Cloud Migration - Importance, Features and Strategies
What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration is the process of moving applications and data from one location, often a company’s private, on-premises servers to a public cloud provider’s servers either partially or wholly into the cloud. Cloud migration refers to the process of moving a company’s digital assets, such as data, applications, services, databases computing capacity and IT processes, from on-premises infrastructure or legacy systems to a cloud computing environment. The process can be either partial or entirely. Additionally, cloud migration can encompass the movement of data and applications from one cloud platform or provider to another, a model referred to as cloud-to-cloud (C2C) migration.
Cloud migration is a strategic decision for businesses aiming to modernize their IT infrastructure, enhance agility, and take advantage of the features offered by cloud computing. A company has the flexibility to opt for migration to either a single cloud or multiple clouds, utilizing various models. This may involve public cloud models, where services are provided over the public internet, or private cloud models, where a secure and proprietary cloud infrastructure is exclusively accessible to the company or hybrid cloud which combines public and private cloud services to create a single, flexible IT infrastructure that supports workload management across cloud environments.The migration process can vary based on the specific needs and goals of the organisation.
Why should you migrate to the cloud?
Migrating to the cloud offers several compelling advantages for businesses, which contribute to the growing trend of organizations adopting cloud computing solutions. Here are some key reasons why companies choose to migrate to the cloud:
- Scalability and Agility: Cloud platforms enable businesses to easily scale their computing resources up or down based on demand, providing agility in responding to changing workloads.
- Cost Efficiency: Cloud computing eliminates the need for extensive on-premises hardware and infrastructure, reducing capital expenditures by offering pay-as-you-go or subscription model, allowing businesses to pay only for the resources they use.
- Accessibility and Flexibility: Cloud services can be accessed from any location with an internet connection, providing enhanced flexibility for remote work and collaboration, independent of device.
- Productivity: As it manages the complexity of infrastructure, so improved productivity is more focused with a continuous process of growing business. Facilitates real-time collaboration among team members, irrespective of geographical locations.
- Security and Compliance: Cloud service providers invest heavily in security infrastructure, offering professional security features and protocols to protect data. They often adhere to industry regulations and compliance standards, helping businesses meet legal and regulatory requirements.
- Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: It provides backup and recovery solutions to businesses with less time and upfront investment.
- Better performance: With respect to data sovereignty and other legislative restrictions of those various locations, this allows organizations to host workloads closer to their respective users for better performance (lower latency).
Types of Cloud Migration Strategies
- Rehost (Lift and shift): Rehosting is generally the fastest and least complicated migration method. It consists of transferring applications and data from on-site infrastructure to a cloud platform without substantial architectural changes, often employing Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) tools. Early cloud projects often focus on new development using cloud-native capabilities. However, in large legacy migration scenarios, most applications are rehosted, saving around 30% of costs. Rehosting can be automated using tools like CloudEndure Migration and AWS VM Import/Export, but some customers prefer manual tasks.
- Replatforming(lift-and-reshape): Rehosting is not suitable for all workloads, as they are complex and dependencies. Replatforming, a more complex process, involves transferring software to the cloud and use without altering the app’s architecture. Migrating to a database-as-a-service on fully managed platform can help reduce database management time without altering the application’s core architecture, thereby achieving tangible benefits without altering the application’s core architecture.
- Repurchasing: Repurchasing is the process of replacing an on-premises application with a cloud-based, provider-created SaaS application. However, it can be more expensive and may not provide the granular features of controlling cloud environments. Involves Moving to a different product. Most commonly repurchasing as a move to a SaaS platform. Example- Moving a CRM to Salesforce.com, an HR system to WorkDay, a CMS to Drupal, and so on.
- Refactoring: Re-imagining how the application is architected and developed, typically using cloud-native features.This is typically driven by a significant business requirement to enhance the application’s features, scale, or performance that would otherwise be challenging to achieve in its current environment.
- Retiring: Once you’ve discovered everything in your environment, you might ask each functional area who owns each application. Implementing a retiring approach involves decommissioning outdated or unused applications during application migration. This reduces maintenance costs, eliminates redundant resources, and streamlines the process by focusing on critical applications, thereby boosting business situation.
- Retention: “Revisit” or do nothing (for now). Involves preserving and seamlessly transitioning critical data and applications to the cloud environment. By prioritizing data retention, organizations ensure continuity, accessibility, and compliance while leveraging the scalability and efficiency of cloud infrastructure.
Cloud Migration Procedures
📝 Define strategy: It’s crucial to define the business value and objectives the company aims to achieve. This involves determining which applications will be moved to the cloud, the type of cloud environment, and the final infrastructure. Identifying the “why” of the migration is essential for a successful transition.
🗒 Plan:
- Select a strategy for each application.
- Designing cloud infrastructure, including compute, networking, security, and storage.
- Ensuring data integrity and security during the migration process is crucial.
- Identifying the capabilities of the workloads that will be migrating.
- Develop migration plans for apps and their data.
🚚 Migrate: The migrate phase is where the actual process of moving data, applications, and other workloads to the cloud occurs. The phase involves techniques like lift-and-shift, refactoring, or rebuilding applications to move to the cloud. Migrate according to the plan for each app, workload, and instance.Migrate workload elements individually and ensure they function in the new environment before transferring another. Synchronize source data changes during migration.
👩🏻💼 Govern: The phase involves managing workloads, monitoring performance, managing resources, and maintaining security and compliance. Organizations should continuously improve their operations based on feedback and performance data, making necessary adjustments to optimize cloud operations during this phase.
🚀 Optimize and modernize: Involves monitoring application and cloud usage,montioring security, optimizing user experience, adjusting cloud costs, and upgrading apps and systems to modern solutions like PaaS or SaaS.
Challenges of Cloud Migration
1. Data Migration:
— Transferring large volumes of data to the cloud can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
— Ensuring data integrity and security during the migration process is crucial.
2. Application Compatibility:
— Legacy applications may not be designed for cloud environments, requiring modification or redesign. Hence, compatibility issues.
3. Security Concerns:
— Ensuring the security of sensitive data is a top concern.
— Misconfigurations, inadequate access controls, or insecure APIs can pose security risks.
4. Skill Gaps:
— Organizations may lack the necessary skills and expertise for managing cloud environments.
— Training or hiring skilled personnel becomes essential for successful cloud adoption.
5. Compliance and Legal Issues:
— Migrating between on-premises and cloud environments requires a shift in security practices, including identity and access management, data governance, and compliance policies.
6. Cost Management:
— Cloud costs can be unpredictable, and organizations may face challenges in managing and controlling expenses.
— Efficient resource allocation and cost monitoring are crucial for optimizing cloud spending and can benefit a lot.
7. Skill Gaps:
— Organizations may lack the necessary skills and expertise for managing cloud environments.
— Training or hiring skilled personnel becomes essential for successful cloud adoption.
8. Performance Monitoring and Optimization:
— Continuous monitoring and optimizing of cloud resources are necessary to ensure optimal performance.
— Failure to monitor and adjust configurations can result in inefficiencies and increased costs.
9. Vendor Lock-In:
— Adopting strategies to avoid or mitigate vendor lock-in can provide flexibility in the long run.
Addressing these challenges requires careful planning, thorough assessment of the existing infrastructure, and the implementation of appropriate strategies and solutions throughout the cloud migration journey.
In Conclusion….
Embracing cloud migration unleashes unparalleled scalability, flexibility, and efficiency, propelling businesses into a dynamic digital future. The transformative power of the cloud not only enhances performance but also enables seamless adaptation to evolving technologies. In a landscape where innovation is key, migrating to the cloud is not just a choice; it’s a strategic imperative for unlocking untapped potential and staying ahead in the competitive digital era.
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Author: Vaishnavi Korgaonkar
