Many businesses have already realized that the cloud provides more flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness than on-premises data centers. Nevertheless, understanding what drives one to move to the cloud is not the same as knowing how to move to the cloud without experiencing any disruptions, security threats, and additional costs. This guide will help you understand everything needed for migrating to IaaS.
Infrastructure migration to IaaS is the process of moving servers, applications, storage, networking, and workloads from on-premises infrastructure or legacy environments to cloud-based infrastructure provided as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).
Unlike simply copying virtual machines into the cloud, an effective migration involves careful planning, workload assessment, security validation, application dependency mapping, and continuous optimization after migration.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is a cloud computing model that delivers compute, storage, and networking resources over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis. This definition aligns with the widely accepted cloud service model described by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
For instance, a manufacturing company may be able to move its ERP server from the traditional on-premises environment based on VMware to a cloud-based environment without changing many aspects of its applications.
IaaS Migration is the process of moving the workloads, applications, and infrastructure from the on-premises environment to cloud infrastructure.
Organizations typically migrate when they need to:
According to Flexera’s 2025 State of the Cloud Report, more than 70% of enterprises now operate hybrid cloud environments, demonstrating that cloud migration has become a mainstream business strategy rather than a technology trend. — Source: Flexera, 2025
The move from traditional on-premises infrastructure to the IaaS model allows businesses to benefit from increased flexibility, scalability, and savings compared to running their own on-premises infrastructure.
Rather than buying new hardware every several years, a business will be able to spin up its infrastructure in a matter of minutes and pay only for what it uses.
An example could be that of an eCommerce company that needs to handle additional traffic during peak holiday shopping seasons.
The traditional form of infrastructure needs substantial initial capital outlay for servers, networking hardware, storage hardware, air conditioning, and data centers.
In IaaS, companies move away from Capex to OpenX, where payments are made monthly or per unit usage.
According to IDC, organizations that modernize infrastructure through cloud adoption frequently reduce infrastructure costs while improving operational efficiency. — Source: IDC, 2024
Cloud infrastructure enables organizations to increase or decrease computing resources almost instantly.
This flexibility supports:
For instance, one can have several virtual machines deployed in just minutes rather than waiting for weeks for the delivery of physical hardware.
It becomes much easier to have disaster recovery in cloud computing because infrastructure can be replicated in several different regions.
Cloud providers also offer:
Disaster recovery planning should be integrated into every IaaS migration to improve resilience and reduce recovery times.
Major cloud providers invest billions annually into cybersecurity infrastructure.
Features commonly included are:
However, organizations remain responsible for securing workloads under the Shared Responsibility Model.
According to the Cloud Security Alliance, governance and identity management remain among the highest priorities for secure cloud adoption. — Source: Cloud Security Alliance, 2024
Provisioning infrastructure in traditional environments can take weeks due to procurement, installation, and configuration.
Cloud infrastructure reduces provisioning times to minutes.
For DevOps teams, this acceleration enables:
This directly supports modern development methodologies such as Agile and DevOps.
Migration to IaaS results in tangible gains in terms of increased efficiency, infrastructure elasticity, business continuity, and costs savings in the future.
Though every company has its own needs, almost all good cloud migrations bring benefits in the areas of performance, scalability, reliability, and management of IT resources.
Cloud providers design infrastructure with redundancy across multiple availability zones and regions.
For instance, if one data center experiences an outage, workloads can automatically fail over to another location, minimizing service disruption.
This high availability architecture helps businesses maintain critical applications even during hardware failures or unexpected incidents.
Cloud infrastructure allows IT teams to deploy new environments in minutes rather than weeks.
This agility enables organizations to:
For instance, a retail business expanding into new markets can deploy regional infrastructure without building additional physical data centres.
Unlike fixed-capacity on-premises infrastructure, IaaS allows organizations to scale resources based on actual usage.
This helps reduce:
Organizations that align migration strategy with business objectives are more likely to achieve cost savings, operational agility, and improved infrastructure performance.
Modern cloud environments support automation using tools such as:
Automation reduces manual configuration errors while improving deployment consistency across environments.
