Enabler #4 - Automation with a Factory Approach
The key to address the scale, velocity and safety challenges in a migra-
tion project is to incorporate automation and reusability. As more and
more tasks are automated, the migration process becomes easier and
can be scaled, increasing the safety and velocity of migrations.
Migrations at scale require a factory approach. This uses a mix of
tools and processes to improve quality, accuracy and precision. In
terms of tooling, selecting the right mix of tools and investing time
and effort to developing the required automation will achieve the
required scale and velocity. Besides the tools, you need a process and
an orchestration layer that addresses all facets of a migration, includ-
ing sequencing, configuration, dependencies, testing and validation.
You must also have an enablement program in which additional staff
are trained and deployed based on the demands of a large scale
migration.
In addition, an automation and factory approach will help reduce
downtime during a migration, user errors introduced by manual
tasks and traceability requirements.
In many instances, an existing CI/CD and governance system may
suffice for applications where the deployment is highly automated.
However, if automated deployment is not available (e.g., for COTS
applications and the Rehost pattern), you need to develop it yourself
or use out-of-the-box automation provided by third party tools.
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