Cloud Migration Guide for Central American Businesses

A practical methodology for migrating workloads to Azure, AWS and OVH Cloud that accounts for the specific regulatory, connectivity and operational constraints of organizations in Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and the region

Cloud migration in Central America is different from cloud migration in the US or Europe. The connectivity is different: most Central American organizations connect to AWS and Azure US regions via internet connections with higher latency and less redundancy than organizations in US markets. The regulatory environment is different: financial institutions under CNBS, SBP or SUGEF supervision have cloud vendor risk management requirements that US-based organizations do not face. The talent pool is different: cloud engineering skills are scarcer and more expensive in Central America than in mature technology markets. And the economic context is different: cloud economics that are obvious in high-cost data center markets may not be compelling for organizations running economical on-premise infrastructure.

This guide provides the migration methodology GLADiiUM uses for Central American organizations — not the generic “five steps to cloud” content that ignores regional context.

Step 1: Workload Assessment and Cloud Fit Analysis

Not every workload benefits from cloud migration. Before designing a migration plan, classify each workload by cloud fit:

Cloud-ready: Stateless applications, development and test environments, web applications with variable traffic, and any workload that benefits from cloud’s elastic scaling. Move first.
Cloud-friendly with modification: Applications that can be cloud-migrated with configuration changes or minor re-architecture. Move in wave 2.
Cloud-unfriendly: Applications with hard dependencies on on-premise infrastructure, regulatory requirements for local data residency, or latency requirements incompatible with cloud round-trips. Keep on-premise or move only after significant re-architecture.
On-premise forever: Core banking systems at CNBS-supervised institutions with local data residency requirements, real-time production control systems in manufacturing, and highly latency-sensitive applications. Do not migrate.

The Three Cloud Migration Patterns for Central America

Pattern 1: Lift-and-Shift to AWS or Azure

Move VMs from on-premise VMware or Hyper-V to EC2 (AWS) or Azure VMs without changes to the application or operating system. Tools: AWS MGN (Application Migration Service) or Azure Migrate. Best for: stateless applications, development environments, web servers and applications that will eventually be replaced or re-architected. Fastest path to cloud, lowest migration risk, but typically the highest ongoing cloud cost because on-premise VM sizing is often suboptimal for cloud economics.

Pattern 2: Re-Platform to Managed Services

Move the application to cloud but replace the infrastructure layer with managed services: SQL Server on on-premise VMs to Amazon RDS or Azure SQL Managed Instance, on-premise file servers to Azure Files or Amazon FSx, on-premise web servers to Azure App Service or AWS Elastic Beanstalk. More migration effort than lift-and-shift, but significantly lower ongoing operations cost because the managed service handles patching, backup and high availability automatically.

Pattern 3: VMware to VMware Cloud on OVH

For organizations with significant VMware investments and European data sovereignty requirements, VMware Cloud on OVHcloud with VMware HCX provides the migration path with the lowest application risk: VMs move from on-premise VMware to OVH without conversion, maintaining all existing VM configurations, network policies and storage. Live migration via HCX can complete a VM migration with under 1 second of downtime. Best for: regulated financial and enterprise workloads that cannot tolerate re-platforming risk and need European sovereignty.

Cloud Platform Selection for Central American Organizations

Choosing between Azure, AWS and OVH Cloud depends on three factors:

Existing investments: Microsoft 365 and Active Directory organizations get the most value from Azure (Hybrid Benefit, native identity integration, AVD). Development-heavy organizations with AWS experience get the most value from AWS. VMware-heavy organizations with European client requirements get the most value from OVH.
Data sovereignty requirements: CNBS/SBP/SUGEF regulated workloads may need to remain in-country or in specific jurisdictions. EU AI Act and GDPR workloads should consider OVH for European sovereignty. Most non-regulated workloads are fine with AWS us-east-1 or Azure eastus.
AI workloads: If your migration strategy includes AI deployment, the AI platform choice (Azure AI Foundry for GPT-4o, AWS Bedrock for Claude, OVH AI Deploy for open-source models with EU sovereignty) should inform the infrastructure platform choice.

Regulatory Considerations for Central American Cloud Migrations

Before migrating any regulated workload in Central America, validate the following with your compliance team:

Honduras (CNBS): Resolution GRD 793/2022 requires vendor risk assessments for technology service providers including cloud. Documented cloud risk assessment and DPA with cloud provider required.
Panama (SBP): SBP requires formal notification and approval for outsourcing of material technology functions to cloud providers.
Costa Rica (SUGEF + PRODHAB): SUGEF technology governance requirements apply to cloud, and PRODHAB Ley 8968 requires data processing agreements for cloud processing of personal data.

Plan Your Cloud Migration in Central America

GLADiiUM will assess your workloads, evaluate regulatory requirements, select the right cloud platform and design a migration plan that accounts for the specific constraints of your Central American operating environment.

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