What is Cloud Migration?

What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud Migration is a digital process in which a business's data and applications are moved into the cloud infrastructure. In other words, Cloud Migration is relocating the physically bound IT landscape to a completely digital channel.

The term Cloud is a computing structure running on the Internet and reachable from any destination regardless of the tangible borders of legacy servers. In the Cloud, the data or applications are stored as intangible products and the necessity of on-prem solutions or data centers running several servers are removed. So, Cloud proposes a completely agile and modern solution for data storage and for running applications apart from legacy/on-prem practices.

With Cloud, limitations for reaching the data get bypassed. Thus, the necessary computing services running on Cloud can answer needs regardless of borders; speeding up the business processes and advancing the ways to reach data.

The process can be complex, but it's typically done in phases to ensure that the company's core operations are not impacted.

There are many benefits of cloud migration, including:

• Improved security. Cloud providers offer security features like encryption, multi-factor authentication and intrusion detection systems that can protect your data from threats. In addition, many cloud providers provide 24/7 monitoring and security audits so you can rest assured knowing your data is safe.
• Faster response time. Because cloud providers host your applications on their own servers, they're able to respond much more quickly than in-house IT departments when problems arise or new features need to be added. This means that customers will get access to new features faster than before and any issues will be resolved more quickly as well.
• Easier scalability and availability. Cloud providers offer flexible scaling options so that businesses can easily increase or decrease their compute resources as needed without having to invest in additional hardware or software licenses upfront. In addition, because cloud providers host their own servers around the world, customers benefit from increased uptime due to geo-redundant architecture (GRA).

Cloud migration is essential for companies looking to increase their scalability, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency.

What are the Types of Cloud Migration?

Migrating to Cloud requires a carefully-planned strategy. Considering the use cases and best practices, it’s getting easier to learn from the past and come up with ad hoc solutions, if necessary, for a broad spectrum of businesses. For example, not every workload may benefit from this migration and identifying such aspects may ease up the migration. Needless to say, a systematic approach and a detailed business plan towards migration are crucial.

All in all, there are 6 different types of Cloud Migration that businesses benefit from:

1. Rehosting: Rehosting is relocating an exact copy of data from an on-prem storing mechanism to the Cloud. No changes are needed.
2. Replatforming: The process of lift and shift to Cloud may need making some adjustments in the dataset stored on-premise. Replatforming is conducting such adjustments to ensure a flawless operation from on-prem to Cloud.
3. Repurchasing: Some systems may be inoperable or become very bulky on Cloud. If that is the case, procuring Cloud Native solutions that answer such needs is the way to go. Repurchasing is buying a solution (generally a SaaS tailored for Cloud) during the migration.
4. Refactoring: Refactoring is structuring an application from the scratch. Some businesses prefer this method to further optimize their experience on Cloud by making it possible to utilize all the capabilities of the cloud. Some applications may not be ready to integrate with Cloud, so forming them all over with ad-hoc techniques fit for Cloud is also an investment for the future as these new applications will be compatible with what Cloud has to offer in the long run, too.
5. Retiring: Having evaluated their application portfolio, a business may identify that some applications are not actually necessary for Cloud migration. In this case, eliminating such applications before migration takes place saves time, effort, and money. Thanks to a Readiness Check, these applications could be identified.
6. Retaining: Timing may not always be suitable for a migration project. Compliance issues or recent updates on applications could postpone or even cancel shifting into Cloud. Thus, businesses may keep storing their workload in their already-in-use servers and retain their applications until they are ready for migration.

Having an application portfolio before migration always benefits the migration as it would be easier to conduct a Readiness Check to the IT landscape. The application portfolio is a type of IT Asset Management and it signifies compiling all the applications a company owns and uses. Feel free to check this article to find out more about Application Portfolio Management.

What are the Stages of Cloud Migration?