Benefit | Business Impact | Example |
Scalability | Grow on demand | Auto-scale during traffic spikes |
Cost Savings | Lower infrastructure expenses | Pay only for resources used |
Disaster Recovery | Faster recovery times | Multi-region failover |
High Availability | Reduced downtime | Redundant cloud architecture |
Automation | Faster deployments | Infrastructure as Code |
Security | Stronger protection | IAM, encryption, monitoring |
Preparation for an IaaS migration involves comprehending the current IT infrastructure, identifying business goals, analysing application dependencies, determining security needs, and devising a staged migration plan. Proper planning helps mitigate risks, minimize downtimes, and facilitate a seamless cloud migration process.
According to Gartner, organizations that invest in cloud readiness assessments and structured migration planning are significantly more likely to achieve their expected cloud outcomes than those that migrate without a formal strategy. — Source: Gartner, 2024
A successful cloud migration begins with infrastructure assessment, application discovery, and dependency mapping.
An Infrastructure Assessment lists out the servers, applications, databases, storage, networking, and operating systems that are currently in use in your environment.
The first step is to conduct an inventory of all the infrastructure assets. Often, companies tend to uncover forgotten virtual machines, outdated software, or unnecessary servers in this phase.
Your assessment should include:
For instance, a manufacturing business could have old Windows Server that supports old ERP software. The firm would not migrate all servers but rather migrate only those that support production workloads.
Application discovery uncovers all the applications that are going to be migrated and their business and technical significance.
However, not all workloads can move straight into the cloud environment. There are some applications ready for cloud, but there are others that have to be updated or replaced.
Consider questions such as:
For instance, a proprietary HR portal will be easy to move, but an older manufacturing control application might need a hybrid approach.
Dependency Mapping is the way in which the applications interact with databases, APIs, storage, and other services.
Most migration efforts fail due to unknown dependencies. Dependency mapping avoids surprises in the form of service outages during migration.
Typical dependencies include:
For instance, moving a web application without migrating its SQL database simultaneously can cause immediate service failures.
Pilot migrations allow organizations to validate processes, identify risks, and refine migration plans before large-scale deployment.
A security review ensures cloud workloads meet your organization’s security and compliance requirements before migration begins.
Review:
Organizations operating in healthcare, BFSI, or government sectors should also review regulatory requirements before selecting a cloud platform.
According to the Cloud Security Alliance, identity management and governance remain among the most important priorities for secure cloud adoption. — Source: Cloud Security Alliance, 2024
A cost analysis compares current infrastructure expenses with projected cloud operating costs to determine the financial value of migration.
Don’t compare only server costs. Consider:
Many organizations discover that operational savings come from improved efficiency rather than lower compute costs alone.
Useful financial metrics include:
The optimal IaaS migration technique varies from one situation to another based on factors such as the application architecture, objectives of the organization, budget, and other technical considerations. Different organizations adopt different migration techniques in one single migration project.
The widely recognized “6 Rs” migration framework helps organizations choose the most appropriate path.
Migration Strategy Comparison
Strategy | Complexity | Speed | Best For |
Lift and Shift | Low | Very Fast | Legacy applications |
Re-platform | Medium | Fast | Applications needing minor optimization |
Refactor | High | Moderate | Cloud-native modernization |
Rebuild | Very High | Slow | Completely new applications |
Replace | Low | Fast | SaaS replacements |
Lift and Shift migration moves applications to the cloud with minimal architectural changes, making it suitable for faster migrations.
This is often the quickest migration approach because existing virtual machines are replicated into cloud infrastructure.
Ideal workloads include:
Re-platforming introduces limited optimizations while preserving an application’s core architecture to improve cloud performance.
Examples include:
This approach balances migration speed with improved cloud efficiency.
Refactoring redesigns applications to take full advantage of cloud-native capabilities and long-term scalability.
Instead of simply moving applications, developers modify code to support:
Although refactoring requires greater investment, it often delivers the greatest long-term business value.
Refactoring redesigns applications to take full advantage of cloud-native capabilities and long-term scalability.
Rebuilding creates entirely new applications designed specifically for modern cloud platforms.
Organizations typically rebuild when:
Although rebuilding takes longer, it provides maximum flexibility.
The process of successful IaaS migration involves a series of planned steps which include planning, testing, migration, validation, and optimization.
Identify measurable outcomes such as:
Classify workloads by:
Low-risk systems often make excellent candidates for early migration waves.
Move a small number of non-critical workloads first.
Pilot migrations help validate:
Pilot migrations allow organizations to validate processes, identify risks, and refine migration plans before large-scale deployment.
