Migrating business applications and data to the cloud is a practical and scalable solution
Migrating business applications and data to the cloud is a practical and scalable solution, specifically for enterprises constantly struggling with overloaded network infrastructure, extended turnaround times, and costly upgrades.
However, the real expertise lies in determining how to migrate. This blog discusses some of the most applicable and tested cloud migration strategies that can help businesses reduce costs, improve productivity, and enhance data security.
What Is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration typically involves moving data, applications, core systems, infrastructure, and security from on-premise servers to a cloud computing environment. Organizations also move these resources from one cloud provider to another.
Imagine your business applications, data, and core systems as boxes in separate office buildings. Employees must travel to different buildings to retrieve any box individually, which is time-consuming, costly, and wasteful of resources.
Conversely, storing these boxes in a central location like the cloud makes accessing data easier and more cost-effective. Employees can access the data via a medium, reducing the time and effort required to carry out the task.
Importance of Cloud Migration
Migrating to the cloud allows organizations to:
- Increase productivity: Migrating to the cloud provides reliable and accessible resources to speed up programming software and design applications. Cloud computing enables enterprises to adapt swiftly to market demands, eliminating months-long installation or app-building processes.
- Access data analytics: With the cloud, you can use your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and other databases to analyze data and find new opportunities.
- Centralize data: Organizations can make the most of their data when consolidated in one place. Your workforce, data scientists, and network engineers can communicate better and work seamlessly by accessing data anywhere in the world.
Image source: Pixabay
Five Best Cloud Migration Strategies
It takes more than intuition and determination to migrate your existing on-premises systems to the new cloud infrastructure. Corporations must choose, understand, and plan every step of the journey to avoid double work and exhausting resources. Here are some effective cloud migration strategies to start with:
1. Rehost
When rehosting, organizations move their data and core systems to the cloud without starting from scratch. They adopt a "lift and shift” approach and only move the data from one environment to another. It doesn’t require major restructuring, making it ideal for businesses on a budget.
- Benefits: Quick, easy, and low-cost process
- Drawbacks: Missed optimization opportunities leading to inefficient outcomes
2. Replatform
Replatforming adds to rehosting by making minimal changes to existing applications. This migration process may involve small changes to the architecture without completely changing the functionality.
- Benefits: More optimized and cost-efficient than rehosting.
- Drawbacks: Consumes more time and resources than rehosting but still doesn’t allow maximum cloud utilization.
3. Refactor
This cloud migration process involves a complete overhaul of the data and applications to fully benefit the cloud infrastructure. While time-consuming, refactoring is one of the best cloud migration processes for achieving business objectives.
- Benefits: Highly scalable, efficient, and cloud-ready.
- Drawbacks: May require freezing work and halting business operations when shifting from legacy systems.
4. Repurchase
Repurchasing means moving from conventional software to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. This migration strategy allows organizations to use the cloud platform to enjoy the latest features and upgrades without managing the infrastructure.
- Benefits: Reduces the complexity of dealing with legacy systems; cloud-native approach.
- Drawbacks: Can be costly and time-consuming; poses a challenge for employees.
5. Retire
Retiring involves removing applications and legacy systems that aren’t in use before changing environments. It allows businesses to reduce costs, risks, and redundancy associated with such systems.
- Benefits: Reduced running costs and simplified cloud environment.
- Drawbacks: Requires comprehensive planning to ensure business continuity.
Image source: Canva
Building a Successful Cloud Migration Roadmap
Your move to the cloud involves many moving parts—it must be well thought out. Here’s how you can plan a smooth transition to the cloud environment while minimizing the disruption:
- Assess your infrastructure: Your migration plan must involve a detailed analysis of current operating systems, infrastructure, required cloud-based services, data protection, and disaster recovery mechanisms to ensure cloud readiness.
- Choose the right type of cloud model: Choosing the right cloud provider and the type of cloud deployment model before moving to the cloud gives you control of the migration project. Depending on your requirements, choose a public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud model.
- Select the right migration strategy: Planning your migration before migrating makes it easy to distribute migrated workloads, improves performance post-migration, and makes for a smooth transition.
- Develop timeline and allocate resources: Break down the migration project into chewable stages for stakeholders and responsible personnel. Set realistic timelines and budgets, and discuss cost optimization and the fate of legacy applications to avoid exhausting resources.
Test and optimize: Once the migration is completed, share performance data pre and post-migration with all stakeholders to check for data loss, efficiency, and productivity.
Benefits of a Well-Executed Cloud Migration Strategy
Making a cloud migration plan is no easy feat. It requires a comprehensive understanding of the cloud infrastructure, desired cloud capabilities, and cost management. Fortunately, it comes with its benefits:
- Cost-efficiency: Businesses don’t need to pay for costly on-premises data centers’ maintenance once they migrate to a cloud environment. Most cloud services allow users to choose a pay-as-you-go model, reducing the recurring costs associated with unused resources.
- Scalability: Organizations can quickly scale resources based on market demand to accommodate variations, growth, or recession.
- Improved performance and security: Switching to the cloud gives enterprises increased security with measures such as identity management, zero-trust models, and encryption, reducing the attack surface area.
- Faster Turnaround Times: One of the best benefits of moving to the cloud is faster time-to-market. Organizations can use the pre-built tools and APIs to deploy and update cloud-based applications based on demand.
Migrate to the Cloud With Intger8 Today
Unlock the true potential of your business by migrating your on-premise data center to the cloud today. At Integr8, we help companies boost performance and security with managed IT services and robust cloud management.
Our highly skilled team assesses your requirements and network architecture to make tailored recommendations for the best-suited cloud migration strategy. Access real-time insights, plan workflow, and make informed decisions with our managed IT services.
Ready to move to the cloud? Talk to us today!
