CLOUD & DEVOPS Application Onboarding & Migration Process Overview

This guide to app onboarding and migration outlines a standardized series of activities required to move an application from on-premise data center facilities to a cloud provider.
Migrations will take place in waves spanning FY15-FY17 and depend upon a close partnership between business, technical, and migration teams in order to achieve critical HUIT goals.

PHASE A: PLANNING
Step 0: Prepare for
Application Migration
Estimated duration: 1 week to complete
Participants: Application architecture and
development teams, cloud engagement lead
The application team will receive and return
a completed set of migration artifacts,
including a requirements template, current-
state design documentation, and a series of
open questions in preparation for migration
planning. The cloud migration team will
review documentation, perform a fit analysis
against standard patterns, and produce
recommendations for review.
Expected outcomes: Artifacts
(requirements template, design
documentation, and recommendations) are
created.
Step 1: Hold Initial
Engagement Meeting
Estimated duration: 1.5 hours
Participants: App owner, app tech lead,
engagement lead, cloud architect, cloud
implementation lead
Schedule a meeting to review (a) the
program goals, (b) high-level migration
processes, (c) application-specific
objectives, (d) open questions, and (e) next
steps.
Expected outcomes: The app team gains a
clear understanding of the cloud migration
process. Key team resources are identified
and introduced. A standard engagement
presentation is created.
Step 2: Perform
Architectural Discovery
Estimated duration: 3 hours
Participants: App architect, app
development team, cloud architect/AWS
professional services, cloud operations lead,
cloud engagement lead
Review and discuss architectural
considerations for application design
in AWS. Discuss SaaS alternatives if
appropriate. Review application fit against
AWS patterns and data flows. Determine
initial level of effort for remediation and
migration. Select cloud tools.
Expected Outcomes: Understand
application design. Discuss remediation
effort. Determine implementation methods.
Select tools.
Step 3: Create Migration Schedule Step 5: Conduct Kick-Off
Estimated duration: 3 days Estimated duration: 1 hour
Participants: Application PM, cloud Participants: App owner, app development
implementation lead/cloud scrum master team, cloud implementation lead, cloud
Cloud implementation team and app team engagement lead, cloud architect/AWS
project manager will draft a cloud execution plan. professional services
Expected Outcomes: Creation of a Conduct a meeting to review finalized
draft schedule with milestones that align migration approach and schedule.
migration work to application sprints. Expected Outcomes: Obtain agreement
and review go-forward approach.
Steps 3 & 4 can be performed in parallel.
Step 4: Perform Cost Comparison
Estimated duration: 3 hours
Participants: Cloud migration team, ICAPS
Obtain the apps current chargeback
information (from ICAPS) and usage
information (from vCenter). Enter design into
cloud cost calculator to create comparison.
Expected Outcomes: Creation of a cost
analysis document.

PHASE B: EXECUTION
Iterative Process: Remediation, Integration, Migration, Validation

Step 1: Replatform/Remediate Application
Estimated duration: Variable (days to weeks)
Participants: Application development and QA teams
As required, replatform and/or remediate application to
align with the standards and patterns recommended for
cloud migration.
Expected Outcomes: Ensure application readiness.
Step 2: Integrate Application
Estimated duration: Variable
Participants: App development team, HUIT network
team, HUIT security team, DevOps platform team
Perform app, database, and network changes to account
for external/internal interfaces and external app integration.
Integrate with Continuous Delivery Platform as desired.
Expected Outcomes: Network changes, security
changes, transport methods.
Step 3: Migrate Environments
Estimated duration: Variable
Participants: Cloud migration team, app QA, app
development team (as needed)
Cloud migration team, in conjunction with application
development team, begins migration to cloud provider
through dev, test, QA, and prod environments.
Expected Outcomes: App migration is complete.
Step 4: Validate App & Complete Migration
Estimated duration: Variable
Participants: Application QA team, cloud implementation
team, application users
Test application deployment in the cloud.
Expected Outcomes: Completed technical testing
(functional, integration, performance, security); user
acceptance.

PHASE C: OPERATION & OPTIMIZATION

Ongoing: Implement, Monitor, Optimize, Repeat Ongoing: Decommission and Optimize Infrastructure
Participants: Help Desk (Tier 1), Application Team/Service Team (Tier 2), AWS Support (Tier 2) Participants: Infrastructure Team
Implement application in accordance with SLA. Monitor, alert, and log application in operational state. Identify infrastructure consolidation opportunities; consolidate and calculate savings.