Migration Scenario Questions
Part of the Cloud Computing Roadmap
In short
"How would you migrate our old ERP to the cloud?" tests structure. Ask about constraints, choose an approach per part, move data safely and plan a way back.
'How would you migrate this legacy application to the cloud?' — testing Phase 13's structured migration thinking (the 6 Rs, risk management) against a concrete scenario.
Think of it like this
Shifting the school mid-term
A school moving to a new building can't cancel classes for a month. The principal asks what's fragile, moves one class at a time over weekends, tests the new rooms, and keeps the old building's keys until every class has settled in.
Watch it happen
How a good migration answer sounds
Move our ERP to cloud
1/7A vague prompt on purpose. The worst move is to start naming services right away.
The big ideas
What you need to know
Constraints first
Downtime, data size, compliance, deadline, budget. These decide the approach more than any service.
Use the 6 Rs by part
The database might be replatformed, the app rehosted, an old module retired. Mixed answers are realistic.
Data plan is central
Full copy plus change replication, validation checks and a short cutover window.
Always end with rollback
Waves, go/no-go checks, and keeping the old system until the new one is proven.
Save yourself the pain
Common mistakes
Oops
Answering with a list of services: "EC2, RDS, S3, done".
Do this instead
Walk through a process: assess, choose approach, move data, cut over, roll back if needed.
Oops
Promising zero downtime without asking about data size or change rate.
Do this instead
Ask first, then explain what downtime is realistic and what it would cost to shrink it.
Your mission
Mock migration interview
Quick check
The database is 3 TB and allowed downtime is 1 hour. Which data approach fits best?
Go deeper
- 1Review Phase 13 and practice applying the 6 Rs framework to a sample legacy scenario.
- 2Prepare to discuss migration risk mitigation and a staged rollout approach.
- 3Practice explaining the lift-and-shift versus re-architect trade-off concretely.
More automation & operations at this stop
Infrastructure as Code Questions
Troubleshooting Scenarios
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