Cloud migration services in Canada, planned one workload at a time
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Cloud migration services in Canada, from data centre to cloud
Our team plans your move to AWS or Azure, migrates each workload and supports everything after go-live.
Migration assessment and design
We list every server and application, map how they depend on each other and decide the best cloud migration strategy for each one. Then we design the landing zone they'll move into.
Workload migration in waves
We move workloads in small groups, test each cutover first and keep a rollback plan ready. Your old servers stay on until the new environment has run smoothly with real users.
Security and support after go-live
We lock down identity and network access, set up monitoring and usage alerts, and hand over full documentation. Or our team can run the environment for you from Canada.
Does your industry change a cloud migration in Canada?
The steps stay the same, but the rules around them change. Financial institutions under OSFI need a clear record of every change and its approval. Healthcare providers under PHIPA must control who can see patient data. In Quebec, Law 25 requires an assessment before personal information is stored outside the province. We plan for these from the first week.
OSFI's technology and cyber risk rules set what an examiner will ask to see.
OSFI B-13. Technology and cyber risk across three domains: governance, technology operations and resilience, and cyber security. It binds federally regulated institutions, and only those.
Health information sits under provincial privacy law, and your IT provider is usually the custodian's agent.
PHIPA. Ontario's health privacy act, with its own definition of a custodian and its own duties for the agents acting on a custodian's behalf. Your IT provider is usually an agent.
Solicitor-client privilege decides how a firm can handle its data.
Law Society obligations. Confidentiality and competence duties reach the technology you practise with, and the vendors who touch client information. The firm is expected to have assessed the provider, which means the provider should arrive with the answers.
A production line can't stop for a patch window, so changes have to fit the schedule.
OT and IT convergence. A flat network between plant and office is the common failure, and segmentation is the fix. It's a design problem, not a purchase.
SCADA networks and remote sites can't go offline, so changes are planned around them.
SCADA and ICS. Availability outranks confidentiality here, and you often can't take a system offline to investigate what happened on it.
Lift and shift or refactor: which fits?
Every application needs its own cloud migration strategy. Lift and shift moves a server to the cloud as it is, so it's the fastest option, but old problems move with it. Refactoring rebuilds the application for the cloud, which takes longer and needs your developers. Replatforming, with small changes, sits in between. Most companies use a mix, and the table shows when each option makes sense.
Lift and shift (rehost)
- Best for stable apps you plan to replace within a few years.
- Moves the server as it is, using replication tools.
- Each wave takes days to weeks, with little code change.
- Keeps old licences, patching gaps and oversized servers as they are.
Replatform or refactor
- Best for apps that need to grow or keep having problems.
- Swaps parts for managed services, like a managed database.
- Takes months and needs developers, testing and a code freeze.
- Fixes the technical debt that made the old setup fragile.
We follow the AWS list of seven migration strategies, the 7 Rs. Running VMware? Our virtualization team can help you decide on the renewal before those servers move.
Where is your cloud migration in Canada starting from?
Tell us who you are and what you're working on. A senior engineer reads your message before replying, so the first answer is a real read on scope, risk and timing, within an hour, 24/7. Nothing here is a commitment, and we'll tell you plainly if we're not the right fit.
Your request
- Service
- Cloud Migration Services
What happens next
- A senior engineer replies within an hour, 24/7, never an SDR.
- We book a 30-minute call to listen, sketch options, and flag risks.
- You get a scoped statement of work within 3 business days.
Call the 24/7 line
+1 514-465-1584What shapes a cloud migration strategy in Canada?
Three things decide how smoothly a migration goes for Canadian companies. We plan all three before anything moves.
Choosing the right Canadian region.
AWS has two Canadian regions, in Montreal and Calgary. Azure also has two, in Toronto and Quebec City, and only the Toronto region has availability zones. The region you pick matters for privacy law. Under section 17 of Quebec's privacy law, a Quebec company that stores personal information in Toronto, even as a backup copy, needs a privacy impact assessment and a written agreement first. We settle this before the first workload moves.
Not everything has to move.
Some workloads run best where they are, such as steady systems on hardware you already own. That's why many Canadian companies end up with a hybrid cloud: some applications in AWS or Azure, some in a private cloud or their own data centre. We migrate both physical and virtual servers, and we'll tell you honestly which ones should stay put.
Large data needs a plan.
Big file shares and databases can take longer to copy than your maintenance window allows. A 10 TB file share needs about 22 hours over a fully used 1 Gbps connection. So we copy the bulk of the data days ahead, keep it in sync, and move only the recent changes on cutover night. We also test that backups restore before every cutover.
Want a Senior IT Consultant's Read on Your Setup?
Tell us what you run today and what keeps breaking. A senior SMEnode engineer replies within an hour with a first read on scope, risk and timing. No sales handoff.
Request a consultHow our cloud migration services in Canada move each workload
Our cloud migration services follow four phases, and each one ends with your sign-off before the next begins. The assessment can also tell you that some workloads shouldn't move at all, and we'll say so. Every phase leaves documentation your team keeps, whoever runs the environment later. If you run Windows Server 2016, plan around 2027-01-12, when Microsoft's extended support ends.
Engagement phases
Phases 01 to 04
Cloud readiness
We inventory your servers and applications, collect 30 days of real usage and map dependencies. You get a migration assessment with a wave plan and a list of what should stay where it is.
Landing zone
We build your accounts, identity, network, security policies and logging in a Canadian region, written as code so every later workload lands on the same tested foundation, not a one-off setup.
Migrate
Workload migration starts with a pilot wave of low-risk systems, then the rest move in groups. Each cutover is rehearsed, tested by your users and backed by a rollback plan with a named owner.
Secure and run
After a full business month, we right-size resources, tighten security posture and switch off the old servers. Then your team takes over, or our managed cloud team runs it for you.
What buyers ask about cloud migration services in Canada
Straight answers to what Canadian companies usually want to know before moving their servers and applications to AWS or Azure.
Where this work connects.
These disciplines share the same senior team and tend to land together. Follow the thread to the next one.
- AccountAWS ConsultingAccount setup, Control Tower and clear billing for companies moving to AWS in Canada.
- SecureCloud SecuritySecurity checks for your new cloud environment, against a published Canadian baseline.
- DecideVirtualization ServicesHelp deciding whether to renew VMware or move those servers to the cloud.
