the number of workloads, and how many need more than lift and shift;
Cloud migration services for South African organisations
Cloud migration is the planned move of applications, data and servers from on-premises infrastructure, or from another cloud, to a cloud platform. Arke Technologies plans and runs cloud migrations for mid-sized and large organisations, public-sector bodies and schools across South Africa from Johannesburg: assessment, strategy, wave-by-wave cutover, security and handover, under one contract.
What is cloud migration?
By definition, cloud migration moves a workload (an application, a database, a file store, email or a whole server) onto infrastructure or software rented from a cloud platform. The platform runs the hardware; how much of the stack you still manage depends on where the workload lands: virtual machines, a managed service or a SaaS product. The migration is a project with an end date; running the estate afterwards belongs to our wider cloud services.
Cloud workload migration is rarely all or nothing: estates move in waves, and some systems rightly stay on site (see the project example below). Data cloud migration is usually the largest single task, run with the discipline of our data migration work.
How to choose a cloud migration strategy
Different cloud migration strategies suit different workloads. Planning cloud migration starts wide: a breadth analysis looks at every workload, then a depth analysis examines the critical ones. The main cloud migration considerations are:
Remaining life. A system due for replacement next year is a retire or repurchase candidate.- Dependencies. What each application talks to, and what breaks if they are separated.
- Data volume and line speed. These set how long replication takes.
- Licensing. Which licences transfer, and which do not.
- Compliance. POPIA, regulator rules and client contracts that say where data may live.
- Deadlines. A lease ending or a server near the end of support.
Cloud migration benefits, and when companies move back
Companies moving to the cloud usually want these benefits, none of them automatic:
- Capacity on demand. Add servers or storage in minutes and pay for what runs, instead of buying for peak years ahead.
- Resilience. Workloads leave an office server room exposed to load-shedding for a region with its own power and cooling; see backup and disaster recovery.
- A stronger security baseline. Identity, encryption and logging are built into the platform.
When a steady workload costs more to rent than to own, a cloud to on-premises migration makes sense: we design private cloud and virtualisation or place your equipment in a South African colocation data centre.
SAP, Oracle, Atlassian and other business applications
Business applications need their own plan, because the vendor's licensing and tooling shape the options.
- SAP. An SAP cloud migration strategy starts with the edition and licence. SAP Business One, which we administer, is usually rehosted on cloud virtual machines.
- Oracle. Oracle databases can move to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, onto another platform, or stay put. Oracle's licensing often decides, so cost the licence position before choosing an Oracle cloud migration service.
- Atlassian. An Atlassian cloud migration moves Jira and Confluence to Atlassian's cloud with the vendor's migration assistants. A Confluence cloud migration then succeeds or fails on users, single sign-on, apps and permissions.
Cloud migration security and POPIA
Cloud migration security starts before the first byte moves.
- Data encrypted in transit and at rest, with keys and access documented.
- Multi-factor authentication and least-privilege access; administrator accounts named, never shared.
- Logging from day one, with alerting through Microsoft Sentinel or the platform's equivalent where agreed.
- Controls aligned with the CIS Controls, Cloud Security Alliance guidance and ISO/IEC 27001.
- POPIA: data kept in South African regions where your policy requires it, a record of which personal information moved where, and the section 72 conditions checked before any personal information leaves the country.
- Every remote session approved and logged, and everyone with access bound by confidentiality.
What does cloud migration cost?
R550–R750 ex VAT
published hourly rates for IT project work (matnet.co.za, September 2026)
The cost of cloud migration has two parts: the one-off project, quoted in writing after the assessment, and the monthly bill that follows. What drives the cloud migration cost:
data volume, line speed and integrations to re-test;
dual running, when you pay for old and new environments at once;
licences that do not transfer, and after-hours cutover windows.
A cloud migration cost calculator from Microsoft, AWS or Google estimates the target's monthly run cost. None prices the project itself, the months of dual running or exchange-rate exposure when a platform bills in US dollars, and egress fees are easy to underestimate. Our business case sets them side by side, and cloud cost optimisation keeps the run cost in check afterwards.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Governance, procurement and handover
Boards, CFOs and procurement officers need a migration governed, not just done.
- A named lead and a cloud migration team. One accountable lead, the engineers doing the work, and your owner for each system, listed in the plan.
- Reporting and change control. Status reports at an agreed cadence, a risk and issue log, and every cutover through change control with a recorded go/no-go decision.
- Cloud migration documentation. The assessment, business case, architecture diagram, runbooks and as-built records are yours, and the roadmap doubles as a template for later waves.
- Compliance. POPIA throughout; King IV Principle 12 reporting for boards; PFMA or MFMA disciplines, audit-ready records and a check against the National Data and Cloud Policy (2024) for public-sector clients.
- Procurement. Arke is a Level 1 B-BBEE contributor (sworn affidavit available on request), which gives buyers 135% procurement recognition. Company documents, our CSD supplier number and tax compliance status are available on request, and you can buy by proposal and purchase order or through a tender. See supplier compliance for the public sector.
- Continuity and exit. The tenancy, subscriptions and credentials are held in your name. If you move on, we hand over everything needed to run the estate without us.
How to choose a cloud migration service provider
Cloud migration companies range from the platforms' own teams to global consultancies and local cloud migration specialists such as ours. When comparing leading cloud migration service providers, ask:
- Will they recommend retain or retire where it fits, or cloud for everything?
- Will they show a costed business case for each workload?
- Who is accountable when something breaks, and is there a rollback plan for every cutover?
Our cloud migration consulting and delivery sit with one team: the consultant who assesses your estate works beside the cloud migration experts who move it, so every cloud migration solution we recommend is one we carry out. Afterwards we can run the estate, with business fibre and LTE from Fibre Boyz and server hardware from Server Hub, both Arke divisions.