Risk assessment in cloud migrations: security checklist before, during and after

Risk assessment for cloud migrations means identifying technical, operational and business threats before, during and after moving workloads. Use structured checklists to review governance, access, network, data protection, monitoring and third-party dependencies. Document owners, acceptance criteria and fallback plans so each migration wave is secure, reversible and aligned with compliance such as LGPD in Brazil.

Essential risk indicators for cloud migrations

• Unclear asset inventory: applications, data stores, integrations and data sensitivity not fully mapped.
• Weak identity and access management: shared accounts, excessive permissions, no MFA enforcement.
• Inconsistent encryption and key management across environments and cloud providers.
• Missing monitoring, logging and alerting to detect misconfigurations and attacks during cutover.
• No tested rollback plan or recovery time objectives for critical workloads.
• Third-party contracts and shared responsibility not aligned with security and compliance needs.
• Gaps between pre- and post-migration hardening, with no formal security sign-off.

Pre-migration security checklist: governance, compliance and asset inventory

This phase fits organizations that are planning or piloting a migration and want a repeatable, auditable approach. It is not suitable for ad‑hoc, last‑minute moves without executive buy‑in or when you cannot freeze changes to in-scope systems during assessment.

Use this governance-focused checklist to decide readiness before you start executing any checklist de segurança para migração para cloud in production:

1. Define migration scope (applications, databases, integrations, data flows and users).
2. Clarify business objectives, compliance obligations (e.g., LGPD, sectoral rules) and risk appetite.
3. Set roles and responsibilities (security, infra, dev, business, data protection officer).
4. Choose cloud architecture patterns (lift-and-shift, replatform, refactor) and landing zones.
5. Agree on security acceptance criteria per system (what must be true to go live).

Then validate governance and inventory with concrete checks:

• All assets tagged with owner, environment, data classification and criticality.
• Data residency and sovereignty constraints mapped versus cloud regions.
• Security baseline and policies updated for cloud context (networking, IAM, logging, backup).
• Risk register opened for the migration initiative with likelihood/impact ratings.
• Change management process defined for migration waves and emergency changes.
• Budget allocated for an empresa de segurança em nuvem para avaliação de riscos if internal expertise is limited.

Phase	Control / Check	Owner	Evidence	Pass criteria	Risk if failed
Before	Asset inventory and data classification completed	Asset owner / Security	Inventory spreadsheet or CMDB export	100% in-scope assets listed with classification	Shadow IT and sensitive data moved without controls
Before	Compliance requirements documented	Legal / DPO	Compliance checklist referencing LGPD and sector rules	All regulatory constraints linked to systems and data	Non-compliance after migration, potential fines
During	Change freeze on in-scope legacy systems	IT operations	Approved change calendar	No non-approved changes during migration window	Configuration drift and inconsistent behavior
During	Security sign-off before each cutover	Security lead	Signed go/no-go checklist	All high risks mitigated or accepted by business	Go-live with known critical vulnerabilities
After	Post-migration security audit	Internal audit / external provider	Audit report with findings and actions	No critical gaps, major issues tracked to closure	Exposed misconfigurations remain undetected

Identity, access and network controls to validate before cutover

Before any production cutover, collect the requirements, tools and accesses needed to test security end-to-end:

• Admin access to cloud accounts, subscriptions, projects or landing zones (with MFA enabled).
• Read-only access for security engineers to review IAM policies, groups and roles.
• Network visibility (VPC/VNet configs, routing tables, firewall rules, security groups).
• Access to on-premises network diagrams and existing VPN/MPLS configurations.
• Tools for testing (port scanners, packet captures, cloud-native network analyzers).
• Cloud-native IAM analyzers and ferramentas de gestão de riscos em nuvem para empresas (CSPM, CIEM, CNAPP) where possible.
• SIEM or logging platform to consolidate cloud and on-premises logs.

Validate identity, access and network controls using concrete checks:

1. All privileged accounts use strong MFA, no shared root or global admin usage in daily operations.
2. Roles are defined per job function; least-privilege policies applied to service principals and users.
3. Network segmentation separates internet, DMZ, application, data and management planes.
4. Ingress and egress are controlled by firewalls or security groups; default-deny stance documented.
5. VPN or private connectivity (Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, Cloud Interconnect) secured and tested.
6. DNS, certificates and WAF rules prepared to protect external-facing workloads after migration.

For organizations with limited internal expertise, consider migração para nuvem serviços de consultoria combined with an empresa de segurança em nuvem para avaliação de riscos to design and validate IAM and network baselines before any production move.

Data protection and encryption strategies: classification to key management

Before diving into the step-by-step, perform this short preparation checklist for safe execution:

• Confirm legal and contractual data protection requirements (LGPD, contracts with clients, sector norms).
• Identify which datasets are personal, sensitive or critical to operations.
• Decide which cloud-native encryption services and key management options fit your provider.
• Ensure test environments and dummy datasets are available to validate configurations.
• Agree on who owns encryption keys and access approvals (security, infra, DPO).

1. Map and classify all data to be migrated

   Start with a data inventory across databases, file shares, object storage, backups and application logs. Tag each dataset by confidentiality, integrity and availability needs.

   • Mark LGPD personal and sensitive data explicitly.
   • Identify data that must remain in Brazil or specific regions.
2. Choose storage and encryption patterns per class

   For each data class, decide storage type (RDBMS, object, block, file) and required encryption level in transit and at rest.

   • Use TLS for all connections between apps, services and databases.
   • Enable at-rest encryption by default for all cloud data services.
3. Design key management and access controls

   Decide whether to use cloud-managed keys, customer-managed keys or HSM-backed keys for critical datasets.

