No surprises on moving day: why cloud value starts before the move
Many organisations have moved to the cloud and still aren’t getting the value they expected. Often the problem isn’t the platform, but is what they brought with them.
Data migration and house moves share many common problems. The nightmare of losing a passport mid-move and having to open twenty boxes to find it isn’t so different to the fear of a critical citizen record going missing. Even though the stakes are far higher when it comes to citizen-level data, particularly in the public sector, this is a relatable way to discuss data migration at scale.
The “old home” is the legacy data estate where the technical debt and the clutter have built up over the years. The “new home” is the modern cloud platform, with the automation, integration and AI features that come with it.
Deciding what not to pack
Discovery shapes everything that follows, from which route to take (think of the 6Rs), like a simple lift and shift or a full rebuild, to what actually comes with you.
Redundant, obsolete and trivial (ROT) data, such as duplicate citizen records across legacy silos, data held beyond its retention period and system logs with no future value, should be left behind.
What makes the move should be clean, governed with clear ownership and lineage, and ready to connect to new platforms and AI.
Planning for the other end
A floor plan gives every box a room before you unpack, which in data terms, means defining schemas. A master inventory makes sure the “living room” means the same thing in both houses, which is similar to having a data dictionary. Then, house rules keep everything in order long after moving day, which means applying data governance.
Meeting standards
Public sector and citizen-level data needs to be secure and compliant from day one. Data isolation and encryption at rest and in motion mean you can’t hear the neighbours through the wall. Role-based access control (RBAC), least privilege and Zero Tolerance mean not everyone gets a key to every room, so if one key is lost, the damage stays contained.
Also, just like you wouldn’t buy a house without a survey and approvals from design authorities, data owners, along with data sharing agreements, should be in place before the move happens.
Bringing the family with you
Value from moving to cloud infrastructure isn’t just technical. The people who have spent years learning a legacy system know exactly where the wonky step is, so leaving that behind can feel like a loss to them. You should aim to involve the “family” from the outset, not just on moving day, and help them see that the tools provided by the Cloud, like AI and automation, make the housework easier rather than being a replacement to their skills.
Prevention is cheaper than repair
The 1-10-100 rule of thumb captures the cost of getting this wrong. For example, £1 spent on prevention before the move avoids £10 in correction during it and £100 in failure afterwards, through downtime, broken AI models and interrupted services. For citizens, that can mean losing access to vital services. Modern cloud platforms let teams test pipelines in a sandbox before the point of no return, so a small investment upfront protects public funds and makes moving day a quiet non-event.
Want to go further? Watch Butterfly Data’s short video insight session on governing data migration for AI readiness at scale, orread their whitepaper, The hidden cost of legacy data systems in UK public services, to see why delaying migration costs more over time.
