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On this page
- About this guidance
- Plan migration and legacy retirement
- What to include
- Related links
- More cloud policy guidance
About this guidance
This guidance helps agencies meet requirement 1 of the Whole-of-government cloud computing policy: Entities must prioritise cloud computing solutions when modernising IT infrastructure.
The Cloud computing policy requires agencies to prioritise cloud when modernising IT infrastructure. It also requires agencies to support the timely decommissioning of legacy systems. Agencies should plan how migration, modernisation and legacy retirement decisions will be sequenced and governed.
Who this guidance is for
This guidance is for agency staff involved in planning, approving, delivering, operating or reviewing cloud migration, modernisation and legacy retirement activities. Different roles should use the guidance in different ways.
- Accountable executives should set expectations for cloud migration and legacy retirement, approve sequencing and investment decisions, assign accountable owners, and confirm that transition risks, service continuity and business impacts are understood before major decisions are made.
- Delivery and program teams should use this guidance to plan and sequence migration activities, manage dependencies, coordinate business and technical change, maintain decision records, and track progress against the migration roadmap and legacy retirement plan.
- Operational and specialist teams should provide input on architecture, cyber security, data, integration, service management, procurement, finance, records, business continuity and transition risk. They should maintain the technical and operational evidence needed to support migration, modernisation and retirement decisions.
When to use this guidance
Use this guidance when planning cloud migration, modernising digital or ICT services, assessing whether systems should be retained, replaced or retired, or preparing evidence to show how legacy retirement supports the Cloud computing policy.
It should be used early enough to influence investment planning, architecture decisions, procurement, risk management and service continuity arrangements. It can also be used when reviewing existing roadmaps, refreshing a cloud strategy, preparing a business case, or planning transition from legacy environments to cloud or hybrid services.
Plan migration and legacy retirement
Migration and legacy retirement should be planned together. Moving services to cloud without addressing legacy systems can increase complexity, duplicate costs and leave agencies with unmanaged technical debt.
Agencies should identify which systems, data, integrations, contracts and business processes are affected by migration and decide whether each component should be reused, modernised, replaced, retained for a defined period or retired. These decisions should be documented and reviewed at agreed points.
Plan the work as a coordinated sequence of migration, modernisation and retirement activities. The evidence artefacts below should show how these decisions will be delivered, governed and reviewed.
What to include
Maintain the following evidence, proportionate to the scale and risk of the transition:
- a migration roadmap that sets out priorities, sequencing, dependencies, delivery stages and decision points
- a legacy retirement plan that identifies systems to be retired, modernised, replaced or retained
- a dependency assessment covering applications, data, integrations, infrastructure, contracts, suppliers and business processes
- a transition risk register that records risks, mitigations, accountable owners and review dates
- a business impact assessment covering service continuity, users, support arrangements, records, data and operational change
- decision records that explain why systems are being migrated, modernised, retained or retired
- review points that confirm whether plans remain aligned to business outcomes, risk appetite, cost expectations and service needs.
Related links
Learn more about legacy technology management on the Australian Signals Directorate website.
More cloud policy guidance
- Guide to meeting the requirements of the Whole-of-government cloud computing policy
- Guide to planning a cloud strategy
- Guide to procuring cloud services
- Guide to managing cloud provider lock-in, portability and exit planning
- Guide to managing security, privacy and operational risk
- Guide to reviewing and continuously improving cloud adoption
- Guide to managing cloud and usage costs, including AI costs
- Guide to developing cloud capability in your agency