What is a Cloud Migration? Strategies, Process, Benefits & Challenges

Cloud Migration has become imperative for many organizations following the global pandemic. An increasing number of companies are accelerating their shift to the cloud, thereby redefining their products and services and becoming more inventive, flexible, and economical in the way they run their operations.

Businesses that want to experience the advantages of cloud computing are now resorting to the cloud to replace antiquated and increasingly inefficient legacy infrastructures, such as aging servers or potentially inconsistent firewall appliances, or to give up hardware or software solutions that no longer provide proper results. For this reason, a huge number of businesses are moving all or part of their operations to the cloud.

Cloud migration represents a significant change in how businesses manage and use their IT resources, not merely a fad. MarketsandMarkets estimates that by the end of 2024, the global cloud market will grow from $626.4 billion to $727.9 billion. Let’s understand what Cloud Migration is in detail.

What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration involves transferring files, data, applications, and essential digital business systems to a cloud computing environment. In this context, “cloud” refers to the cloud computing platform. Along with streamlining processes, this move provides unmatched accessibility and flexibility. It’s a crucial tactic for companies looking to boost creativity, scalability, and efficiency.

Why is Cloud Migration Important?

Cloud migration facilitates the easy, secure, and transparent transfer of software applications, databases, and other IT resources to distant servers for both small and large enterprises. This can aid businesses in more effectively managing the software development lifecycle process.

In addition to being a technical process, successful cloud migration is also a crucial business activity. Long-term benefits of successful cloud migration include greater scalability, cost savings, performance, and agility. It is recommended that in order to determine what resources they have and how they might be transferred, organizations conduct a preliminary review of their IT infrastructure.

Benefits of Cloud Migration

Moving to the cloud can solve many problems. These are some of the typical benefits of cloud migration:

1. Scalability
   Cloud-based apps allow for considerably faster and easier scalability. To scale within the cloud, you may easily satisfy the growing demand by acquiring more storage and software capacity rather than having to buy new physical servers or equipment.
2. Improved Performance
   Migrating to the cloud can increase workplace efficiency because it relieves firms of concerns about computer hardware, power requirements, software upgrades, space requirements, and other related difficulties.
3. Proactive
   Migrating to the cloud aids in the establishment of preventive measures that stop malicious or unintentional security events before they start.
4. Increased Security
   When executed meticulously and tailored to meet the specific requirements of an organization, cloud migration can yield a favorable outcome for security measures.

Different Types of Cloud Migration Strategies

The cloud migration process cannot be approached in a one-size-fits-all manner. You are not limited to a single strategy and can choose from five different kinds of cloud migration. It’s important to be flexible; combine parts from other models to create a model that works for you.

Knowing these categories makes it easier to select the best approach for the requirements of your company:

1. Rehosting (Lift and Shift)
   Rehosting is the simplest method for migrating to the cloud. The phrase “lift and shift” may have given you an idea that this doesn’t entail extensive reorganization. Your software and data are lifted out of your current environment and transferred to a cloud-based infrastructure through the migration of existing applications to the cloud without requiring any changes.
   Due to its speed and affordability, this approach is well-liked by companies who need to move rapidly. Your apps continue to function as before. However, consumers may experience reduced latency due to increased bandwidth and improved internal speeds following your application move.
2. Replatforming
   Replatforming is a cloud migration technique that entails optimizing a legacy system for cloud use without requiring a complete overhaul of its fundamental architecture. It involves enhancing the application’s performance to function better in the cloud by using cloud storage options or changing how it communicates with the database.
   Replatforming aims to boost cloud performance and efficiency without requiring a total redesign. For companies looking for a less disruptive transition, this is a wise strategic move. If you’re new to cloud-based migration projects and want something more than a lift and shift but need more time to be ready for a complete restructuring or rebuilding, this can be a suitable alternative.
3. Refactoring
   Refactoring is a technique for cloud migration in which programs that already exist are modified to run in the cloud. Workloads must be rearchitected to accommodate cloud-native capabilities. Though it involves a significant outlay of time and money, this migration option is likely the most future-proof.
   In this approach, applications are partially modified to fit into a cloud environment. You can opt for this when you want to be better prepared for growth with some serious scalability built into your applications.
4. Repurchasing (Drop and Shop)
   Repurchasing entails investing in cloud-native solutions to satisfy your business demands rather than maintaining your current apps’ traditional licensing agreements. This approach is used especially when a program is outdated or incompatible with contemporary cloud settings. Repurchasing presents a chance to start over and fully utilize the most recent cloud features, but it necessitates significant development expenditure.
   Businesses can concentrate more on their core business operations by switching to SaaS offerings and repurchasing IT infrastructure and software.
5. Retiring and Retaining
   Workloads that are no longer necessary have fulfilled their intended purpose. Maybe when your company maps out its cloud migration, an auditing team member discovers a feature that very few people are using. The company can concentrate on services that offer greater business value by turning off these services. While migrating to the cloud, it’s critical to identify and retire applications as soon as possible to avoid wasting time and money.
   If you come across a system similar to this while mapping out your cloud migration process, you may choose to keep them on-premises, where you “retain” the item in its current state within your current IT portfolio. There may be legal restrictions in place, or moving the program to the cloud is not practical. It is logical to leave them where they are in these situations.

