How to Create a Data Center or Cloud
Migration Wave Plan

Planning Your Migration Strategy

Migrating applications and systems to the cloud or a new data center requires a structured approach to prevent outages and performance issues. After completing the discovery phase and mapping applications to servers and databases, the next step is to develop a migration wave plan. Your strategy may involve a lift-and-shift approach, refactoring, or re-platforming, or a combination of these methods. Regardless of the strategy, it is crucial to create a structured sequence for migrating applications and systems.

Key Considerations for Migration Planning:

• Identify dependencies between applications, databases, and infrastructure.
• Ensure critical applications are migrated with minimal impact on business operations.
• Optimize scheduling to align with business requirements and technical constraints.
• Balance workloads to prevent resource bottlenecks during migration.

Grouping Applications and System-Based Dependencies

A successful migration wave plan begins with grouping applications and systems based on their dependencies. By using dependency mapping, you can identify all servers, databases, and communication components that an application relies on. Reviewing these dependencies allows you to determine additional applications sharing infrastructure and cluster them accordingly.

Steps to Identify Migration Clusters:

1. Identify all servers, database instances, and dependencies for each application.
2. Analyze shared infrastructure components and iteratively group related applications.
3. Determine whether clusters can migrate together or need to be divided further.

If clusters are too large, further analysis is required to prioritize critical dependencies. Some applications rely on synchronous communications (e.g., databases), which are more sensitive to latency, while others use asynchronous communications (e.g., FTP, email) that can tolerate delays. In highly virtualized environments, database servers often host dozens or even hundreds of applications. When this occurs, it may be necessary to migrate databases in smaller batches rather than moving an entire server at once.

Aligning Migration with Business Requirements

Beyond technical considerations, business requirements must also be factored into the migration schedule. Different applications and environments have specific constraints regarding migration timing, operational priorities, and potential disruptions.

Factors to Consider:

• Migration Timing: Production applications are usually migrated outside business hours (e.g., weekends), while non-production environments may be moved during regular work hours.
• Testing and Validation: Application teams may need days or weeks between migrating lower environments and production systems for validation.
• Business Priorities: Critical applications may need to be migrated earlier or later in the schedule to align with key business activities, such as major software upgrades or financial reporting periods.

It is also essential to collaborate with business application owners to avoid scheduling migrations during peak business activities, such as end-of-quarter financial reporting or major customer rollouts.

Managing Workloads and Resource Constraints

One of the primary reasons migrations occur in waves is to prevent overwhelming IT and business resources. Each migration window should be carefully planned based on available personnel, vendor support, and network bandwidth.

Key Resource Considerations:

• Technical Expertise: Migration teams, including Windows engineers, Unix engineers, and database administrators, must be available.
• Application SMEs: Subject-matter experts must be able to support migration and post-migration testing.
• Data Replication: Large datasets may require pre-staging, and network capacity must be considered to avoid bandwidth limitations.

If migration waves occur back-to-back, organizations must ensure they have sufficient technical resources and network capacity to handle data replication and system cutovers efficiently.

Building a Migration Sequence and Executing the Plan

Once applications are grouped, business requirements are accounted for, and resource constraints are addressed, the migration sequence can be finalized. It is generally best to migrate simpler applications first, followed by more complex systems with multiple dependencies. Lower environments should always be migrated before production to identify and resolve any issues in advance.

If a lower environment does not exist, organizations should consider cloning production environments for testing before executing the final migration. Although this adds effort, it significantly reduces the risk of unexpected failures during the production cutover.

By following these structured steps, applications and systems can be sequenced into controlled waves, ensuring a smooth and predictable migration process.

Simplify and Accelerate Migration with CTM’s AppMap 360

Manually consolidating data, verifying dependencies, and scheduling migrations is a complex and time-intensive process. To streamline and optimize these tasks, CTM Technology Group developed AppMap 360, an intelligent automation solution designed to enhance migration efficiency and accuracy.

Key Features of AppMap 360:

• Automated Data Consolidation: Integrates and centralizes data from multiple discovery tools, system records, and manual inputs into a single platform.
• Rules-Based Verification: Accelerates data validation for systems and applications, reducing manual effort and ensuring reliability.
• Comprehensive Dependency Mapping: Accurately identifies critical relationships between applications, databases, and infrastructure components to prevent disruptions and enable smooth transitions.
• Automated Wave Planning: Instantly generates optimized migration schedules to minimize downtime, prevent resource conflicts, and ensure business continuity. Multiple dynamic views allow program managers to compare and refine wave plans efficiently.
• Dynamic Project Dashboard: Provides real-time visibility into migration progress, key milestones, and business impact analysis to keep stakeholders informed and aligned.

By leveraging AppMap 360, organizations can minimize risks, reduce delays, and accelerate IT transformations with confidence. Contact CTM Technology Group today to learn how AppMap 360 can revolutionize your migration strategy.

Request a Demo