Before Anything Moves
Discovery.
The Most Important
Step You'll Take.
Before anything is moved, copied, or switched off, we start with discovery. It's the process of understanding what you have today — how it's used, what actually needs to move, and what the right destination looks like. Get this right and everything else follows. Skip it and everything suffers.
Start Your DiscoveryWhy It Comes First
Migrations fail when discovery is skipped.
Without proper discovery, you're migrating based on assumptions. And assumptions in cloud migrations have consequences — some of them show up on cutover day, some of them show up months later.
Discovery is what separates a planned migration from a rushed one. It gives us a clear, accurate picture of your environment before a single thing is moved — so the plan we build reflects reality, not what someone remembers being in place three years ago.
It also surfaces the things nobody thought to mention: the legacy application that six people rely on, the shared folder structure that took a decade to evolve, the licensing arrangement that doesn't translate cleanly to the cloud.
Unexpected downtime — systems with hidden dependencies fail in ways nobody anticipated
Missing data or permissions — files, folders, and access rights don't transfer cleanly without mapping them first
Security gaps — moving to the cloud without reviewing access and identity controls creates new exposure
Poor performance — workloads placed in the wrong cloud environment perform worse than on-premises
Wasted spend — migrating things that didn't need to move, at a cost that didn't need to be incurred
What We Cover
What we look at during discovery
We take time to understand your current environment in full — not just the parts that are obvious. Everything that follows depends on getting this right.
Users, Devices & Working Patterns
Who uses what, from where, and how — including remote workers, shared devices, and any departmental variations in how people actually work day to day.
Email, Files & Collaboration
Your communication and collaboration environment — current platforms, data volumes, shared mailboxes, distribution groups, and how people share and store information.
Servers, Applications & Dependencies
Your on-premises infrastructure — servers, line-of-business applications, databases, and the often-undocumented dependencies between them that cause the most migration surprises.
Security, Access & Compliance
Your current security posture, access control model, and any compliance requirements that need to be carried into — or improved in — the destination environment.
Licensing, Storage & Growth
What you're currently licensed for, what you're actually using, and what your growth trajectory looks like — so the cloud design is right-sized from the start.
What's Critical vs What Can Change
Not everything that exists today needs to be replicated in the cloud. Discovery lets us separate what's critical, what can be improved, and what no longer needs to exist at all.
Migration Strategy
Discovery informs the 5 R's
Every workload we identify during discovery gets assessed against the five migration strategies. Discovery is what makes this decision meaningful rather than arbitrary.
Lift and shift — move the workload to cloud infrastructure as-is. Fast, low-risk, preserves existing configuration.
Move with minor optimisations — take advantage of cloud capabilities without fully rearchitecting.
Rearchitect for cloud-native — significant investment but the most benefit for the right workloads.
Keep on-premises — not everything should move. Discovery identifies what's better left where it is.
Decommission — discovery often reveals systems that are redundant, unused, or no longer needed at all.
The Output
Discovery becomes
a migration plan.
Once discovery is complete, we translate everything we've found into a clear, practical migration plan. Not a generic template — a document specific to your environment, your priorities, and your timeline.
You'll know what's happening, why it's happening, and when. Nothing will happen that hasn't been agreed, documented, and communicated in advance.
What is moving and what isn't
Every workload classified and assigned a migration strategy — with the rationale documented.
The right migration order
Systems sequenced to minimise risk and dependency conflicts — not just migrated alphabetically.
How to minimise disruption
User communication plan, timing considerations, and phasing designed around your business — not just ours.
Cutover plan and what to expect
Clear timeline, roles, and responsibilities for the moment everything switches. No surprises on the day.
Before, during, and after support
How we support you through the migration and into the stabilisation period that follows.
By starting with discovery, your migration becomes everything it should be.
Not just moved to the cloud — moved properly.
Predictable
No surprises on migration day. Every scenario considered and planned for in advance.
Secure
Security gaps identified and addressed before migration — not inherited in the new environment.
Low-Stress
Users are prepared, communication is clear, and disruption is minimised to the greatest extent possible.
Right-Sized
Cloud environment designed around how your business actually works — not a generic configuration applied to everyone.
Ready to understand what you're working with?
Start with a conversation about your current environment. We'll tell you what a discovery engagement involves, what it costs, and what you'll have at the end of it.