Why are organizations rushing to leave on prem infrastructure now? Because staying on legacy systems is becoming a bigger risk. Today, cloud adoption is no longer at an early stage. It is already mainstream. Recent industry reports show that about ~96% of companies now use cloud services in some form, and organizations run roughly half of their workloads in the cloud on average.
The shift is driven by real pressures. Companies are moving because cloud enables AI workloads, faster scaling, and lower infrastructure overhead that traditional data centers cannot handle efficiently.
The cloud migration services market is set to jump from $16.90B in 2024 to $70.34B by 2030 (a 27.8% CAGR from 2025–2030).
Yet migration is not easy. Many organizations still struggle to execute properly, and research suggests only a small share of cloud transformations achieve their full intended value without strong planning.
That is why preparation matters more than the move itself. To help you avoid the mistakes that derail migrations and to ensure a smooth transition off on prem systems in 2026, we have compiled a practical cloud migration checklist for businesses ready to make the shift.
An Overview of Cloud Migration and Why You Need a Checklist
Cloud migration is the process of moving applications, data, and workloads from on prem infrastructure to cloud environments like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
For many organizations, this shift is no longer optional. Aging hardware, rising maintenance costs, security risks, and the demand for faster innovation are pushing businesses to modernize their IT foundations.
However, migration is not just a technical move. It affects operations, budgets, security, compliance, and user experience. That is why a checklist matters. It keeps the work structured and prevents costly gaps.
Why you need a cloud migration checklist:
- Avoid downtime surprises by planning cutovers, rollback, and testing.
- Control cloud spend with clear sizing, tagging, and budget guardrails.
- Reduce security and compliance gaps by defining policies before moving data.
- Prevent data loss with backup, validation, and recovery steps.
- Keep teams aligned across IT, security, finance, and business owners.
Cloud Migration Checklist: 20 Proven Steps for 2026
A successful cloud migration demands more than lifting and shifting workloads. It requires deep technical planning, governance, and execution discipline across architecture, security, data, and operations.
These steps reflect what modern enterprises must address to migrate safely, control costs, and ensure long term performance in 2026.
1. Define migration strategy (6Rs framework)
Start by classifying every application using the 6Rs model to determine the most practical migration path. Business critical systems that demand minimal change often follow a rehost approach, while applications with scalability issues may require refactoring.
Document expected downtime tolerance, business impact, licensing implications, and projected cloud operating costs for each decision so leadership can prioritize migrations based on value and risk.
2. Build a complete asset inventory
A detailed inventory prevents unpleasant surprises during migration. Capture server specifications, operating systems, database engines, storage volumes, network configurations, and application owners.
Many organizations discover forgotten legacy systems or shadow IT assets at this stage, which can otherwise break dependent processes if left unmapped.
3. Map application dependencies
Applications rarely operate in isolation. Identify how systems communicate with each other, including APIs, message queues, authentication services, scheduled jobs, and third party integrations.
This dependency mapping ensures that when one component moves, connected services continue functioning without latency spikes or connection failures.
4. Assess cloud readiness for each workload
Not every workload is immediately suitable for the cloud. Evaluate technical constraints such as outdated operating systems, unsupported middleware, hardware bound licensing, or strict latency requirements. This assessment helps determine whether modernization is needed before migration or whether hybrid deployment should be maintained temporarily.
5. Design the target cloud architecture
Design the future environment before moving anything. Define network segmentation, availability zones, traffic routing, load balancing strategy, and isolation between production and non production workloads.
A well planned architecture improves resilience, security posture, and scalability from day one instead of forcing redesigns later.
6. Establish identity and access management
Cloud environments introduce new identity risks if access is not tightly controlled. Implement centralized identity integration, role based access policies, and multi factor authentication.
Clearly define administrative boundaries so only authorized personnel can provision resources or access sensitive data.
7. Create a security baseline
Security controls must be embedded before workloads go live. Define encryption requirements, key management processes, patch policies, vulnerability scanning routines, and monitoring for suspicious activity. Align these controls with regulatory requirements relevant to your industry.
8. Plan data migration approach
Large datasets require careful transfer planning to avoid extended downtime. Decide whether to use real time replication, staged migration, or bulk transfer devices depending on data volume and network capacity.
Establish a migration sequence so dependent databases remain consistent.
9. Prepare data integrity validation
After migration, confirm that data remains accurate and complete. Use validation scripts, record comparisons, and reconciliation checks to ensure no corruption or loss occurred during transfer.
This step is critical for financial systems, healthcare data, and customer records.
10. Right size compute and storage
Avoid simply copying on prem capacity to the cloud. Analyze historical utilization patterns to select appropriate instance sizes and storage tiers. Proper sizing reduces costs while maintaining performance, especially for workloads with fluctuating demand.
11. Implement cost governance controls
Cloud spending can escalate quickly without oversight. Establish tagging standards, budget alerts, and approval processes for resource creation. Regular cost reviews help identify unused resources and optimization opportunities.
12. Design high availability and disaster recovery
Define how services will remain available during failures. Plan redundancy across zones or regions, backup frequency, recovery objectives, and failover procedures. Test these mechanisms to confirm they work under real conditions.
13. Modernize networking and connectivity
Ensure reliable communication between on prem systems, cloud workloads, and external users. Configure secure connectivity options, update DNS routing, and optimize network paths to minimize latency and packet loss.
14. Prepare CI/CD and automation pipelines
Manual deployment processes often fail in dynamic cloud environments. Transition to automated pipelines and infrastructure as code to ensure consistent provisioning, faster releases, and reduced human error.
15. Conduct performance benchmarking
Measure system performance before migration to establish a baseline. After moving workloads, compare metrics such as response times and throughput to verify improvements or identify tuning needs.
16. Run pilot migrations first
Testing with low risk applications allows teams to refine tools, timelines, and procedures. Lessons learned from pilot projects reduce risk when migrating mission critical systems later.
17. Train operations and support teams
Cloud platforms introduce new operational models. Provide training on monitoring tools, incident handling, scaling procedures, and cost management so teams can support the new environment effectively.
18. Update monitoring and observability stack
Deploy centralized logging, metrics collection, and alerting suited for distributed systems. Visibility across applications and infrastructure enables faster troubleshooting and performance optimization.
19. Execute phased cutover with rollback plan
Move workloads in controlled stages rather than all at once. Maintain the ability to revert to the previous environment if critical issues arise, ensuring business continuity.
20. Optimize continuously after migration
Migration is the starting point, not the finish line. Continuously refine architecture, adjust resource allocation, strengthen security controls, and implement new cloud capabilities as needs evolve.
Cloud Migration Done Right with XpertVault Experts
Moving off on prem infrastructure is a high stakes transformation. It impacts uptime, security, costs, and how fast your teams can ship. If the plan is weak, migrations drag on, budgets swell, and performance drops after cutover.
XpertVault is a team of cloud, DevOps, and security experts who have handled real-world migrations and know what breaks when planning is weak. We help you move with less risk, tighter control, and a setup your teams can run with confidence.
If you are planning to move off on prem in 2026, reach out to XpertVault and we will help you map the right path, step by step.
