Cloud Migration Services | AWS, Azure, GCP
On-premises infrastructure has a fixed cost regardless of whether you use it: hardware refresh every 3-5 years, facilities costs, backup infrastructure, and the IT overhead of keeping it running. When a server fails at 2am, someone gets called. When you need to scale for a peak period, you are limited by what is in the rack.
We migrate businesses to cloud infrastructure on AWS, Azure, or GCP. From assessment and planning through application migration, data migration, and post-migration optimisation. The transition from infrastructure you manage to infrastructure that manages itself.
Cloud readiness assessment that identifies what migrates as-is and what needs re-architecting first
Application and database migration executed in phases to minimise disruption to your operations
Infrastructure-as-code delivery so your cloud environment is reproducible, version-controlled, and auditable
Post-migration cost optimisation that prevents cloud spend from replacing your on-prem bill with a larger one
Recent outcomes
Cloud migration · B2B SaaS platform
Migrated a multi-tenant SaaS platform from on-prem to AWS. Cloud cost came in 32% below prior on-prem spend within 9 months.
32% cost reductionDatabase migration · Healthcare client (US)
Migrated MSSQL databases to AWS RDS with zero data loss and a 4-minute cutover window. HIPAA compliance maintained throughout.
4-min cutoverInfrastructure-as-code · FinTech operator
Replaced manually configured servers with Terraform-managed infrastructure. Full environment rebuild time dropped from 3 days to 40 minutes.
40-min rebuildRecognition
Is your hardware refresh cycle coming up and the capital expenditure not justified for infrastructure that is already holding you back?
When you need to scale your application for demand spikes, how long does it take and what does it cost?
In short
RaftLabs migrates businesses to AWS, Azure, and GCP across the US and UK. Projects include lift-and-shift, database migration, and infrastructure-as-code delivery. Cloud costs typically drop 20-40% within 12 months. Fixed price, phased delivery.
Trusted by
On-premises infrastructure has a fixed cost profile: capital expenditure on hardware, facilities (power, cooling, physical security), IT time for maintenance and upgrades, and the operational burden of running your own infrastructure. This cost is constant whether you are at 20% utilisation or 100%.
Cloud infrastructure has a variable cost profile: you pay for what you use. Scaling up for demand peaks does not require a hardware purchase. Scaling down after a migration does not leave you with idle capacity. Backup, disaster recovery, and geographic redundancy are built-in services rather than separate infrastructure projects.
The migration is a project. The operational savings are permanent.
Capabilities
A structured assessment of your current infrastructure, applications, and data before migration starts. We map every workload against the 6R migration strategies, rehost (lift-and-shift to cloud VMs), replatform (move to a managed service with minor changes), refactor (re-architect for cloud-native deployment), repurchase (replace with SaaS), retire (decommission unused systems), or retain (keep on-premises where cloud provides no benefit), and assign each workload to the strategy that balances migration cost against long-term operational benefit.
Application dependency mapping documents what connects to what so migration sequencing follows dependency order rather than convenience, preventing the scenario where you migrate an application before the database it depends on. AWS Migration Hub, Azure Migrate, or Google Transfer Service provides automated discovery of running workloads, network flows, and resource utilisation data as the baseline for the dependency map. Database sizing and migration complexity assessment covers schema size, transaction throughput, replication requirements, and any Oracle-to-PostgreSQL or MSSQL-to-Cloud-SQL schema compatibility issues that add scope.
TCO calculator methodology compares current on-premises fully-loaded cost (hardware amortisation, power, cooling, facilities, IT labour, software licensing) against projected cloud spend at equivalent utilisation plus reserved instance discounts. The WAF (Well-Architected Framework) review scores your target architecture against the five pillars, operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimisation, and identifies gaps in the landing zone design before migration begins. The assessment produces a migration roadmap with phasing, estimated effort, and risk areas identified before you commit to the migration project. No surprises mid-migration.
Application migration from on-premises servers to cloud infrastructure. Lift-and-shift migration for stable applications moving as-is to cloud VMs. Containerisation of applications for deployment on Kubernetes for teams ready to move to a more operationally efficient runtime. Configuration management using Ansible or similar so application configuration is code, not manual server setup. Load balancer and auto-scaling configuration for applications that need elastic capacity. SSL certificate migration and DNS cutover. Post-migration smoke testing against a defined test plan before the old environment is decommissioned.
