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A quick note from webcast by Dell Software

SharePoint 2010 to 2013 Upgrade: Service Accounts

As you may know there is no in-place upgrade for SharePoint 2013.
You have to build a new SP2013 farm and then bring your content from SP2010 over.

One of the first steps of the upgrade is to plan service accounts that you will use in the new SP2013 farm.
Here is an excellent article by Todd Klindt that will help you with that: Service Account Suggestions for SharePoint 2013

And another excellent and short list of recommended service accounts by Margriet Bruggeman: SharePoint 2013 Best Practices: Service Accounts

Here is an original recommendation from Microsoft:
 Initial deployment administrative and service accounts in SharePoint 2013
 Plan for administrative and service accounts in SharePoint 2013

And a final touch: How to create a SharePoint 2010 admin account and stop using sp_farm

SharePoint 2010 on Cloud. SaaS vs IaaS

Ever wonder how can you move your on-prem SP farm to the cloud? And what is cloud anyway?
 As of 03/22/2013 you have 2 options of cloud-solution for SharePoint:
- Office 365 that deliver bunch of MS products , one of them is SharePoint Online.
This is a classical example of SaaS.
- WIndows Azure VM. 
This is a classical example of IaaS.
Here is a good pic to describe SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service):

In the context of SharePoint migration to the cloud, you need to understand that SharePoint Online delivers the latest version of SharePoint
What is the implication? You have to be totally ready to move SP2013 .MS doesn't offer a mean to move data from your on-prem to SharePoint online.
At this moment I haven't tried any 3d party tools for this purpose yet.
Also, your farm should not have farm solutions. SharePoint Online doesn't support farm solutions. And it doesn't support reporting services at this moment.

Windows Azure VM gives you more flexibility. You can choose what version of SharePoint you want to run, and you have a full control to administer the system. More on SharePoint Deployment on Windows Azure Virtual Machines

But also it means you have to have a resource to support the system.
And by the way, wonder how can you cut the cost? I wonder too)
At this moment, it's interesting to know that:

Virtual machines continue to incur compute charges even when they are stopped You can avoid these charges by deleting the virtual machine.

BTW, in case you want to automate SP installation process, try this - http://autospinstaller.codeplex.com/

SharePoint 2010: Confirm site use and deletion. How to restore Site Collection ?

One big part of  the migration to a new version of SharePoint is a preparation phase.
This phase emphasizes cleaning or pruning the environment before moving content database (  in case of SharePoint 2013 Upgrade you don't have in-place upgrade option) to a new version.

I recommend to clean from top to bottom.
First, identify unused web applications. (SP Migration: Phase I "Cleaning". Unused web applications )
Then check unused site collections.
At this step, I recommend to make use of "Confirm site use and deletion"

Of course, you can still use this option even you are not planning the upgrade but still feel urge to get of rid of "dead" structure and content.

I found a useful article that explain in detail how this feature works - A Closer Look At “Site use confirmation and deletion”…
As this post mentioned, it's good to know that :

As of the June 2012 CU for SharePoint 2010, the Dead Site Delete timer job now calls proc_DeleteSiteAsync which is explained below - this is good news, and now means that sites deleted by site use conformation and deletion will be subject to the site Recycle Bin.

Let's explore June 2012 CU (build 14.0.6123.5002):
It has resolved issue 2598348 Description of the SharePoint Foundation 2010 hotfix package (Wss-x-none.msp): July 2, 2012

From http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2598348

If a site is deleted by a dead site delete timer job, the site is deleted permanently. Instead, the site should be sent to the Site Collection Recycle Bin.

So, based on this knowledge you can now check 'Automatically delete the site collection if use is not confirmed' with less struggles in your mind.

And btw, Where is Site Collection bin? Here is the asnwer:
SharePoint 2010: SP1 Site Collection Recycle Bin (en-US)

SharePoint 2010 to 2013 Upgrade: Phase I "Cleaning". Unused web applications

As you may know Microsoft recommends to clean the farm first before migrating to a new version of SharePoint. (Clean up an environment before an upgrade to SharePoint 2013)
For my migration story SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010, please refer to "SharePoint 2007 to 2010 Upgrade" online project

Now, I m in the process of migration SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013.

I recommend to start cleaning from top to bottom.

First, check unused web applications

Web analytics reports are really good help for that.

It shows you: Total Number of Page Views, Total Number of Daily Unique Visitors.

Based on that information, it's fairly easy to find abandoned web applications.

So, next step is to stop the related application pool and notify users.

SharePoint 2010 to 2013 Upgrade: How to migrate SP2010 to SP2013. List of useful articles

I have just started to prepare for full-blown migration to SP2013.

From simple to complicated scenarios and thoughts:

 Simple one:

Step-by-step instruction on SP upgrade:

Upgrading from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 Step by Step

What if you need to upgrade SP2007 to 2013?
You have to upgrade SP2007 to SP2010 first then.

Here is my findings so far:

 1. In SharePoint Server 2013, the In-place Upgrade approach is now unavailable for upgrading from prior versions of SharePoint products.

 But instead, you will get a set of "yummies" like:

• Deferred Site Collection Upgrade
• Site Collection Health Checks
• Evaluation Site Collections

SharePoint Server 2013 focuses on improving your upgrade options while providing support for the upgrade approach designed to be the most resilient: the Database Attach approach.

 2. SP2010 farm solution will run on SP2013.

But in case you want them make better, read on:
Upgrading a custom application to SharePoint 2013

 3. You can upgrade site collection by site collection:

Get-SPSite -ContentDatabase WSS_Content -Limit All | Upgrade-SPSite –VersionUpgrade

 4. A content database upgraded to SharePoint 2013 is capable of supporting both backward compatible SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 mode site collections

More on this:

Introduction to Upgrade in SharePoint Server 2013

Want to get a deep understanding of the Upgrade?

 - MS modules on Upgrading to SharePoint 2013

A good slide from one of the modules above on "how to proceed with upgrade to SP2013":

Craving for complication? and you want to deploy your farm solution in 14 and 15 mode?:

Read this:

Planning Deployment of Farm Solutions for SharePoint 2013