Instead of migrating everything simultaneously, divide workloads into logical migration waves.
Typical waves include:
Wave-based migration significantly reduces operational disruption.
After migration, verify:
Optimization should continue for several months after production cutover to maximize cloud efficiency.
IaaS migration best practices focus on reducing risk, minimizing downtime, strengthening security, and continuously optimizing your cloud environment after migration. Organizations that follow proven methodologies are more likely to achieve their business objectives while avoiding costly setbacks.
According to Flexera’s 2025 State of the Cloud Report, managing cloud spend and optimizing existing cloud usage remain among the top priorities for enterprises worldwide. — Source: Flexera, 2025
Let’s explore the practices that consistently contribute to successful cloud infrastructure migrations.
Every migration decision should support a measurable business objective rather than simply moving infrastructure to the cloud.
Examples include:
Organizations that align migration strategy with business objectives are more likely to achieve cost savings, operational agility, and improved infrastructure performance.
Large-scale “big bang” migrations introduce unnecessary operational risk.
Instead:
A phased approach provides opportunities to refine processes and resolve issues before they affect critical operations.
Infrastructure automation improves consistency and reduces manual errors.
Popular automation technologies include:
Automation is especially valuable when deploying multiple virtual machines, configuring networks, or enforcing security policies.
Security should be integrated throughout the migration process rather than added afterward.
Implement:
Organizations in regulated industries should also validate compliance with standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, or local regulatory requirements.
Migration is only the beginning.
Monitor:
Continuous monitoring helps identify optimization opportunities before they impact users.
Post-migration optimization includes monitoring performance, managing costs, strengthening security, and implementing governance policies.
Cloud migration tools automate workload discovery, replication, orchestration, monitoring, backup, and validation to reduce migration complexity and downtime.
Most IaaS migration problems result from inadequate planning, insufficient testing, or poor governance rather than cloud technology itself.
Avoid these common mistakes:
A structured migration roadmap dramatically reduces these risks.
A migration readiness checklist helps organizations confirm they are prepared before moving workloads into production cloud environments.
Use this checklist before migration:
✅ Infrastructure inventory completed
✅ Applications categorized
✅ Dependencies documented
✅ Migration strategy selected
✅ Security review completed
✅ Backup verified
✅ Disaster recovery plan updated
✅ Pilot migration completed
✅ Rollback procedures tested
✅ Monitoring tools configured
✅ Cost estimates approved
✅ Stakeholders informed
Infrastructure migration to IaaS is the process of moving servers, storage, networking, and applications from on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based infrastructure delivered as a service.
Migration timelines vary depending on workload complexity. Small environments may take several weeks, while enterprise migrations often span several months and are completed in multiple migration waves.
Virtual machines, web applications, development environments, ERP systems, file servers, disaster recovery platforms, and business applications are common candidates for IaaS.
Downtime can be minimized through careful planning, pilot migrations, phased migration waves, replication technologies, automated testing, and rollback procedures.
Costs depend on infrastructure size, migration strategy, licensing, cloud consumption, consulting services, and modernization requirements. A Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) assessment provides the most accurate estimate.
Post-migration activities include performance tuning, security hardening, cloud cost optimization, governance implementation, monitoring, backup validation, and continuous improvement.
The next step after planning an IaaS migration is to validate your readiness through a comprehensive infrastructure assessment and engage an experienced cloud partner.
iaas infrastructure as a service transition is not only about technological transformation but a long-term investment into the future development of your organization. Moving from traditional infrastructure to a cloud-based one helps companies to become more agile, provide better disaster recovery, decrease capital expenditures and promote innovations.
Are you ready to transform your current IT infrastructure? Then, let Intelics Cloud help you with the assessment of your current environment, developing of migration plan and provisioning of efficient cloud infrastructure.
Intelics Cloud Editorial Team – Cloud Infrastructure & Digital Transformation Specialists
The Intelics Cloud editorial team consists of cloud architects, infrastructure engineers, and technology writers with expertise in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), cloud migration, cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and managed cloud services. Their goal is to help organizations make informed cloud decisions through practical, evidence-based guidance.
Senior Cloud Solutions Architect – Intelics Cloud
Expert in cloud infrastructure, migration strategy, hybrid cloud architecture, virtualization, and enterprise IT modernization.