Relational database migration from on-premises servers to managed cloud database services: RDS, Cloud SQL, Azure Database, or self-managed cloud databases. PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, Oracle, and MongoDB supported. Schema migration with compatibility validation. Data migration using replication for continuous sync during the migration window. Cutover using a planned low-traffic window with replication lag minimised before switchover. Full data validation comparing source and destination post-migration. Managed database configuration for automated backups, point-in-time recovery, and read replicas.
Cloud infrastructure defined and deployed using Terraform. Every resource, compute, networking, storage, security groups, IAM, DNS, defined in version-controlled code rather than created manually through the console. Infrastructure that is reproducible, auditable, and diffable. Environments (development, staging, production) created from the same codebase with environment-specific configuration. State managed in remote backend (S3 with DynamoDB locking or Terraform Cloud). Delivery means your team inherits infrastructure they can modify, extend, and destroy-and-recreate rather than a black box of manually configured resources.
Cloud network architecture designed with security and least-privilege access as the starting point. Landing zone design establishes the account structure, network topology, and guardrails before any workloads are migrated, fixing a poorly designed landing zone after production workloads are running is expensive and disruptive.
VPC design separates public subnets (load balancers, NAT gateways) from private subnets (application servers, databases), with security group rules permitting only the specific port and source combinations required by each service. Network ACLs add a stateless second layer of subnet-level filtering. IAM role design follows least privilege: each service or application component gets a role with only the permissions it needs to operate, never a wildcard policy. Secrets management uses AWS Secrets Manager, Azure Key Vault, or Google Secret Manager with automatic rotation for database credentials and API keys, replacing hardcoded credentials in application configuration that are a frequent source of breaches. For hybrid architectures, AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, or Google Cloud Interconnect provides dedicated private connectivity between cloud and remaining on-premises systems, avoiding the public internet for traffic that should stay internal and delivering predictable latency that VPN over the public internet cannot guarantee. RTO and RPO targets for disaster recovery are defined during the assessment and implemented: multi-AZ deployment for sub-minute RPO, cross-region replication for DR targets with RPO measured in minutes, and documented runbooks for recovery procedures. Logging, audit trails, and alerting (CloudTrail, Azure Monitor, GCP Audit Logs) are configured from day one so your security posture is visible from the first workload deployed, not retrofitted after an incident.
Cloud cost management from the first day of migration rather than after the bill arrives. Right-sizing compute resources based on actual utilisation, not peak theoretical capacity. Reserved instance and savings plan purchasing recommendations for stable workloads. Auto-scaling configuration for variable workloads so you do not pay for idle capacity. S3 storage lifecycle policies. CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, or GCP Monitoring configured with cost anomaly alerts. Monthly cost review during the first three months post-migration to identify optimisation opportunities as real usage patterns emerge. Cloud cost typically drops 20-40% below equivalent on-prem spend for the same workload within 12 months of optimisation.
How we work
Every migration follows the same four phases. Scope is locked and price is fixed before any migration work starts.
We map every workload, database, and dependency in your current environment. You leave week 1 with a written migration roadmap, a risk register, and a fixed-price quote. No migration starts without your sign-off.
We build the target cloud environment before touching a single production workload. Account structure, network topology, security controls, and IAM policies are set up and reviewed before migration begins.
Workloads migrate in dependency order. Each application and database goes through staging validation before production cutover. Automated checks compare source and destination at the record level. We do not declare success until validation passes.
Production cutover in a planned low-traffic window. Monitoring active from day one. 8 weeks of post-migration support and cost optimisation included in every project.
Why us
The engineers who assess your infrastructure also execute the migration. No bait-and-switch, no offshore handoff after the contract is signed. The team you meet in week 1 ships in week 12.
We scope the work, calculate the cost, and lock it in writing before any migration begins. A scope change is a change request: priced, agreed, or dropped. It never absorbs into the project and appears on the final invoice.
Clients include Vodafone, T-Mobile, Aldi, Nike, Cisco, and Lockheed Martin. Track record across AI, SaaS, mobile, automation, and enterprise platforms in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and hospitality.
GDPR, HIPAA, SOC 2 — compliance requirements are scoped in week 1, not retrofitted before launch. We have shipped HIPAA-compliant cloud environments for US healthcare clients and GDPR-compliant infrastructure for European markets.
Bring us your current infrastructure details and operational constraints. We will assess the migration scope and give you an honest cost and timeline estimate.
Azure Consulting
Azure architecture design, cost optimisation, and managed Azure migration.
DevOps as a Service
CI/CD, containerisation, and infrastructure automation post-migration.
Data Engineering
data pipelines that live in the cloud environment you migrate to.
