Description

This curriculum spans the technical and operational rigor of a multi-workshop cloud migration program, addressing the same system architecture decisions, trade-offs, and cross-functional coordination required in enterprise advisory engagements.

Module 1: Assessing Legacy System Dependencies and Technical Debt

Conduct inventory audits of monolithic applications to identify tightly coupled components that block independent deployment.
Evaluate the feasibility of refactoring legacy codebases with outdated frameworks against the cost of re-architecting.
Map inter-service communication patterns in on-premises systems to anticipate integration challenges in distributed cloud environments.
Document database schema dependencies that prevent schema evolution during phased migration.
Classify applications by retirement, rehost, refactor, or rebuild criteria based on business criticality and technical viability.
Negotiate application owner sign-off on decommissioning timelines for systems identified as end-of-life.

Module 2: Cloud Provider Selection and Multi-Cloud Strategy

Compare SLA commitments for compute, storage, and networking across AWS, Azure, and GCP for regulated workloads.
Assess data residency requirements and align provider region availability with compliance mandates.
Design cross-cloud identity federation to avoid vendor lock-in while maintaining centralized access control.
Implement consistent tagging standards across providers to enable cost allocation and resource tracking.
Evaluate managed service maturity (e.g., serverless, databases) to determine operational burden trade-offs.
Establish network peering and transit gateway strategies for hybrid connectivity between multiple cloud environments.

Module 3: Data Migration and Database Modernization

Select between online vs. offline data transfer methods based on downtime tolerance and data volume thresholds.
Design schema transformations for migrating from on-premises Oracle to cloud-native PostgreSQL or managed services.
Implement change data capture (CDC) using tools like AWS DMS or Debezium to maintain data consistency during cutover.
Partition large databases into logical units for staged migration to reduce risk and enable rollback.
Configure read replicas in the target environment to validate query performance before switching application endpoints.
Enforce encryption of data at rest and in transit during transfer, including key management via customer-managed KMS.

Module 4: Application Refactoring and Microservices Design

Decompose monolithic applications by business capability, ensuring bounded contexts align with team ownership.
Define API contracts using OpenAPI specifications before implementing service boundaries to prevent integration drift.
Introduce service mesh (e.g., Istio, Linkerd) for observability, traffic control, and security in containerized environments.
Implement circuit breakers and retry logic to handle transient failures in distributed inter-service calls.
Select between synchronous (REST/gRPC) and asynchronous (message queues) communication based on latency and reliability needs.
Migrate stateful components carefully, using externalized session stores or distributed caches to maintain consistency.

Module 5: Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD Pipeline Design

Choose between Terraform and cloud-native tools (CloudFormation, ARM) based on team expertise and multi-cloud requirements.
Structure IaC modules to support environment parity (dev, staging, prod) while isolating sensitive configurations.
Integrate security scanning into CI/CD pipelines to block deployments with misconfigured resource policies.
Implement blue-green or canary deployments using infrastructure-level routing to minimize production risk.
Manage state file storage and locking for Terraform in shared environments to prevent configuration drift.
Automate rollback procedures by versioning infrastructure and application artifacts in artifact repositories.

Module 6: Security, Identity, and Compliance Governance

Define least-privilege IAM roles and policies aligned with job functions, avoiding over-permissioned service accounts.
Implement centralized logging and monitoring using SIEM integration to detect anomalous access patterns.
Configure network security groups and firewall rules to enforce zero-trust principles between tiers.
Conduct regular access reviews and automate deprovisioning of stale identities using identity lifecycle tools.
Map cloud controls to compliance frameworks (e.g., SOC 2, HIPAA) and generate audit-ready evidence packages.
Enforce encryption standards for all data stores and transit channels, including TLS version enforcement.

Module 7: Performance Optimization and Cost Management

Right-size compute instances using performance telemetry and load testing under production-like conditions.
Implement auto-scaling policies based on custom metrics to balance responsiveness and cost efficiency.
Use reserved instances or savings plans strategically after analyzing utilization patterns over 90-day periods.
Optimize data egress costs by caching static assets at edge locations and minimizing cross-region transfers.
Monitor database query performance and apply indexing strategies to reduce latency and resource consumption.
Establish cost allocation tags and alerting thresholds to notify teams of budget overruns in real time.

Module 8: Operational Readiness and Incident Response

Develop runbooks for common failure scenarios, including database failover, DNS misconfigurations, and service outages.
Conduct game-day exercises to test disaster recovery procedures and failover automation.
Integrate monitoring tools (Prometheus, CloudWatch) with alerting systems to ensure on-call coverage and escalation paths.
Define SLOs and error budgets to guide release velocity and incident prioritization.
Establish post-mortem processes that focus on systemic causes rather than individual accountability.
Configure centralized log aggregation with retention policies compliant with legal and audit requirements.