Finance organizations are moving to the cloud, but core financial systems require careful planning. Regulatory requirements, security concerns, and business continuity make cloud migration more complex than typical IT projects.

Here’s how we approach finance IT cloud migrations at NsisongLabs.

Migration strategy

Not all systems should move at once:

Lift-and-shift: Move systems as-is for quick wins, then optimize later. Good for non-critical systems.

Replatform: Move to cloud-native services (managed databases, serverless functions) for better scalability and cost.

Refactor: Redesign applications for cloud-native patterns. Highest effort but best long-term value.

Hybrid approach: Keep sensitive systems on-premises, move others to cloud, integrate via APIs.

Security and compliance

Cloud security for finance requires:

Shared responsibility model: Understand what the cloud provider secures vs. what you must secure.

Encryption: Encrypt data at rest and in transit, with key management that meets compliance requirements.

Network security: Use VPCs, private endpoints, and network segmentation to isolate financial systems.

Access control: Implement least-privilege access, multi-factor authentication, and regular access reviews.

Compliance certifications: Choose providers with relevant certifications (SOC 2, PCI DSS, ISO 27001).

Regulatory considerations

Different regulations have different cloud requirements:

Data residency: Some regulations require data to stay in specific geographic regions.

Audit requirements: Ensure cloud providers support audit trails and log retention requirements.

Third-party risk: Regulators may require assessments of cloud providers as third-party vendors.

Business continuity: Demonstrate that cloud migration doesn’t increase downtime risk.

Cost optimization

Cloud costs can spiral without management:

Right-sizing: Match instance types to actual workload requirements, not peak capacity.

Reserved instances: Commit to longer terms for predictable workloads to reduce costs.

Auto-scaling: Scale resources up and down based on demand to avoid paying for idle capacity.

Cost monitoring: Set up alerts and budgets to catch unexpected cost increases early.

Migration execution

Plan the actual migration carefully:

Pilot programs: Start with non-critical systems to learn and refine processes.

Parallel running: Run old and new systems in parallel during transition to validate correctness.

Rollback plans: Have clear rollback procedures if issues are discovered.

Change management: Train teams on new systems and processes before cutover.

Post-migration optimization

After migration, optimize:

Performance tuning: Optimize database queries, caching, and network configurations for cloud.

Cost optimization: Regularly review and optimize costs as usage patterns become clear.

Security hardening: Implement additional security controls based on cloud-specific threats.

Disaster recovery: Test and refine disaster recovery procedures in the cloud environment.

Cloud migration for finance IT is a journey, not a one-time project. Start with low-risk systems, learn, and gradually move more critical workloads as confidence and capabilities grow.