Legacy Modernisation
re-architecting legacy applications alongside or after migration.
Software Modernisation
modernising the applications you migrate to the cloud.
Enterprise Software Development
building new applications for your cloud environment.
Lift-and-shift (also called rehosting) moves your existing application to cloud infrastructure without changing the application itself. Your application runs on cloud VMs instead of physical servers. It gets the operational benefits of cloud, no hardware to manage, easier backup, faster provisioning, without the full cost and disruption of rebuilding the application. Lift-and-shift is faster, lower risk, and lower cost than a full re-architecture. It is the right approach for applications that are stable, not cloud-optimised, and where the operational benefits of cloud are the primary goal. Cloud-native migration (re-platforming or re-architecting) redesigns the application to use managed cloud services: containerisation with Kubernetes, serverless functions for appropriate workloads, managed databases instead of self-managed database servers, and auto-scaling infrastructure. It costs more and takes longer than lift-and-shift but delivers better ongoing scalability, resilience, and operational efficiency. For most migrations, we recommend a phased approach: lift-and-shift first to get off on-prem, then re-platform specific components where the cost-benefit of redesigning is clear.
Data migration is the highest-risk part of any cloud migration. Our approach has four phases. Assessment: we document every database, its size, schema, relationships, and data quality issues before touching anything. Planning: we design the migration strategy for each database, which managed service it moves to, the migration method (dump and restore, CDC replication, or native migration tooling), and the cutover plan. Validation: we run the migration in a staging environment and run automated validation checks that compare row counts, checksums, and data samples between source and destination. Cutover: the production cutover uses a defined runbook with rollback steps if any validation check fails at any point. Data migration validation is not a manual spot-check. It is automated comparison of source and destination at the record level. We do not declare migration complete until validation passes.
AWS is the most mature platform with the broadest service selection and the largest ecosystem of third-party tools and integration partners. It is the default choice for organisations without a strong existing relationship with Microsoft or Google. Azure is the natural fit for organisations deep in the Microsoft ecosystem: Windows Server, Active Directory, MSSQL, Office 365. The integration between Azure and Microsoft's enterprise tools is tighter than what AWS or GCP offers, and licensing benefits for existing Microsoft customers are meaningful. GCP has the strongest managed data and analytics services (BigQuery, Dataflow, Vertex AI) and is worth considering for organisations where data processing and AI are central workloads. We assess your existing infrastructure, team expertise, existing licensing agreements, and primary use cases before recommending a platform. The recommendation is based on what fits your situation, not our familiarity.
For most migrations, taking systems offline for the full migration duration is not acceptable. We use phased migration and cutover strategies that minimise downtime. For applications, we run source and destination in parallel during a validation period and switch traffic when confidence is high, then decommission the source. For databases, we use replication: the destination database receives an ongoing stream of changes from the source until the cutover moment, at which point the replication lag is typically seconds. The cutover window, when write traffic switches from source to destination, is planned for the lowest-traffic period and is measured in minutes, not hours. The specific cutover strategy depends on your application architecture, acceptable downtime window, and business criticality. We design and document the cutover plan before migration starts and dry-run it in a staging environment.
Cloud migration cost depends on the number of applications and databases, the complexity of dependencies, and the target cloud environment. A focused migration of 2-3 applications with a single database typically runs $25,000-$60,000. A full infrastructure migration with 10+ workloads, schema conversions, and compliance requirements is typically $80,000-$200,000+. Every engagement starts with a paid assessment that produces a fixed-price quote before any migration work begins. You will know the full cost and timeline before you commit to the project.
A focused lift-and-shift of 1-3 applications takes 6-10 weeks from assessment sign-off to production cutover. A migration involving multiple applications, database schema conversions, or a new landing zone build typically takes 12-20 weeks. The timeline depends on application complexity, the number of dependencies, and your team's availability for validation and testing. We set the timeline at the end of the assessment phase, not at the start of the sales process.
Work with us
We scope Cloud Migration Services in 30 minutes. You walk away with a clear cost, timeline, and approach. No commitment required.
FinTech
Compliance-first financial software for lending, payments, and wealth management.
Healthcare
HIPAA-compliant platforms for clinical workflows and patient engagement.
Retail and e-commerce
Custom storefronts, inventory management, and loyalty programs.
Logistics and supply chain
Dispatch automation, fleet management, and supply chain visibility.
SaaS products
Multi-tenant SaaS platforms built to scale without a rewrite.
Hospitality
Booking engines, PMS integrations, and guest-facing platforms.