Achieving Secure Cloud Migration with Microsoft

The technological architecture of enterprises has drastically been transforming over the past decade. No longer are organizations choosing to run the majority of their computing assets on-premises, but instead choosing to steadily migrate components of business to the cloud.

In fact, statistics suggest enterprise use of the cloud is almost exclusive across the board, with 94% of companies of this size utilizing cloud services and 92% of them having a multi-cloud strategy in place or in the process of being put into place.

Furthermore, 67% of enterprise infrastructure is currently cloud-based. It’s clear enterprises see the value and benefits associated with cloud migration, but to successfully accomplish a transition, they must prioritize cloud migration data security.

In this blog post, we’ll look at ways to execute a secure and efficient cloud migration using Microsoft’s tools and services. We’ll also explore how Microsoft solutions, such as Azure and Microsoft Defender, and Zero Trust frameworks address these challenges to provide your enterprise with knowledge and best practices.

Benefits of Cloud Migration

Before we dive in, let’s take a look at the benefits of secure cloud migration. Most enterprises quickly embrace reduced IT costs as a primary reason for cloud transition by quickly identifying ways to stretch their IT budgets. They’re saving in areas such as:

• Personnel resources
• On-premises maintenance
• Actual real estate space
• Optimizing workloads to lower costs

Other benefits of cloud migration include:

• Better flexibility and scalability
• Enhanced security
• Stronger compliance
• Simplified management and monitoring
• Improved backup and recovery abilities

However, as with most options, cloud migration does come with some challenges, but by arming themselves with knowledge and perhaps the guidance of an expert partner, most enterprises find these challenges more easily overcome. As a result, they enjoy a seamless and secure cloud migration experience.

Why Secure Cloud Migration Matters

Any major change is difficult for an enterprise-level organization and cloud migration isn’t an exception. Your company will need to ensure its data security during the migration and put steps in place to avoid potential risks, including data breaches, compliance violations and operational disruptions.

Cybercriminals are not slacking on their attacks. If anything, they’re increasing their efforts. According to Harvard Business Review, cyber risks are “skyrocketing.” Statistics show an “alarming” 83% of organizations suffered more than one data breach in 2022.

Moving sensitive and proprietary data to the cloud introduces substantial cybersecurity risks if not carefully or properly managed. To successfully perform a secure cloud transition organizations must do meticulous planning and take precautionary steps to keep the threat actors at bay during the migration process.

Microsoft’s Approach to Secure Cloud Migration

Microsoft recognizes the challenges associated with secure cloud migration and is committed to delivering security, scalability and compliance through its cloud platform and tools. Enterprises can utilize and integrate specific tools as cornerstones of a secure migration, including FastTrack for Azure, Microsoft Defender and the Zero Trust framework approach.

Key Steps in Secure Cloud Migration

Heightening cybersecurity efforts and following best practices is a must during a cloud migration. Here are the key steps involved in the process.

• Planning and assessment. Evaluate your workloads, dependencies and security needs, including setting segmentation policies to allow access to different environments based on authentication and credentials.
• Designing and migration. This involves choosing the preferable automated tools to use, along with the type of cloud architecture that will be utilized, including using a next-generation firewall.
• Executing the migration. Requires precautions to be put into place to secure data transfer and workload migration. This means controlling access to deployment.
• Post–migration tasks. This process focuses on monitoring, optimizing and maintaining compliance as you wrap up your cloud migration tasks.

In light of increasing cyber threats and stringent regulations, you’ll want to avoid becoming another statistic to the already growing casualty list of businesses falling victim to breaches by mitigating risks.

Microsoft Tools for Secure Cloud Migration

To help bolster security, increase efficiency and reduce compliance risks, your organization can leverage specific Microsoft tools to offset risks and help provide a smooth and seamless experience.

Azure Migration Tools

Azure migration tools help organizations with the automation and simplification of the migration process while ensuring data integrity. Tools include:

• Azure Data Migration Assistant. This tool assesses the compatibility of databases before enterprises begin to migrate to the cloud. Once an assessment is complete, it highlights potential issues or incompatibilities so they can be addressed beforehand.
• Azure Data Factory. Designed to help enterprises move large volumes of data from on-premises equipment or other cloud-based platforms to Azure. No coding is required.
• Azure Database Migration Service. A fully managed service that helps migrate both online and offline data from a variety of on-premises databases, including but not limited to Oracle, SQL and MySQL.
• Azure Migrate. A hub designed to assist with the assessment and migration of workloads from either an on-premises location or a cloud-based one. Azure Migrate includes services for migrating servers, virtual desktops and databases.

Microsoft also has additional Azure tools, such as Azure Backup and Site Recovery, Azure Site Recovery, Azure Data Share and Azure Data Box.

Microsoft Defender for Cloud

Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a comprehensive security solution using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to enhance security and detect threats. Defender for Cloud offers enterprises security management, vulnerability management, advanced threat protection and compliance management for workloads during and after migration.

Your enterprise can seamlessly monitor and manage your cloud security posture and if an issue presents itself during migration, you can address the threat in real-time. Even better – this tool consistently uses what it’s learned to improve its performance in identifying threats and responding to them.

Zero Trust Framework

Zero Trust is a security model rooted in the principle of “never trust, always verify.” The assumption of this philosophy is that any threat can lurk either inside or outside your network.

