Migration Waves, Cutover Criteria, and Rollback Triggers
Cloud migration planning sets discovery, per-component strategy, and Wave 1 cutover and rollback criteria before promising a date. This hands-on lesson plans a six-month data center exit for an ordering system with no order loss. Covers: dependency discovery, rehost, replatform, refactor, and retain, landing zone readiness, data synchronization, reconciliation, reverse replication, rollback triggers. Practice: Migration discovery map, migration planning. Prerequisites: Cloud migration strategies.
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A customer says the on-premises ordering system must move within six months because of a data center exit, with no acceptable order loss and limited downtime. Let’s treat that statement as a migration-planning prompt, not a request to name a migration tool. A defensible answer identifies the decision boundaries first, selects a strategy for each component, and limits the first production change to a reversible wave.
Discover the migration constraints
Let’s clarify the business driver. Is the six-month date fixed by a lease, a contract, or an operational preference? Are cost reduction, data-center risk, or a new capability also success measures? We also need a measurable definition of success, such as completed orders remain accurate, authorized staff retain access, and the service meets its agreed availability target after cutover.
Next, establish downtime and data-loss tolerance. Ask how long order entry can pause, whether a short read-only period is acceptable, and whether any unreplicated order is unacceptable. ...