cloud so you minimize risk with a common data set that can be shared across SecOps, DevOps, and NetOps teams. For example, if you are moving toward a Zero Trust model on-premises, you ought to be applying the Zero Trust principles in the cloud.
Lesson number three is that raw packets provide the anchor of context across all types of data sources to enable effective and efficient problem-solving. Ensuring optimal application performance and rapid problem resolution of any issues by leveraging scalable deep packet inspection technology is essential to solving the most complex problems organizations have when migrating to public, private, and hybrid cloud, whether you are utilizing lift-and-shift, refactoring, or both as part of your migration strategy.
And finally, lesson number four is that no matter which cloud you are migrating to (including the popular ones such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, or Oracle Cloud), NETSCOUT’s cloud migration expertise can and should be leveraged to help you ensure success at all the critical stages of your cloud migration. Our Smart Data and automation help customers meet service-level agreements (SLAs), create better efficiencies, and enable an effective achievement of ROI for cloud investments.
Speaking the Truth with Clarity
NETSCOUT Chief Solutions Architect Brian Philips, Senior Director of Security Product Marketing Tom Bienkowski, and Senior Director of Enterprise Product Marketing Jason Chaffee had a lively discussion in “Meeting the Challenges of Cloud Migration Day 0 Through Day 2,” part of our Problem Solvers Series, and shared many insightful nuggets of wisdom you can use in your own cloud migration journey, no matter what “Day” or phase you are currently on, or even if you are three months pre-deployment or two years post-migration to one or many clouds. It truly is an easy and entertaining listen that will help you in the hard and complex real world of cloud migration, with useful and practical advice you can use right away. Simple to understand, based on reality, and true —you don’t see or hear that every day.
View “Meeting the Challenges of Cloud Migration Day 0 Through Day 2” from our Problem Solvers Series today.