GCP: Cloud Migration Guide, Challenges, Best Practices & Tools

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) migration requires meticulous planning and execution. Without a clear strategy and a roadmap, IT and security managers risk overlooking critical dependencies, compatibility issues, or system vulnerabilities. As a result, companies may end up with an unstable, poorly performing, and non-compliant app. In the worst-case scenario, they’ll have to redo the entire GCP cloud migration from scratch.

But migration is only half the battle. Once it’s complete, organizations need to optimize their workload. Without rigorous testing, monitoring, and refining, it’s hard to effectively leverage Google’s cloud-native computing resources and features.

This comprehensive guide leverages the decade-long expertise of the Neontri team to walk you through each step of the migration journey, from initial planning to deployment and beyond. We’ll cover the essential strategies, potential challenges, and the most effective approaches to managing migration risks with minimum road bumps. Finally, we’ll describe the tools that can help you in various stages of the migration.

Key takeaways

• A smooth transition to the Google Cloud Platform requires careful assessment, planning, and preparation to avoid critical errors.
• Testing with pilot migrations and phased execution helps validate strategies before large-scale rollouts.
• Companies should use technologies from the vast arsenal of Google’s first-party migration tools.
• Companies must continuously monitor their resources to improve performance, control costs, and deal with problems. 
• Detailed records of migration processes help refine practices and learn lessons for future migrations.

How to migrate to Google Cloud Platform: Key steps

Migrating to GCP should be done in several steps, each with its challenges. To simplify the process, we’ve created this guide based on Google’s official documentation and our experience.

Step 1: Assessing the infrastructure

GCP cloud migration starts with an assessment of the IT environment. The goal is to map out all apps, servers, and databases, as well as identify owners, configurations, and existing dependencies.

Legacy applications and proprietary systems can be incompatible with Google’s cloud environment. They may also have complex interdependencies, which can cause unexpected errors and security vulnerabilities.

Helpful practices:

• Set migration goals to guide your decisions. For example, you can prioritize specific workloads for migration to Google’s scalable infrastructure to reduce maintenance costs.

• Interview workload owners. Collect information from application and workload owners about migration readiness, pending requests, licenses, and potential issues.

• • Define resource and capacity needs. Each workload has resource requirements you should consider to avoid over- and under-provisioning.
• Classify workloads. Divide workloads into mission-critical and non-critical based on how much they impact your business.

The golden rule is to start the migration with cloud-ready assets with minimal dependencies. Prioritize these for pilot testing to learn more about the process, which you’ll need for more complex workloads.

Step 2: Planning the migration strategy

Based on the result of the technical assessment, you should select how you’ll move each workload. GCP supports multiple migration strategies:

• Lift and shift (rehost)—moving workloads to GCP with the least changes to the codebase or architecture. Best suited for isolated applications with minimal dependencies.
• Refactor—reworking how the apps handle data storage and perform serverless functions. Requires even more resources than lift and shift but will result in more resilient and scalable workloads.
• Re-architect—a comprehensive overhaul of the application architecture, such as transitioning from a monolithic app to a microservices model. 
• Replatform (lift and optimize)—involves minimal optimizations to make the workload more efficient in a cloud-native environment.
• Rebuild—a complete redesign of an application to take full advantage of GCP’s capabilities.
• Repurchase—replacing existing applications with cloud-based solutions. A straightforward way to modernize the software stack without extensive development.

Without planning, the migration costs can spiral out of control, particularly due to post-migration optimization, errors, and rollbacks. Businesses should also prepare for the expenses of application downtime.

In addition, the planning stage helps you align migration with your goals. For example, a business should consider replatforming to managed services like Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to reduce operational costs in the long run.

Step 3: Preparing for GCP cloud migration

Preparation includes configuring host and target projects and assigning roles for the migration teams. Depending on the strategy, you can appoint several roles, including developers who will refactor or re-platform apps.

Helpful practices:

• • Create a migration roadmap. The roadmap should outline the migration phases, timeline, and specific milestones and detail which stakeholders are responsible for each phase.
  • Validate the SLA. Ensure that workloads remain accessible during the migration to meet the Service Level Agreements. If you’re migrating mission-critical apps that will disrupt services, warn the customers about the temporary unavailability beforehand.
  • Develop a rollback plan. An on-premises rollback is a contingency in case a workload migration fails. This involves creating backups, making sure the resources aren’t decommissioned prematurely, and designing a clear plan for restoring services. 

• Prepare the security tools. Set up encryption methods and data handling procedures before the migration. To minimize the risks of breaches, you should grant users the minimum permissions necessary and enforce zero-trust network policies.
• Check for compliance. Confirm that the migration tools and security methods meet data privacy standards (like GDPR, HIPAA, or other industry-specific regulations). 

When all roles, configurations, and security tools have been verified, you can proceed with the steps outlined below.

Step 4: Executing the migration 

The migration process is about moving applications, databases, virtual machines (VMs), containers, and other environments to GCP with the least impact on business operations. 

