Advanced Cloud Architecture and Migration Training Course

Course overview

Cloud migration programmes fail when application dependencies, data constraints, resilience requirements and operating costs are treated as separate workstreams. Architects and technical leads need to make defensible decisions about what to retire, retain, rehost, replatform, refactor or relocate; sequence migration waves without disrupting critical services; and design target platforms that meet recovery, security, performance and financial requirements. This course addresses the point where cloud knowledge must become an executable architecture and migration plan.

Participants work through advanced cloud architecture patterns, workload assessment methods, landing-zone design, migration factory planning and post-migration optimisation. They learn to build dependency-informed application portfolios, evaluate the 7 Rs, define target-state architectures, establish identity and network controls, select migration approaches for databases and Kubernetes workloads, and quantify trade-offs using total cost of ownership, recovery objectives and risk registers. The course uses AWS Well-Architected Framework principles alongside vendor-neutral architecture and migration practices that transfer across AWS, Azure and hybrid environments.

Teaching combines instructor-led technical briefings with architecture reviews, migration-planning workshops and hands-on use of Terraform, Azure Migrate and AWS Migration Hub concepts. Working from a realistic enterprise estate, each participant develops a migration architecture pack: a workload assessment, target landing-zone design, wave plan, cutover runbook, risk register and success measures. This gives attendees a practical artefact they can adapt for a current cloud programme and gives managers clearer evidence of the decisions, controls and delivery approach their teams will apply.

The course is designed for experienced IT professionals responsible for shaping, approving or delivering complex cloud transitions, rather than for learners seeking an introductory cloud certification.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Assess an application portfolio using dependency mapping, business criticality and the 7 Rs migration framework
• Design a secure cloud landing zone covering identity, network segmentation, logging, governance and account structure
• Produce target-state architectures using resilience, performance, security and cost trade-off criteria
• Build a migration wave plan that sequences workloads, data moves, testing gates and business readiness activities
• Create infrastructure-as-code patterns in Terraform for repeatable environment provisioning
• Select migration approaches for virtual machines, databases, container platforms and hybrid-connected workloads
• Develop cutover and rollback runbooks with validation checks, recovery objectives and ownership assignments
• Present a migration business case using TCO assumptions, risk exposure, delivery dependencies and measurable benefits

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Cloud Architects — who must design target platforms and defend architecture decisions across complex workloads
• Solutions Architects — who translate application and business requirements into migration-ready cloud designs
• Infrastructure Architects — who are responsible for network, identity, resilience and operational integration
• Technical Project Managers — who need to plan migration waves, dependencies, cutovers and delivery risks
• DevOps and Platform Engineers — who build landing zones, automation pipelines and repeatable cloud environments
• IT Managers and Heads of Infrastructure — who approve migration investment and need credible delivery controls

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience administering, designing or supporting IT infrastructure and applications in an enterprise environment. They should understand virtual machines, networking fundamentals including DNS, routing and firewalls, identity and access management, databases, backup and disaster recovery concepts, and basic cloud service models. Familiarity with at least one public cloud console, such as AWS or Azure, is expected. Basic command-line confidence and the ability to read YAML or HCL configuration are useful for Terraform exercises. Prior Terraform, Kubernetes or migration-tool expertise is not required, and participants do not need to hold a cloud certification.

Training methodology

The five days combine instructor-led architecture sessions with facilitated design critiques and practical migration workshops. Participants assess a simulated enterprise portfolio, map dependencies, choose 7 Rs dispositions and design a governed landing zone. Guided exercises use Terraform structures and migration-tool workflows to turn designs into deployable patterns. Small groups challenge each other’s target architectures against failure, security and cost scenarios. Each day adds to an individual migration architecture pack, culminating in a peer-reviewed wave plan, cutover runbook and implementation roadmap for workplace application.

Course outline

Day 1: Migration strategy and workload assessment

• Cloud migration drivers, constraints and operating-model implications
• The 7 Rs framework for workload disposition decisions
• Application portfolio segmentation by criticality, complexity and business value
• Dependency mapping across applications, databases, networks and third parties
• Migration discovery data quality and evidence validation
• TCO baselining and migration business-case assumptions
• Migration factory operating model, roles and governance gates

Workshop: Participants assess a sample application estate, assign 7 Rs dispositions and produce a prioritised migration candidate matrix.

Day 2: Target architecture and governed landing zones

• AWS Well-Architected Framework pillars applied to migration target states
• Multi-account and subscription architecture for enterprise cloud estates
• Identity federation, privileged access and least-privilege design
• Hub-and-spoke networking, DNS integration and hybrid connectivity patterns
• Centralised logging, monitoring, configuration and audit evidence
• Policy-as-code, tagging standards and cloud governance guardrails
• Resilience architecture using availability zones, regions and recovery objectives

Workshop: Participants create a target landing-zone architecture diagram and control matrix for a regulated business unit.

Day 3: Migration patterns, data and automation

• Rehosting, replatforming and refactoring decision criteria
• Database migration strategies for homogeneous and heterogeneous moves
• Data replication, synchronisation windows and integrity validation
• Container and Kubernetes migration design considerations
• Terraform modules, state management and environment promotion
• AWS Migration Hub workflow tracking and migration status reporting
• Azure Migrate assessment outputs and right-sizing recommendations

Workshop: Participants select migration patterns for four workload types and draft Terraform module boundaries for the target environment.

Day 4: Wave execution, cutover and operational readiness

• Migration wave sequencing using dependency, risk and business-calendar constraints
• Detailed cutover planning, command structures and communications
• Rollback design and decision thresholds
• Functional, performance, security and operational acceptance testing
• Backup, disaster recovery and recovery-time objective validation
• Service management integration, runbooks and support handover
• FinOps controls for post-migration cost monitoring and optimisation

Workshop: Participants build a migration-wave plan and a timed cutover-and-rollback runbook for a customer-facing application.

Day 5: Architecture assurance and migration programme leadership

• Architecture review boards and decision-record practices
• Migration risk registers, assumptions logs and dependency management
• Security threat modelling for cloud migration scenarios
• Cloud cost governance and optimisation metrics
• Measuring migration outcomes through service, financial and delivery KPIs
• Stakeholder reporting for executives, product owners and operations teams
• Ninety-day migration roadmap and implementation prioritisation

Workshop: Participants present their completed migration architecture pack for peer review and produce a 90-day implementation roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

Terraform, Azure Migrate, AWS Migration Hub, AWS Well-Architected Framework

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions