What a cloud migration costs in Ireland

Why is there no standard price for a cloud migration?

Because the unit of cost is the application and what it depends on, and no two estates match. Two companies with the same number of servers can face very different work, depending on how old the software is, how it connects to other systems, and how much downtime the business can accept.

This guide gives no prices on purpose. We have not seen your estate, and published averages from other countries or other company sizes would tell you little. What follows is how the costs arise, so you can ask for a quote that shows its working, and check it.

How does the migration strategy change the cost?

It is the largest single decision, because it sets the amount of engineering. AWS describes seven strategies, known as the 7 Rs: retire, retain, rehost, relocate, repurchase, replatform, and refactor or re-architect. ¹

The cheapest application to migrate is the one you retire, so start with an honest inventory. Every application you can switch off is one less item to plan, move, test and pay for.

• Retire: switch the application off. AWS points to applications with very low usage and no inbound connections, and retiring avoids the migration cost altogether. ¹
• Retain: leave it where it is for now, for example because of data residency needs, specialised hardware, or a recent upgrade. ¹
• Rehost, or lift and shift: move it without changing it. AWS says this also makes applications easier to optimise once they are in the cloud. ¹
• Relocate: move a whole platform without buying new hardware or rewriting applications. ¹
• Replatform: move it and make some changes, such as moving a database to a managed service. ¹
• Repurchase: replace it, typically with a software service, and budget for data migration, training and integration. ¹
• Refactor: redesign it for the cloud. AWS calls this the most complex and costly strategy, and for large migrations recommends modernising after the move wherever possible. ¹

What does it cost to discover and assess the estate?

The provider's tools are often free, but your people's time is not. Microsoft describes Azure Migrate as a free service for finding your workloads, assessing them, planning the migration and carrying it out, while noting that partner tools may charge. ²

Azure Migrate can also produce a business case that estimates the costs and savings of moving, including total cost of ownership and year-on-year cash flows, and assessments of readiness, sizing, cost and dependencies between servers. ² Treat that output as a first estimate, because it knows your servers better than it knows your business.

Dependencies are where budgets usually go wrong, in our view. A server nobody remembers, an overnight job, or a report that reads directly from a database will all surface eventually, and it is far cheaper to find them during the assessment than on cutover night.

What does moving the data cost?

Moving data in is usually the cheap part, and the time it takes is usually the constraint. AWS does not charge for data coming in from the internet. ³ Leaving a provider has historically cost more, though the EU Data Act removes switching and egress charges from 12 January 2027. ⁴

The real costs here are the bandwidth you already pay for, the time to copy and validate the data, and the tools that keep it in step until cutover. For large volumes, offline transfer is an option: Azure Migrate includes Azure Data Box for moving large amounts of data. ²

Ask how long your data takes to copy over your actual connection, and how much it changes each day. The answer decides whether you can cut over in a weekend, or need continuous replication and a short switch.

Why does running two environments matter so much?

Because you pay for both until the old one is switched off. During the migration, your existing hosting, licences and support continue while cloud charges start.

Replication adds to this. AWS, for example, charges for the infrastructure its Application Migration Service provisions while servers replicate, plus standard rates for the compute and storage created when you launch test or cutover instances. ⁵

Two things shorten this period: a fixed date for switching the old environment off, and checks on your existing contracts. Find out the notice period on your data centre or hosting contract early, because it can set the end date whatever the engineering plan says.

How do licences affect the cost?

They can swing the running cost, particularly for Microsoft workloads. Azure Hybrid Benefit lets you apply eligible Windows Server, SQL Server, Red Hat and SUSE licences you already hold, to reduce the cost of running on Azure. ⁶

AWS also lists moving from Windows to Linux as one way that replatforming can reduce costs. ¹ Whichever way you go, ask each software vendor how their licence applies in the cloud, in writing, before you move. Some terms that suit your own hardware do not transfer.

What about the work your own team has to do?

It is a real cost even when no invoice arrives. Your people will answer questions about how systems work, test applications after the move, and learn to run the new environment.

Budget for it in days, and plan around your busiest periods. A finance system should not move during year end, and a retailer should not cut over before Christmas. Also budget for what happens afterwards: monitoring, backup, security patching and on-call arrangements all need an owner once the migration project ends.

What will it cost to run afterwards?

Size this from what you actually use, not from what you have today. Moving oversized servers as they are carries the waste across with them. Both providers publish guidance and tools for this, and their commitment discounts apply only to steady usage. ^{7 8}

Irish teams should add one line of their own: exchange rates. AWS sets prices in US dollars, so a euro budget needs an agreed rate and some room for movement. Our euro pricing guide explains how this works. ⁹

Are there Irish supports that help with the cost?

Some small businesses may qualify for help with digital software costs, though not for the whole of a migration. The Local Enterprise Office Grow Digital Voucher funds 50% of eligible costs, from a minimum grant of €500 to a maximum of €5,000, for small enterprises with 1 to 50 paid employees that meet its conditions. ¹⁰

Eligible costs are new software subscriptions, plus related training and configuration, and spending before you apply does not qualify. ¹⁰ Bespoke software is excluded, so check with your Local Enterprise Office before you assume a project qualifies, and confirm the current terms with them. Cloud providers also run their own migration funding schemes, such as the AWS Migration Acceleration Program, so ask about current terms. ¹¹

How do we get a quote we can trust?

Ask for one that shows its working. A useful proposal should include the following.

A sensible first step, if your estate is unclear, is a fixed-price assessment before any migration price is agreed. It costs far less than finding the surprises halfway through.

• A list of applications, with the strategy chosen for each and why.
• What is included and excluded: testing, data validation, security work, documentation, handover.
• The dual-running period, and who pays for what during it.
• An estimate of the monthly running cost, with its assumptions and currency.
• What happens if discovery finds more than expected, stated before work starts.
• A rollback plan for each cutover.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. AWS Prescriptive Guidance: About the migration strategies
2. Microsoft: About Azure Migrate
3. AWS: Price reduction for data transfer out to the internet (2021)
4. European Commission: Data Act explained
5. AWS: Application Migration Service pricing
6. Microsoft: Azure Hybrid Benefit
7. AWS: Savings Plans
8. Microsoft: What are Azure Reservations?
9. AWS: Supported currencies
10. Local Enterprise Office: Grow Digital grant
11. AWS: Migration Acceleration Program