How to Choose a Robust Strategy for Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration gives organizations the flexibility and ability to modulate, expand and multiply their profits as per the current requirements of the tech industry. In addition, it also allows organizations to get closer to their customers like never before, emphasizes their workforce on innovation, keeps pace with the market, reduces their expenses with an even better return on investment, and more.

Organizations have quickly adapted and migrated their applications and infrastructure to the cloud. Lately, business growth and progress have become synonymous with the cloud. However, cloud migration takes a lot of work and effort. The key to unlocking all the advantages of the cloud for your organization is to pull off the migration using the right way with a robust migration strategy, and apt IT infrastructure management services.

One of the most essential parts of any cloud migration strategy is to ensure that business gets where it aims to be. According to the targets and goals, businesses can choose one of the four primary methods or strategies for cloud migration:

The four types of cloud migration are:

• Lift and Shift
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Application Refactoring
• Re-platforming

1. Lift and Shift for Organizations Looking to Get Rid of Data Centers.

In a nutshell, the Lift and Shift method gives you the same software that your organization used in the data center, only on the cloud. The main advantage of this method is that there is nothing new to learn for the cloud-based application since it is essentially the same and works exactly like before. This method helps you migrate to the cloud quickly and does not cause much disruption down the road.

The only involvement it requires from your organization is the security and infrastructure teams. This leaves everybody else free to keep up with their work without interruption. Another advantage this method has over the others is its least upfront investment. Moving the application to the cloud allows it to perform at its peak without the organization having to pay much for it.

However, like any other strategy, Lift and Shift have disadvantages. This method can’t make the most out of the speed and versatility that the cloud can provide. To keep the application the same and not change it, the process simply moves the code to a new location. The shifted version of the application generally isn’t able to perform better than the original. Also, it is unlikely to promote savings in the long term.

Hence, this method is recommendable for organizations that have a regular peak schedule and have gradual, predictable changes in the market. Tax companies and food delivery companies make good examples of the same. Food companies have regular peak days on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays, while tax companies receive rule change updates well in advance, so changes are gradual and slow.

2. Software as a Service (Saas) for companies that desire to stop investing time and resources in applications beyond their core business.

Suppose you are shifting to software as a Service (SaaS). In that case, it means that you are outsourcing one or more of your applications and IT infrastructure consultancy to a cloud services company with a specialty in managing those applications. Companies go about it in a gradual manner, application by application.

They only shift the applications they need to, while static applications stay where they are. The advantage is that it gives employees more time to focus on their primary competencies and makes the business more unique and competitive. Outsourcing to SaaS also comes with the added benefit of requiring fewer licenses for business tools.

However, the main disadvantage of shifting to SaaS is that it might allow you more personalization. However, customization can lead to various issues. If you begin shifting applications linked directly to your industry, you could lose the personalization and customizations that give your business an edge.

Hence, it should only be used for routine functions and not for anything that requires uniqueness. An excellent example of this is email. Many companies prefer to outsource their email management since customers don’t care how it looks as long as it is functional.

3. Application Refactoring for companies that have particular applications that could benefit from the cloud.

During modernization, organizations can mimic their important legacy applications as they are into the cloud. What makes this method less risky is that the legacy apps can run alongside while the new applications are being made. This provides the benefits of speed and flexibility in the market. This approach is more focused on the apps that can benefit most from the cloud. It is all about prioritization and saving time on things that won’t be a requirement once in the cloud. It is not merely about cutting the costs involved, but also allowing customization. This means that you can attain that edge in the market and keep up with your customers. Refactoring allows you to prioritize updates and respond faster.

4. Replatforming for companies looking to take complete advantage of the cloud throughout the business.

Replatforming is for companies that want their primary competencies to be robust, resilient, scalable, and flexible. Replatforming means replacing the applications at the code level to make them cloud-optimized. It is a whole-scale remastering of your application and generally requires complete rewrites. This method is the hardest to implement, requires a lot of planning, and has the highest upfront cost of any method mentioned above.

The advantage this method provides is that it lets you utilize the maximum potential of the cloud, from performance to flexibility. Making applications truly cloud-native boosts the speed by many folds and opens doors for change in all aspects of the organization. These applications can also be designed to be even more modular than before and, hence, are pretty easy to maintain.

An example of this could be healthcare organizations that look forward to building patient management mobile applications. Such organizations have their legacy applications at work. However, shifting to the cloud paved the way for developing newer applications while the legacy app did its job.

Wrapping up:

Successful migration from server to the cloud requires upfront planning, and the key to good planning is to be clear on your short and long-term goals. For businesses, it is necessary to understand who needs access to your project data, when, and how often. From there, you can effortlessly map out each step of your cloud migration plan and get started with the cloud migration journey.

Check out: Top 5 In-Demand Cloud Service Providers: A Quick Comparison