   • Restrict key access to minimal roles; log all key usage events.
   • Define rotation periods and emergency key revocation procedures.
4. Implement and test encryption configurations in non-production

   Apply encryption, key policies and access rules in a staging environment first. Validate performance, compatibility and logging.

   • Test backup and restore flows for encrypted data.
   • Verify that applications can handle rotated keys without downtime.
5. Plan secure migration of existing data

   Define how data will move securely from on-premises to cloud.

   • Use encrypted channels (VPN, private links) or encrypted transfer tools.
   • Consider one-way synchronization and cutover windows to limit exposure.
6. Verify post-migration data protection and monitoring

   After data lands in the cloud, confirm that classification, encryption and access controls are applied as designed.

   • Set up alerts for unusual access, large exports or permission changes.
   • Schedule serviços de auditoria de segurança antes e depois da migração para nuvem focused on data protection.

Operational resilience during migration: monitoring, rollback and validation

Use this resilience checklist during migration windows to ensure you can detect issues quickly and revert safely:

• Health dashboards established for critical services (latency, error rates, CPU, memory, queue depth).
• End-to-end synthetic tests (login, transaction, report) running continuously during cutover.
• Centralized logging from both legacy and cloud environments, with time synchronization.
• Alert thresholds and on-call rotations defined for migration events.
• Rollback plan documented per workload with clear time limits (e.g., if unresolved after X minutes, roll back).
• Data reconciliation scripts ready to compare record counts and checksums before/after migration.
• Read-only access windows and freeze periods agreed with business for high-risk systems.
• Runbook for incident handling that covers typical migration failures (DNS, certificate, IAM, routing).
• Sign-off steps for business owners to validate critical user journeys before declaring success.

Post-migration verification: integrity, configuration drift and cost risks

After workloads move, avoid these common mistakes that increase security and cost risks:

• Skipping full configuration review, leaving temporary migration roles and wide-open security groups in place.
• Not performing integrity checks on data (missing records, inconsistent fields, broken references).
• Ignoring cloud-native security recommendations and posture tools that highlight misconfigurations.
• Forgetting to remove legacy VPNs, tunnels or public endpoints that are no longer needed.
• Leaving debug logs, test accounts or elevated credentials enabled in production environments.
• Not reviewing identity and access logs for suspicious patterns around the migration window.
• Underestimating cost risks: oversizing instances, leaving unused resources running, not applying reservations.
• Failing to run serviços de auditoria de segurança antes e depois da migração para nuvem to confirm that policies match design.
• Not updating documentation and diagrams, making future troubleshooting and audits harder.
• Ignoring feedback from users and support teams about issues only visible in real usage.

Third-party and supply-chain risks: vendors, integrations and contracts

Managing external dependencies is essential for secure migrations. Consider these options and when they are appropriate:

1. Specialized cloud security companies

   Engage an empresa de segurança em nuvem para avaliação de riscos when your team lacks deep cloud expertise or when compliance pressure is high. They can perform architecture reviews, penetration tests and ongoing posture monitoring.

2. Cloud migration consulting services

   Use migração para nuvem serviços de consultoria when you need help designing landing zones, automation pipelines and operational processes, while your internal security team focuses on policies and approvals.

3. Independent security and compliance audits

   Bring in third parties to perform serviços de auditoria de segurança antes e depois da migração para nuvem if you require external assurance for regulators, clients or internal governance.

4. Risk management and posture tools

   Adopt ferramentas de gestão de riscos em nuvem para empresas (CSPM, CIEM, CNAPP) to continuously scan for misconfigurations, excessive permissions and policy drift across multiple clouds and vendors.

Regardless of the option chosen, align contracts with your security baseline and clearly define shared responsibility, SLAs and incident response obligations for each provider and integration.

Common migration concerns and concise clarifications

How do I decide which systems to move first to the cloud?

Start with low-to-medium criticality systems that have clear ownership, minimal regulatory constraints and well-understood dependencies. Avoid starting with your most critical, complex or compliance-heavy workloads until your patterns and checklists are tested on simpler migrations.

Is lift-and-shift always less risky than modernizing applications during migration?

Lift-and-shift may reduce application changes, but can still introduce significant identity, network and data risks. Risk depends more on how well you prepare, test and monitor than on the pattern itself; in some cases, modest refactoring improves security and observability.

When should I involve an external cloud security company?

Involve an external partner when you lack in-house experience with your target cloud, have strict compliance requirements, or are planning large-scale or multi-cloud migrations. External experts can help design secure architectures and validate your controls independently.

How detailed should my migration rollback plan be?

Your rollback plan should specify triggers, responsible roles, technical steps, time limits and data reconciliation procedures. It must be tested in non-production and updated per workload, not just written as a generic statement in project documentation.

Do I need separate checklists for before, during and after migration?

Yes, because risks and actions differ by phase. Before migration you focus on governance, design and testing; during migration on monitoring and rollback; after migration on verification, hardening and cost optimization. Link these checklists so ownership and evidence are traceable.

How can I keep cloud costs under control while focusing on security?

Use tagging, budgets and cost dashboards from day one. Right-size resources, switch off unused environments, and combine security tools to avoid duplication. Many cloud-native security services are cheaper than breaches or manual work if configured correctly.

What is the best way to track risks across many migration waves?

Maintain a central risk register where each risk is linked to systems, waves and owners. Regularly review status, mitigation actions and residual risk, and ensure lessons learned from earlier waves are applied to future ones.