Before adopting cloud migration, it’s necessary to determine the approach that can help you to meet your goals. The actual legwork involved in cloud migration lies in planning, which you are required to do before moving your data to its new home.
In other words, figuring out a the best strategy for cloud migration beforehand plays a pivotal role in its successful implementation. Let’s find out which is the best cloud migration strategy for your needs.
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Lift and Shift (Also Known As Rehosting)
If you intend to retain all your data – applications, attachments, and issues – the Lift and Shift cloud strategy can work wonders for you.
But, how can you know if this is the right approach for your business? For that, you will have to perform an audit. If all of your data is essential and relevant to your present organization and your staff is expected to collaborate over certain projects, this indicates that the Lift and Shift cloud strategy is the right choice for you.
Next, you should contact the cloud consultants at Cloud Computing Technologies. They can review your case and determine whether or not it’s better to move all your data at once or you should do it in phases. You also need to build a testing plan, create a team, and assign them the responsibility to manage these plans.
If you are looking for the simplest approach, then Lift and Shift is good enough; it switches your on-premises hosting environment to the cloud seamlessly.
Sometimes, the cloud and server consist of similar data schemas, but since they use separate products, it may cause compatibility issues. Therefore, before going for the Lift and Shift approach, it’s a good idea to undergo extensive testing, which you can compare with a comprehensive user acceptance plan, ensuring that your staff is kept on track.
On a similar note, there’s one more consideration. Some applications aren’t always available for use in the cloud, even if you go for an alternative strategy. In some cases, a mainstream tool’s functionalities are directly integrated into a software’s cloud version. Therefore, in such scenarios, you have to take your time before going ahead with the convenient Lift and Shift approach.
Replatforming
Replatform migration combines the best of rehosting and refactoring. It’s similar to rehosting in the sense that there are no major code alterations in both. However, it does include some customization with the aim of using the cloud to its fullest.
Usually, organizations go for certain common modifications. For instance, you may plan to change the way your application communicates with your relational database in order to take advantage of automation and switch to a more robust database architecture.
There’s also room to insert new features during replatforming to improve scaling and enable the application to use your cloud environment’s reserved resources. Also, there are options to integrate native cloud features in your application without making any significant changes to the code-base.
So, why should you go for replatforming? It has gained traction for its cost-effectiveness. This means you don’t have to modify the cloud server to complement the prior environment. Instead, it empowers you to start small and scale up accordingly. This allows you to save a great deal of money while the cloud environment expands with the application.
On the flipside, your project scope can evolve during replatforming and if it expands too much, then a complete refactor might be a better option. Therefore, handling the scope and refraining from unneeded changes is necessary to address this risk.
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Refactoring
Refactor migration refers to a complete overhaul .i.e. you fully re-architect your applications so they can complement the new cloud environment. This also includes modifying the code of the application to a significant extent in order to utilize the cloud properly.
Refactoring is complex, but it does offer a multitude of benefits in return. However, it takes considerable resources and needs a lot of time to complete.
Start Afresh or Greenfield
If you are certain that most of your existing data isn’t needed in the future, you can proceed with the Start Fresh approach to launch your cloud ambitions. This is also an ideal approach for those looking to start using cloud instantly and can afford to consider data migration after some time.
Technically, this isn’t a migration strategy because you don’t move any data with it. However, it helps to analyze how you can configure your new site, how your team works and adjusts, and how to create a rollout plan. You can call out your team for a meeting and brainstorm for ideas so these modifications can be socialized to your company on a broader level.
Final Thoughts for the Best Strategy for Cloud Migration
So the question is, what is the Best Strategy for Cloud Migration? It’s hard to respond to this question since each company has different use cases and requirements. That being said, here’s what we recommend:
- If you can move your application to the cloud completely while keeping up the operational efficiency and can pay for the incurred expenses, you can opt for the Lift and Shift approach.
- If you need to improve cost-efficiency and rehosting doesn’t seem like the right approach, it’s worth considering replatforming as your cloud migration strategy.
- If you have the time and resources to choose refactoring migration and you are confident that it can make significant improvements to your IT infrastructure with the complete overhaul, then there’s no reason to avoid it. Your investment will surely pay dividends in the future.
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You can also contact Cloud Computing Technologies. Our experts are certified and experienced with a wide range of cloud platforms and architectures. We can examine your current IT infrastructure and suggest a cloud migration strategy that can streamline your operations and improve profits.
Read further about application refactoring to the cloud.