As Cloud Migration is a broadscale change regarding a business’ whole IT infrastructure, sectioning this process through careful planning comes in handy. Here are some steps you can follow in order to successfully complete your cloud migration project:

1. Planning the migration project: The first step of migration is to profoundly understand your needs and answer the question of “why Cloud?”. Evaluating your workload and how they would react to migration would help you plan your roadmap. An APM software like Loggle that provides you with a real-time visible application portfolio and IT inventories would be helpful. Businesses also may require an experienced specialist in migration to orchestrate the complete migration process. All this “application evaluation” period may benefit if an Application Rationalization approach is employed.
2. Deciding on your cloud provider: Once set the ball rolling and rationalize applications, the next step is to decide which cloud environment best fits a business's needs. There are different types of cloud: public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud. Plus, there are multiple providers like SAP, Azure, Google, and AWS.
3. Actual taking place of the migration: If carefully planned, the migration process is a slam dunk. It is an altogether orchestration of the set of decisions taken for a business’ applications. Following the procedures and staying alert for compliance issues would help complete this stage safely and sound.
4. Post-migration evaluation: The whole migration should not be considered done unless it starts working efficiently. Carefully checking up on how the applications are running in this new environment and evaluating the overall added value would shed some light on the success of the operation.

What are the Challenges of Cloud Migration?

Even though shifting into Cloud is fruitful in the long run, migration could be painful in some cases. There are several potential challenges that come to mind:

1. Financial Cost: Although its benefits outweigh the challenges in the long run, Cloud Migration might seem pricey. In order to reduce the necessary budget for migration along with speeding up the process, a full-on-effect Application Portfolio Management might be of help before a shift takes place. Check up on this article to learn more about what Application Portfolio Management has to do with efficient budgeting.
2. Dispersed Application Portfolio: Some businesses may have rather disorderly application management, or don’t have one at all. In this case, evaluating the applications and deciding which type of migration will take place might get harder and take more effort. See how not having an IT Inventory Management could affect businesses here.
3. Downtime & Data Loss: During migration, some systems might have to be shut down temporarily and this could affect the always-running business negatively. If not carefully planned and supported by an APM software, some data loss and deficient application migration might also occur.
4. Skill Shortage: Migration is a delicate process that needs expertise. Depending on sectors and regions, some businesses might not find the necessary skill set to conduct the process.

Why Cloud Migration is Important?

All in all, why Cloud Migration? Why Cloud is the future? Why a certain tendency towards Cloud is happening in the business? Such questions regarding Cloud are only natural as this shift is relatively new. You could also see this article that curates Gartner’s projections of future trends.

So, there are various answers to these questions that elaborate Cloud:

1. Agility & mobility: Cloud structure enables personnel to reach data regardless of place and time. All the data and applications are constantly running (except for planned maintenance and sudden malfunctions) and they are easier to reach along with being faster in data transfers.
2. Cost-efficiency: With Cloud, maintenance costs and physical beings of assets are simply removed. Once a business starts using cloud after a successful migration, physical-bound expenditures sharply drop as data centers no longer exist and computing necessary for applications are done on the Internet.
3. More prone to future innovations & scalability: As a global trend toward Cloud is taking place, future innovations and business developments will be more integrated with Cloud architecture. If a business wants to ease up its journey in the future with ever-faster advancements, Cloud is the right playfield. Such progress brings about scalability, too. New solutions will keep joining the market and utilizing some of them will provide a business with new profitable areas that makes scalability come true.
4. Less maintenance: As data would no longer be stored in hardware that requires maintenance and is more prone to malfunctions, a more fluid data storing process will follow. Cloud providers dedicate quite a lot of time and effort to ensuring a flawless experience for their customers. Naturally, this results in providing migrated businesses with the opportunity to allocate their personnel with more valuable tasks rather than maintenance.
5. Simplification of IT landscape: Applications running in the Cloud generally function harmoniously and coordinate with each other. This way, faster and easier data transfer is possible and bulky hardware is no longer the only option.
6. Sustainability: Getting rid of hardware and physical data centers that require constant electricity will also help the Earth suffer less.