A cloud decision begins with the business system you need to run. Map how it works today, what needs to improve, and the constraints the future design must respect. That gives your team a practical basis for choosing a migration or modernization path.
Understand the workload and its dependencies
List the application components, data stores, external services, scheduled jobs, and people involved in operations. Follow important transactions from the user through the system. Include less visible dependencies such as identity, email delivery, reporting, and backup processes.
Agree what reliability means for the business
Define the impact of an interruption, how quickly the service should recover, and how much data loss the business can tolerate. These expectations influence architecture and operating cost. Document them in terms the business owner can confirm before selecting a design.
Make access and data requirements visible
Identify sensitive information and the people and systems allowed to access it. Review where data may be stored, how credentials are managed, and how privileges are granted and removed. Carry those requirements into the target architecture and deployment process.
Compare complete operating costs
Estimate more than compute and storage. Include monitoring, backups, data movement, support, licensing, and the effort your team will spend operating the service. Compare options against expected usage and recovery needs. Cost, performance, reliability, and security decisions affect one another.
Plan a change you can validate and recover
Break the work into stages with a clear validation step and recovery approach. Rehearse important data and application transitions where practical. Agree who will make the release decision, what signals they will watch, and how the team will respond if the outcome differs from the plan.
Your next step
Start with a current-state map and a short set of business requirements. Use those to compare options before committing to a target platform.