Cloud migration – moving on-premise systems and applications to a cloud platform – is perhaps one of the biggest decisions a business could ever take. It is the process of entrusting data, workflows, and systems to a cloud server where everything is orchestrated to backup, secure, and even analyze what has been hosted.
Though the benefits of cloud migration have been resounding in the tech realm for years now, inevitable still are common errors in execution. Some of these are mismatch of cloud features to the apps/data/systems being hosted and late discovery of non-automatable work flows.
To prevent these errors, following logical and proper steps to cloud migration should be applied. Here are these steps:
Assessment
Like most processes, a comprehensive assessment of on-premise resources is a must before jumping into cloud migration. This is the phase where you should set your cloud migration priorities and objectives. Once set, you can then proceed with the game plan itself, which can be your template for future migrations as well. Here’s a three-step assessment you can follow:
-
Discover applications for migration
Knowing the reality that a company keeps and runs maybe hundreds or thousands of applications, it is just right to audit your workflows. To make it more accurate, having the right cloud migration assessment tools would surely help. It can help you compile inventories of physical and virtual servers across your scope. These then can give you data sets that include profile information and performance metrics regarding your on-premise applications. Once done, you’ll have a holistic inventory of servers with metadata for each, paving the way to create your cloud migration plan.
-
Map on-premises applications
This is simply visualizing the data you have got from the assessment process. This will allow you to identify the dependencies or communications between servers and help you ponder which application essentials should be included in your migration plan. Also, this helps you reduce, or even prevent, risks to have an easy migration. Grouping your servers logically and choosing the best migration strategy for each application come really easy once the data has been mapped out thoughtfully.
-
Evaluate your cloud migration plan
Once everything is mapped, weigh which migration strategies best suit your on-premise applications. This is also the part where you can evaluate the potential cost for each strategy. You can do this with ease using a cloud migration assessment tool or a face-to-face assistance from a reliable tech partner near you.
Migrate and Modernize
This is the part where the tailor-fitting and the nitty-gritty job happens. To a successful migration and modernization of hosted apps, knowing the right cloud migration strategy is very crucial. The known cloud migration approaches are as follows:
Rehost
Also known as lift and shift, this is simply migrating an existing application to a cloud platform with no code need. This is best used when:
- Moving applications from datacenter to the cloud is needed quickly.
- Applications are developed to leverage a cloud’s infrastructure as a server (IaaS) scalability.
- Business requires the applications but with gradual changes to be made.
- Application or database requirements can only be met using a cloud IaaS virtual machine.
- Moving the application with no code changes is a must.
Refactor
Also known as the repackage, it is the approach that involves changes to the application design but no wholesale alteration to the code. This also lets the application take advantage of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) products of a cloud service. This is best used when:
- Using an existing codebase and development skills is needed, and code portability is a concern.
- A quick way to modernize apps is of-preference.
- Driving continuous innovation by taking advantage of DevOps and containers.
Rearchitect
This is where an app and its code base are being modified to be tailor-fitted to the cloud platform. This helps the app be a resilient, scalable, and independently deployable architecture by being fluid to the requirement the cloud platform has. This is best used when:
- Taking advantage of existing application investments.
- Meeting scalability requirements in a cost-effective way.
- Evolving the application to incorporate newer capabilities.
- Applying innovative DevOps practices to improve agility.
Rebuild
This is rebuilding the app using cloud-native technologies. This allows you to manage the applications and services you developed and letting the cloud platform manage everything else. This is best used when:
- A rapid development and the existing application slows down organizational processes due to limited functionality and lifespan.
- Building new applications using cloud-native technologies.
- Building innovative apps taking advantage of advancements in AI, blockchain, and IoT.
- Expediting business innovation.
- Applying innovative DevOps practices provided by the cloud platform.
Cloud migration should be a walk in the park and lets you do more in the long run. If your previous migration didn’t give that kind of ease to you, probably you’ve skipped mindful assessment or have done it with a mismatch cloud service provider or a migration approach. And if you’re new to these, following these 2 essentials given would save you time and expenses, exponentially.
Wherever you are in your cloud migration journey, a trusted partner always counts. Do away the complications of too much tech jargons. We can simplify cloud migration for you. Talk to us.
Source:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/migration/assess/#tools