What is the Cloud Migration Process?

Your environment’s size and complexity will determine the specifics of your cloud migration process. These are the fundamental actions:

• Organizing your migration: Before initiating the process, you should identify the reasons behind the transfer and the best plan to support them. Evaluate your existing surroundings first. To prevent purchasing more than you need, it’s critical to determine your cloud server requirements based on the resource requirements of your current applications. You will require the resources and knowledge of an expert at this crucial point.
• Selecting your cloud environment: You may now choose the cloud model you wish to use as you have the visibility you need to be successful. Whichever option—public, hybrid, private, or multi-cloud—or services like Google, Azure, or AWS—best suits your present and future requirements and should be your first choice.
• Data and app migration: If everything is properly planned, the actual migration process should go well. However, remember cloud security considerations, like adhering to security guidelines and organizing data backup and recovery.
• Verifying post-migration success: Without proof that cloud migration is operating as planned, it cannot be deemed successful. By comparing pre- and post-move application performance in a low-risk test environment, you can demonstrate the advantages of cloud migration using a solution such as AppDynamics Business iQ, from both a technical and business standpoint.

Challenges of Cloud Migration

Even with careful planning, cloud migrations can be complicated and take years, if not months, to complete. There are a lot of cloud migration tools and services available that provide change management or consulting services, but there are a lot of factors to take into account. The following are the Cloud computing Challenges:

1. Data and application portability:
   One of the challenges in cloud migration is data and application portability, which is the process of transferring data between cloud platforms while preserving its accessibility, integrity, and quality.
   Compatibility problems and other complications are frequently encountered while transferring apps and data across cloud providers. For real hybrid cloud interoperability, application integration, and smooth, multi-cloud data pipelines are essential.
2. Disruption and Downtime:
   Reducing service disruptions and downtime during migration is crucial. Transitioning from on-premises to the cloud often leads to outages, disruptions, and functional losses. While some organizations may perceive these as minor challenges, they can result in customer dissatisfaction, lost sales, customer turnover, and diminished employee productivity.
3. Legacy system compatibility:
   Portability issues are particularly common with legacy programs. Mapping current applications according to LAN/WAN perimeters is important, albeit it can be quite labor-intensive for companies. More than incorrect mapping might cause problems with latency and performance in the cloud environment.

How Does The Cloud Migration Process Work?

Any cloud migration must begin with well-defined company goals and use cases. The following are typical components of a cloud migration strategy:

• Recognize the goal: The “why” behind every cloud move is this. Establishing specific goals for the migration and unambiguous expectations for the project should be the first steps in any cloud transfer.
• Choose the intended application: This is the “what” of the cloud migration initiative, where executives in compliance, technology, and business evaluate the local environment and find possible candidates for cloud migration.
• Select the target cloud: This is the project’s “where” for a cloud migration. Following the selection of an application for cloud migration, the enterprise can decide which cloud deployment model—public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud—is most appropriate for the destination.
• Choose a reputable cloud partner: It’s crucial to give cloud objectives significant thought to make sure the provider has a solid track record and intends to stay in operation for the foreseeable future.
• Analyze the needs and costs of migration: Any migration effort must account for the costs associated with moving to the cloud. Plan the migration: This is the “when” as well as the “how” of the cloud migration, allowing an organization to specify the methodology and schedule for the real move.
• Carry out the migration: The company may move workloads and data in line with its migration plan now that all the parts and strategies are in place.
• Observe and report as directed: Performance monitoring services are often used to instrument cloud workloads to track their availability, access, health, and performance while they are operating in the cloud.

Cloud Migration Tools

These are a few tools for cloud migration:

• Carbonite Migrate: A well-liked tool for workload migration between physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Tasks can be moved with no downtime and no risk.
• Azure Migrate: A cloud migration tool that assists businesses in migrating their workloads from on-premises to Azure. It provides a number of tools to help with the process, such as task planning, assessment, and migration.
• Alicloud Migration Tools: A device that facilitates virtual-to-virtual or physical-to-virtual migration. Its main purpose in Alibaba Cloud service is server migration to an ECS instance.

Ending Note

The move to cloud computing has accelerated dramatically during the last several years as firms have gone digital. Cloud computing provides better operational efficiency, financial savings, quicker time-to-market, and access to dependable tools and state-of-the-art technology compared to traditional infrastructure.

If you have the right people in place with the right abilities and a tested plan in place, you can successfully manage the migration process and reap the rewards right away.

Reach out to our team if you would like to contribute any further or relevant guidance on this topic.