Leveraging the Zero Trust framework during cloud migration makes sense. No user or device, by default, is trusted, eliminating potential complacency and reducing vulnerabilities that might otherwise be exploited during the migration because it strictly enforces policies and access controls.

For Zero Trust to work, your enterprise’s decision-makers must fully embrace this concept, take a comprehensive approach to performing thorough identification verification and do continuous monitoring, regardless of how trustworthy a component of the organization’s architecture is or may seem.

Compliance Resources

Every enterprise falling under the various regulatory and industry compliance rules should leverage these requirements to help them complete secure cloud migration. Important rules to factor in include:

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996
• European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)
• Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FEDRamp)

Since these regulations and guidelines already take into account security measures and data handling, by following compliance resources, enterprises can set the proverbial table for a more secure cloud migration experience.

Overcoming Common Challenges

While the benefits are worth it for enterprises to make the leap to invest in cloud services, it would be remiss to not mention common challenges encountered during the process. The good news is most cloud migration challenges are mitigated by implementing best practices and utilizing the right tools.

Planning the Migration

One of the largest obstacles larger businesses face is the massive migration involved when transitioning data from on-premises locations to cloud-based platforms. The sheer volume of data might be overwhelming – much more than the relatively straightforward process of transporting individual workloads to the cloud – and due to this factor, careful planning is a must.

Best practices for secure cloud migration include:

• Conducting a thorough risk assessment
• Implementing encryption for data in transit and at rest
• Using identity and access management (IAM) solutions, such as Azure AD
• Ensuring multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access controls (RBAC)

You will need a definitive strategy and an all-hands-on-board approach from leadership down to every level of the business. Many details need to be managed to support this type of volume and it’s not a process that can simply be thrown together; plan to invest time plotting out the best approach to your migration.

Accounting for Legacy Systems

A significant challenge enterprise-level businesses often encounter is how to handle legacy systems with the newer cloud-based systems. Due to differences in semantics and data measurement units between antiquated and modern systems, there are risks involved during migration, including but not limited to:

• Data loss
• Data corruption
• Interference (legacy data being changed or updated as it is moving to the cloud)

To avoid problems, plan to obtain a high-level overview of migrating to the cloud and learn the different migration requirements associated with different types of workloads. You can also explore working with skilled and experienced Microsoft FastTrack partners who can assist your business with the migration process safely and securely.

Facing Budget Constraints

Over the long term, the cloud is a cost-efficient way to update because it delivers benefits such as lower infrastructure costs, pay-as-you-go scalability, streamlined IT management and increased business agility. However, cloud migration does require money, time and resources. If your current IT budget is slim, this may be a challenge to overcome. Run the math to identify the best solution for how to approach your cloud migration strategies.

Ensuring Team Readiness

Change is hard. It can be difficult for your teams to adjust to new processes in storing, accessing and processing data. Additionally, your internal IT staff may not be as well-versed in cloud computing. Obtaining training during and post-migration can help alleviate these challenges. You can also consider working with an experienced migration partner to remove any burdens associated with cloud migration and help you ready your teams.

Minimizing Downtime and Operational Disruption

With modern tech capabilities, moving tremendous levels of data can be done fairly quickly, but it does require careful planning. Any amount of operational disruption is costly, so you want to minimize it as much as possible. Migrating in manageable batches can help keep your facilities running while achieving your goals of moving to cloud solutions.

Real-World Applications

Many enterprise-level companies and highly recognized brands have successfully achieved secure cloud migrations with Microsoft’s tools, including Walmart, Unilever, Maersk and more.

Despite their large resources, these companies faced challenges much like your organization probably does. However, by leveraging Microsoft’s tools, they all achieved success.

Futureproofing Cloud Security

Microsoft has been a pioneer in computing since its inception. The tech giant recognizes the security challenges organizations face when shifting their technology assets to the cloud. To combat threats, Microsoft doesn’t just “fend off” attacks, it uses smart technologies to learn from them. This empowers the company to develop better detection tools.

When the internet first emerged, there was not a focus on security until threat actors began to exploit it, so its foundational elements were not rooted in security. When the cloud emerged, companies were hesitant to move to the cloud because they felt it wasn’t secure and they could better control security in-house. Over time, that mindset has “flip-flopped” as organizations realize their data is more secure being housed in the cloud. This is because the cloud is different. It was built from the ground up with modern security and privacy-based developmental processes in mind.

In essence, Microsoft’s evolving cloud security solutions are prepared to adapt to emerging threats and business needs. Even more, the company provides direct support, such as FastTrack for Azure. The Microsoft FastTrack benefits are an excellent opportunity for enterprise-level businesses. These include assistance in deploying and adopting Microsoft cloud solutions and gaining access to guidance, tech support and best practices.

Ready to Plan Your Secure Cloud Migration? Red River Can Help!

Protecting your valuable digital assets is essential to doing business these days. Moving to a secure cloud platform is an important part of the process. As a certified FastTrack partner, Red River can help you with secure cloud migration from the planning to the execution processes.

Our team of experts is well-versed in Microsoft’s tools and cloud computing, as well as cloud migration security and compliance best practices. To learn more about how we can help you successfully accomplish your migration, contact Red River today and we’ll start the process.