The Cloud Migration Checklist We Use for Saudi SMEs

Cloud migration checklists online tend to be generic. After running dozens of these projects for Saudi SMEs, here is the version we actually use, including the steps most guides skip.

Step one is always data residency: confirm which workloads must legally or contractually stay within Saudi data center regions versus what can sit in a wider regional cloud footprint. Get this wrong and you are re-migrating within a year.

Step two is a realistic licensing audit — Microsoft 365, on-premise SQL Server, and legacy line-of-business software often have licensing terms that do not map cleanly onto cloud consumption models. We have seen migrations stall for weeks purely on licensing reconciliation.

Step three is the downtime window negotiation with business stakeholders, done before any technical work starts, not after. A finance team closing month-end books has very different tolerance than a marketing team.

Only after those three are settled do we move to the technical cutover plan: pilot workload, rollback criteria, and a 30-day hypercare period where our team monitors performance daily rather than waiting for a ticket.