Helpful practices:

• Execute a pilot migration. Test the migration strategy by moving a few non-critical applications first. Furthermore, you can adopt a phased approach by transferring workloads in waves, validating each before proceeding with the next.
• Use GCP built-in tools. Google’s platform offers numerous tools to simplify the migration of VM configurations, Kubernetes, and other environments. 
• Monitor the costs in real time. Prepare monitoring tools and agents to collect logs during the migration to compare the actual expenses against estimates and identify cost-saving opportunities mid-migration.

Everything discussed thus far was done to help you reduce the risks of data integrity errors, disruptions, and breaches. Complex applications might require test cloning first.

Step 5: Test cloning and cut-over (optional)

Test cloning means creating a duplicate workload for the GCP environment to validate its functionality. If everything works as expected, you can initiate the final cut-over by shutting down the original instances and bringing the migrated workloads online.

Helpful practices:

• Run multiple test clones. Verify components, performance benchmarks, and security controls. This will help you find the appropriate cloud-managed service for each workload.
• Document environments. Record each environment’s characteristics, resources, and preferred states to identify drifts from the expected configuration later.
• Use data synchronization tools. For stateful applications, GCP Cloud SQL replication can be used to sync data between environments with as little risk of data loss as possible.
• Schedule to off-peak hours. The final cut-over should happen when the least number of users are affected.

After all the services and databases are moved correctly, it’s time to optimize their performance.

Step 6: Optimizing and reviewing

Optimization ensures workloads fully take advantage of GCP’s cloud-native capabilities. Without it, companies risk overprovisioning resources or running into performance bottlenecks.

Helpful practices:

• • Right-size the resources. Regularly assess cloud resource usage for each workload type: VMs, containers, or databases. Luckily, GPC has many features to help monitor performance and autoscale resources based on demand.
  • Identify cost-reduction opportunities. Use GCP’s analytical and billing reporting tools to monitor usage expenses and other administrative costs.
  • Configure labels, tags, and alerts. GCP allows to set unique key-value pairs (labels and tags) for in-depth cost-tracking. Meanwhile, customizable alerts give you enough time to act if you exceed the anticipated costs.

• Set resource quotas. You can set caps to particular resources to prevent the number of instances in certain regions, improving performance and preventing spiraling costs.

• Conduct a post-migration security audit. Conduct a thorough security audit post-migration to ensure the roles, firewall rules, encryption settings, and access controls work correctly.

You should also keep a detailed record of the migration process, highlighting successes and areas that require troubleshooting. These outcomes will help refine migration practices and improve subsequent migrations.

Google Cloud Platform migration: Tools and technologies 

Google has made sure you have enough first-party tools to help you migrate different instances and environments. 

These tools, combined with the strategies and tips we discussed, will make migration smooth and cost-effective.

Migrate your operations to the cloud with Neontri 

Given the complexity of cloud migration, getting help from experienced companies is always a good idea to reduce risks and ensure a smooth transition. This is where Neontri comes in. With our extensive experience in cloud migration, development, and IT management services, we guide organizations through every step of their cloud journey.

At Neontri, we understand that migrating applications and infrastructure from on-premise to the cloud can be challenging. That’s why our team of experts works closely with you to identify the right cloud platform for your needs and develop a comprehensive migration strategy. From initial assessment and planning to continuous optimization and monitoring after deployment, we ensure your cloud environment operates at peak efficiency. 

Final thoughts 

Migrating to GCP can be a complex process that requires precision and expertise. However, the pre- and post-migration stages are as important as the execution itself. Continuous optimization and monitoring are essential after GCP migration, as they allow the workload to maintain acceptable uptime, improve operational performance, and reduce administrative costs. 

To learn more our successful implementations, check out our relevant case studies or reach out to us directly for a consultation. 

FAQ

What are the benefits of GCP cloud migration?

Migration to GCP improves scalability, optimizes costs, and enhances security. The pay-as-you-go model ensures you only pay for what they use, and autoscaling adjusts resources based on demand. Additionally, AI and machine learning tools allow for in-depth cost analysis, performance and resource tracking.

Google’s platform has a 99.99% uptime, ensuring the availability of mission-critical workloads. It also supports multi-cloud and open-source technologies, which prevents vendor lock-in risks (it will prevent the migration to other cloud providers, like AWS). All platforms have high-grade security standards and meet data protection regulations, including GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA.

What factors should be considered when choosing a GCP cloud provider?

Consider a company’s experience and previous migration projects. Verify that the provider has certifications from Google Cloud or global cybersecurity organizations (like ISO/IEC 27001:2022) and complies with regulatory laws like GDPR. The migration provider should have transparent pricing models and a strong client support system. SLAs should clearly define uptime and resolution times. Finally, check the company’s rating on review aggregation platforms and feedback from previous clients.

What performance metrics should be used to monitor post-migration?

Focus on the usage metrics and resource allocation to optimize the performance and avoid unnecessary costs. The key metrics include:

• Uptime: Percentage of operational time
• Latency: Speed of data travel between systems and response times
• CPU and memory: Tracks processing and memory usage
• Storage use: Monitors space and IOPS for data handling efficiency
• Cost and billing: Tracks unexpected expenses
• Scaling events: Ensures scaling functions correctly
• Error rates: Identifies stability issues