{"id":109542,"date":"2026-05-06T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=109542"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:47:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:47:52","slug":"how-to-ensure-successful-deployment-of-a-cloud-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/cloud\/how-to-ensure-successful-deployment-of-a-cloud-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"How to ensure successful deployment of a cloud migration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The deployment of a cloud migration<\/a> – or the ‘go-live’ – is a nerve-wracking time. For me, go-lives have often meant hundreds of hours of work, many late at night. Even just thinking about a go-live quickens my pulse. Hopefully these articles<\/a> are helping you to manage that feeling a little.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, this time, I’m going to offer some advice to help you prepare for a go-live. Hopefully this will also ensure it’s a successful one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should be a ‘all hands on deck’ situation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Make sure you plan for this, because it’s the reality. Don’t go it alone – everyone should be together. Even if some teams think otherwise, they still still at least be on-call. This is especially true in your first few migrations when it’s really hard to know exactly what<\/em> could go wrong<\/a>. Keep everyone involved!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plan as far ahead as possible<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nobody wants to lose a night or, even worse, a weekend, to a work activity. By planning ahead, you’re not only reducing the risk of this happening, but people will be less upset if they do<\/em> have to work out of hours – simply because they’re somewhat prepared to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand what ‘complete’ looks like<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When is a cloud migration ‘complete’<\/a>? This is an important factor to consider and agree upon with stakeholders. Once everyone understands exactly what ‘complete’ looks like, you’ll then know when you can leave (or log off from) work that night. So will everyone else. Also, if people want to leave early, make sure they know what they have ownership of. This way, if something goes wrong, you know who to call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understand what a ‘rollback’ really is<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let’s be honest, a rollback<\/a> is never easy – so don’t take it lightly! It’s important to understand what a rollback entails in your situation, and by what criteria it should be executed. So, somewhere in your migration plans you should have a ‘point of no return’. This is the point you have to move forward from regardless of what happens. In other words, a rollback cannot<\/em> happen from this point onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utilize a clone environment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Walking through the steps of the cloud migration in a clone environment should be a part of testing anyway, but can also be a simple walk-through before the cutover point. Do this as much as necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don’t forget post-migration checks!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Even many days after a cloud migration, it’s important to check that everything’s still operating as it should be. You don’t want it to be weeks before you realize something’s wrong (e.g a process that hasn’t been running since the migration). Or, even worse, a cloud bill that turns out to be double<\/em> what was expected<\/a>. The earlier you catch these, the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember: the cutover can be\u00a0really scary\u00a0and cause a lot of anxiety. If you prepare well, practice, and communicate efficiently with other teams, you should do just fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me know what you think of my advice down in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to also share advice and experiences of your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

Cloud adoption is accelerating, but database migrations aren\u2019t keeping pace. Find out why.<\/h3>\n
\n The Cloud Migration Divide explores why complex, business-critical databases remain on-premises \u2013 and what\u2019s holding organizations back as confidence fails to scale with complexity. <\/div>\n <\/div>\n Download the free report<\/a>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n
\n

FAQs: How to ensure successful deployment (go-live) of a cloud migration<\/h2>\n\n

1. What is a cloud migration go-live?<\/h3>\n
\n

The moment your systems switch to the cloud in a live production environment.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

2. How do you prepare for a go-live?<\/h3>\n
\n

Plan early, involve all teams, define completion criteria, and test thoroughly.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

3. Why is rollback planning important?<\/h3>\n
\n

It defines when and how you can safely revert if issues arise.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

4. What is a clone environment in migration?<\/h3>\n
\n

A test setup that mirrors production to rehearse the migration process.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

5. What should you check after migration?<\/h3>\n
\n

System performance, processes, and cloud costs should be checked as early (and as consistently) as possible after a cloud migration. This way, you’ll catch potential issues early.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Practical cloud migration go-live tips: planning, team readiness, rollback strategy, testing, and post-migration checks for a smooth deployment.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":346611,"featured_media":105342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,143523,53],"tags":[5336,4168,159381],"coauthors":[159379],"class_list":["post-109542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud","category-databases","category-featured","tag-cloud","tag-database","tag-how-to-migrate-from-on-prem-to-the-cloud-a-dba-stories-series"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/346611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109542"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110307,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109542\/revisions\/110307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109542"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=109542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}