Cloud Migration Checklist
for BFSI.

The five most common failure modes: (1) Compliance posture not mapped to cloud architecture before migration begins — discovering regulatory gaps mid-migration is expensive. (2) Integration complexity underestimated — core banking systems typically have hundreds of downstream integrations that are not fully documented. (3) Data residency requirements not identified upfront — some regulatory frameworks prohibit data leaving specific jurisdictions. (4) Performance characteristics not tested in cloud environments before cutover — on-premises and cloud networking have different latency profiles. (5) Operating model not redesigned for cloud — lifting and shifting an on-premises operating model into cloud creates cloud costs without cloud benefits.

Compliance-first migration design: map all applicable regulatory requirements (RBI cloud guidelines, PCI-DSS, HIPAA, MiFID II) to specific cloud architecture decisions before migration begins. Design the cloud landing zone with data residency controls, encryption at rest and in transit, network segmentation, audit logging, and access controls built in from day one. Implement policy-as-code to enforce compliance controls automatically in the cloud CI/CD pipeline — so every infrastructure change is validated against regulatory requirements before reaching any environment.

A cloud landing zone is a pre-configured, policy-governed cloud environment foundation: account structure, networking (VPCs, subnets, security groups), identity and access management, logging and monitoring, and compliance guardrails. For BFSI migrations, the landing zone is where regulatory requirements meet cloud architecture — data residency boundaries, network segmentation between cardholder data environments and other workloads, encryption key management, and audit trail configuration must all be established in the landing zone before any application migrations occur.

Portfolio analysis before any migration: classify each application by migration complexity (data sensitivity, integration count, transaction criticality, regulatory scope) and business value (revenue contribution, strategic importance, modernisation potential). Start with lower-complexity applications that deliver meaningful learning — internal tooling, batch processing, reporting — before migrating customer-facing or regulatory-critical systems. Core banking is typically the last to migrate, not the first, because it has the highest integration complexity and the greatest regulatory consequence of any failure.

Six testing dimensions are non-negotiable for BFSI cloud cutovers: (1) Functional regression — full end-to-end functional validation in the cloud environment. (2) Performance and load — validation that cloud networking and compute delivers equivalent or better performance to on-premises. (3) Integration — every upstream and downstream integration tested in the cloud environment, not just in isolation. (4) Data migration reconciliation — every record validated after migration, particularly account balances, transaction histories, and audit logs. (5) Disaster recovery — DR tested in the cloud environment before go-live, not after. (6) Security penetration testing — cloud environment tested for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities before production traffic is migrated.