What is cloud migration?
Cloud migration is the work of moving your applications, servers, data and workloads off your own hardware, or off another cloud, and onto a cloud platform such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. It is usually more than a straight copy: each workload is assessed, sized for the cloud, and moved by the route that fits it best, so it runs well and costs sensibly once it lands, instead of simply being lifted across as-is.
Done well, cloud migration is planned around dependencies and cost, not just speed. The estate is mapped first, workloads move in waves into a secure, governed environment, and spend is watched from the start. Avaib has delivered software and infrastructure across more than 600 projects since 2004 and applies that same discipline to every cloud move it runs.
Why do cloud migrations end up costing more than expected?
The usual reason is a straight lift-and-shift: every server is copied to the cloud exactly as it ran on-premise. On-prem machines sized for the busiest hour now run all day on the meter, idle capacity keeps billing, and data-transfer fees appear that never existed before. Industry data shows most enterprises exceed their cloud budget in the first year, with a large share of cloud spend simply wasted.
We prevent that by right-sizing every workload before it moves, retiring what nobody uses, choosing the cheapest route that fits each app, and setting up cost visibility and alerts from day one. The goal is a cloud bill you watch and control, not one you discover at the end of the month.
Will our systems be offline during the migration?
For most migrations there is little or no extended downtime. We move workloads in planned waves rather than one big switch, so the business keeps running while the work happens around it.
Each wave is tested and cut over in a short, planned window at a quiet time, after dependencies have been mapped and the migration rehearsed. A staged move, not a long weekend with everything offline.
What are the 6 Rs of cloud migration?
The "6 Rs" are the six routes a workload can take to the cloud: rehost (move it as-is), replatform (move it and swap in a managed service or two), refactor (re-architect it to work the cloud’s way), repurchase (replace it with an off-the-shelf cloud product), retire (switch off what nobody uses), and retain (leave it where it is for now).
The value is in choosing the right one per workload instead of lifting everything the same way. We assess each app and pick the route that gives the best result for the least cost, which is exactly where a blind lift-and-shift goes wrong.
Which cloud should we move to, AWS, Azure or Google Cloud?
It depends on what you run, the skills you have, the tools you already pay for, and where the pricing lands for your particular workloads. We stay platform-agnostic and recommend the cloud that genuinely fits you, rather than the one we happen to prefer.
For many businesses the honest answer is a primary cloud with room to stay portable. We build on containers and infrastructure-as-code where it fits, so you are not permanently locked to one vendor and can move again if the economics change.
How much do cloud migration services cost?
It depends on how many workloads you are moving, how tangled their dependencies are, and how much re-architecting each one needs. A fixed cloud readiness assessment is a small, low-risk first step, while moving a large, busy estate is a bigger engagement. Avaib’s model is senior expertise at a cost-effective rate, typically around USD 25 per hour, which is why businesses in Australia, the US, Canada and the Middle East work with us instead of paying big-firm prices.
Tell us what you run and where you want it, and we will propose a right-sized engagement with a clear scope and a ballpark price, plus a free, no-obligation written estimate after a short scoping conversation. We will also estimate your likely cloud running cost, so the ongoing bill is part of the decision, not a surprise.
How long does a cloud migration take?
It ranges from a few weeks for a small, well-understood set of workloads to several months for a large estate with messy dependencies. The honest timeline comes after we assess what you run and map how it connects, because unclear dependencies are the biggest cause of migrations running late.
Because we move in waves rather than one big event, you see progress the whole way through, wave by wave, instead of waiting on a single distant finish line.
Do we own our cloud setup and accounts?
Yes. Your cloud accounts, the infrastructure inside them and the configuration that defines it are entirely yours. There is no per-seat licence to Avaib and no lock-in to keep it running.
We define your setup as infrastructure-as-code and favour portable foundations like containers, precisely so you keep control and can take the environment to another team, or another cloud, whenever you choose.
