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Cloud Exit Playbook

Reversible, staged practices for measuring and improving exit capability without beginning with a migration.

The playbook supports an operational conclusion: cloud exit is a staged, reversible engineering capability, not a leap into the dark. Begin by measuring recovery somewhere else; decide whether to migrate only after the constraints are visible.

Five practices

  1. Exit drill — restore a complete critical dataset elsewhere and time it.
  2. Data first — separate custody and recoverability from application migration.
  3. Inventory — map dependencies, semantics, contracts, and owners.
  4. Staging — move through replay, shadow, partial traffic, and reversible cutover.
  5. Negotiation — turn measured exit options into better contract terms.

The call to action is the first drill. It is useful even when the final decision is to stay with the current provider.

Exit drill

Restore a complete critical dataset somewhere else, verify it, time it, and record every dependency.

Data first

Establish independent custody, export, verification, and restore before moving application traffic.

Inventory

Map data, APIs, identities, control planes, contracts, people, and recovery ownership before planning a move.

Staging

Move through replay, shadow, partial traffic, bounded cutover, and rollback with explicit gates.

Negotiation

Use measured portability, cost, and recovery evidence to improve terms without bluffing.