Microsoft Cloud Migration Services

Cloud migration involves moving the digital assets, resources, and services of your applications to the cloud.

For most organizations today, migration to the cloud is no longer a concept for debate. Instead, it is a necessity – and for obvious reasons. Deployment of your applications and infrastructure in the Microsoft cloud offers your business a number of benefits, ranging from

• Enhanced security with advanced Identity and Access management as well as reporting that gives visibility across the entire footprint of apps, services, and resources within your cloud tenant
• User-friendly applications and services with artificial intelligence built-in
• Ease of access from any web-enabled device
• Simplified maintenance and updates with proactive alerts of all cloud resources
• Automation of resource deployment
• High availability and scalability
• Relief from the costly and disruptive on-premises hardware lifecycle refresh
• Better visibility and control over resource cost

In case you’re wondering if cloud migration is the best decision for your company, Arctic IT is here to help. Our team will help you understand what our cloud migration services entail and how they can benefit your business, so you can decide on the best strategy to achieve a seamless transition to the cloud.

At Arctic IT, we have a comprehensive cloud migration framework that allows you to optimize your operational processes by bringing all industry-specific tools and services your team needs into a unified platform. We can accomplish this across all cloud models and methods (IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS).

We are experts in digital transformation. With our cloud migration services, we can help you create the right digital strategy, roadmap, and workflow model, and smoothly transition your business to a highly secure and reliable managed cloud platform on Microsoft Azure.

Arctic IT takes a customer-centric approach to fulfill our clients’ cloud migration needs. While the process varies by organization, we utilize a proven cloud migration methodology and other resources to facilitate a smooth migration – minimizing impact on your daily operations.

Below is our typical process for helping you migrate all your business data, services, and applications into Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Azure, or any other preferred cloud solution for unparalleled security and performance.

Planning and Strategy

Our planning sessions with your team will focus on why you need the transition to a cloud platform. We will define and establish your cloud strategy and objectives based on your business goals and operational needs.

Infrastructure Assessment

Our team will also identify and establish a detailed inventory of your current infrastructure, including applications, and determine the cloud resources you need to achieve your business goals.

Migration Plan Development

Once we have established your business needs, migration strategy, workload priorities, essential resources, and budget, we will proceed to build a comprehensive migration plan that is most suitable for your operations.

Migration Prep

To ensure a smooth transition to the cloud (as part of our cloud migration services), Arctic IT will help your team understand the process and timelines to complete the project. We also communicate with you if you are required to perform any action. We keep your internal IT team informed while defining the cloud technologies, migration tools, and operational processes that we will be implementing.

Performing the Migration

Based on the pre-determined cloud migration strategy, our cloud migration experts will migrate your applications, services, business data, and other resources in waves to a secure Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, or Azure cloud environment.

Post-Live Support and Management

Our cloud migration services typically don’t stop after implementation. Arctic IT’s team of experts can manage and support your resources, data, and applications across all Microsoft cloud environments. We work closely with your internal IT and development teams to ensure you’re up and running securely at all times with no hitches.

It is important to understand the various factors that contribute to the cost of cloud migration services. This will help you plan your budget and set realistic expectations for your project. Arctic IT is committed to working with you to assess your environment and provide a comprehensive pricing and project plan for a successful cloud migration.

Number of Servers and Services to be Migrated

One of the key factors that impacts the cost of cloud migration services is the number of servers and services being moved. When assessing your environment, consider how many servers you have and their utilization. Arctic IT can help you identify which servers can be transitioned to PaaS or SaaS, such as file shares or SQL server services, in order to save money and create more reliable systems. By moving your on-premises solutions away from servers or virtual machines (VMs), you can often achieve greater efficiency and cost savings.

Downtime Tolerance

Another factor to consider is downtime tolerance. Does your organization require all services to be available 24×7, or can you tolerate some downtime during the weekend or overnight? Arctic IT can work with you to create a plan that minimizes downtime and ensures that daily operations are not impacted during the migration.

Availability

Availability is another key consideration when it comes to cloud migration services. What are your organization’s expectations for availability once systems are migrated? Do you need multi-geographic regions to account for local disasters? Do you need high availability for one or multiple services? Arctic IT can help you assess your needs and craft a solution that meets your availability requirements.

Security

Security is also an important factor to consider. How many of your systems are open to the internet? Do you require VPN or conditional access to utilize a resource? How will you handle identity and authentication? Does your organization already use MFA or passwordless logins to access services? Arctic IT can help you ensure that your systems are secure and compliant with your organization’s security policies.

Ultimately, the cost of cloud migration services will depend on your specific needs and requirements. By working with Arctic IT, as your partner, to assess your environment and develop a comprehensive pricing and project plan, you can ensure a successful cloud migration that provides faster, more scalable, and more available systems for your organization.

The timeline for cloud migration services can vary depending on the complexity of your migration project, the size of the organization, and the resources available for the project. A general timeline for cloud migration services could look like this:

1. Assessment: This phase involves evaluating the existing infrastructure and applications, and determining the migration strategy. This phase usually takes 2-4 weeks.
2. Planning: This phase involves creating a detailed plan for the migration, including the design of the new architecture and a roadmap for the migration. This phase usually takes 4-8 weeks.
3. Preparation: This phase involves preparing the environment for the migration, such as setting up the new cloud infrastructure and making any necessary changes to the existing environment. This phase usually takes 2-4 weeks.
4. Migration: This phase involves moving the data, applications, and workloads to the new cloud infrastructure. This phase can take several weeks to several months, depending on the size and complexity of the migration.
5. Validation: This phase involves testing and verifying that the applications and data have been successfully migrated and are functioning as expected. This phase usually takes 2-4 weeks.
6. Optimization: This phase involves fine-tuning the new cloud infrastructure and applications to optimize performance, security, and cost. This phase can take several weeks to several months.
7. Maintenance: This phase involves ongoing maintenance and support for the new cloud infrastructure and applications.

It is important to note that this timeline is just an estimate, and the actual timeline for a cloud migration project may be longer or shorter depending on the specific requirements and challenges of your project.

A cloud migration can be scheduled to work around your operations, even if you require 24×7 availability. With the help of modern tools, such as those provided by Microsoft Azure and its partners, a well-planned cloud migration can be seamless. Projects that require little or no downtime may still take some extra time and planning, but if you have flexibility, the migration can be completed during off-hours. Whatever your requirements for availability, Arctic IT can create and execute a plan that meets your specific needs for your cloud migration project.

The biggest impact from a cloud migration project happens after the migration. The migration can offer a multitude of benefits, such as the ability to migrate office files to Teams for auto-saving, then accessing them from any device, sharing them internally and externally, and making simultaneous edits with colleagues. These benefits provide your organization with a level of flexibility that is virtually impossible with on-premises solutions. When migrating from on-premises servers to Azure VMs, you gain the ability to scale up or down as your needs change, without requiring capital expenditures, data centers, generators, or backups. This change makes your organization nimbler, allowing you to adjust to changing conditions without worrying about your IT infrastructure.

Overall, a cloud migration project can bring numerous benefits to your organization, making it more efficient and effective in meeting your day-to-day operational needs.