The Cloud Diaries: Your First Six Months After Migration
You’ve successfully navigated your first 30 days in the cloud, making sure servers are running, workloads are stable, and your team isn’t panicking every time a notification pops up. But as we know and often preach, moving to the cloud isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it project — it’s a journey.
After getting into the groove, the next several months are all about taking what you’ve set up and actually using the cloud for what it was meant to do.
Missed our blog about your first 30 days post migration? Check it out.
Months Two and Three: Establish Stability, Begin Optimization
After lifting and shifting workloads during migration and making sure everything works as expected, months two and three are the perfect time to start optimizing.
Improve Performance and Cost Savings
Think about the holiday rush or a sudden spike in traffic. With on-prem infrastructure, you’d be stuck paying for your servers all year long, regardless of volume and when you need it. But with AWS Auto Scaling, you can automatically adjust the number of servers based on real-time demand, ensuring you only pay for what you use (without sacrificing performance).
Enhance Database Efficiency
If your workloads include managed databases like Amazon RDS, Performance Insights will show you slow queries and suggest where you can tune things up.
Need help? Our team can review your RDS environment and make optimization recommendations so your databases run efficiently without your team spending hours troubleshooting.
Boost Latency and Content Delivery
Nobody likes a slow website. Tools like Amazon CloudFront and AWS Global Accelerator help reduce latency by caching content closer to your customers or routing traffic over AWS’s high-speed backbone. Faster content delivery improves user experience — and that’s good for business.
The Next Three Months: Modernization, Security, and Upskilling
Once the basics are taken care of, the next step is to think bigger. The cloud offers opportunities that simply aren’t available with on-prem infrastructure, but you need to plan strategically.
Training and Upskilling Teams
Moving to cloud-native services often requires a different skillset than traditional IT, so early training is critical. Without it, teams often resort to trial-and-error solutions, which may work in the short term but can lead to inefficiencies or technical debt down the line. A structured learning plan ensures best practices are followed from the start. Platforms like AWS Skill Builder and downloadable AWS Ramp-Up Guides can help your team master the cloud.
Security and Compliance
Misconfigurations and gaps are common during the first month of being in the cloud, so you should’ve already prioritized setting up tools like AWS GuardDuty, IAM Access Analyzer, and Security Hub. But don’t stop there. A hands-on security assessment (which JetSweep offers at no cost) can help identify vulnerabilities, test your disaster recovery processes, and make sure your backups are immutable and protected against ransomware.
Remember, malware in the cloud is still a nightmare. Encrypted or corrupted backups, ransomware, and compromised endpoints can all jeopardize your data. At JetSweep, we partner with Elastio to monitor for ransomware and malware across your environment, making sure backups stay secure and recoverable.
Application Modernization and Cloud-Native Adoption
Once you hit the three- to six-month mark, it’s a good time to start thinking about modernizing your setup. You might break up big, monolithic applications into smaller containers to make them more efficient, or move your databases to Amazon RDS so you don’t have to spend as much time on administration. You can also run .NET and SQL Server on Linux instead of Windows to save on licensing costs while keeping everything fully compatible.
Indefinitely: Cost Optimization and Continuous Improvement
The cloud is flexible, but flexibility without oversight can get expensive fast. Utilize AWS Cost Explorer, Cost Optimization Hub, and Budgets as a proactive approach to catch inefficiencies early and avoid surprises on your monthly bill.
Partnering for Success
Working with a trusted cloud partner allows your team to focus on strategic initiatives instead of firefighting. As an Advanced AWS Consulting Partner, we handle the heavy lifting by continuously monitoring, securing, and optimizing your cloud environment.
From Migration to Mastery
The first 30 days post-migration are about getting started. The next several months are about transforming your cloud from a copy of your old infrastructure into a scalable, secure, and efficient environment that drives real business value.
Ready to turn cloud potential into real results? Whether it’s optimization, security, or managed services, we’ll make sure your first six months in the cloud (and beyond) are smooth, secure, and stress-free.