DigiVista practical guide · Cloud planning
Start with a useful inventory
List the applications your business relies on, their owners and the systems they connect to. Include operating systems, databases, server specifications, storage and licensing. A machine count alone misses the services users actually need.
Understand the connections
Document integrations, scheduled jobs, file shares, email services and authentication. Ask whether any external party uses fixed addresses or private connections. These dependencies influence both the target design and the migration sequence.
Agree downtime and recovery
Different workloads have different acceptable interruption windows. Define how much downtime can be tolerated and what results must be checked after the move. Specify when the team should stop or roll back. A backup that has not been tested is not a complete recovery plan.
Prepare data and access
Identify data owners and clean up unnecessary records where appropriate. Decide who can authorise migration and who will administer the new environment. Keep passwords and access keys out of enquiry forms and planning spreadsheets.
Compare a complete budget
Recurring compute and storage are only part of the picture. Include databases, backup, data transfer, licences, monitoring, support, overlapping environments and the implementation work. Use the provider calculator for your region and configuration.
Produce the first migration brief
A useful brief records the source inventory, target requirements, data volume, dependencies, permitted downtime, validation steps and responsible people. Use the migration planner to prepare a discussion, then confirm assumptions through an assessment.