Cloud Migration

What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud Migration refers to the process of moving your data, workloads, IT resources, or applications to the cloud infrastructure. In most cases, the data/tools are transferred from an outdated infrastructure or an on-premises data center. We can also relate cloud migration to moving digital assets from one cloud to another, even though it usually refers to moving items from on-premises to the cloud. Moving all or only selected assets may be part of a migration. In addition, it involves a tonne of other things.

The Seven-Step Model of Migration into a Cloud

It's not simple to move an application to the cloud. For the procedure to be reliable and error-free, it's crucial to precisely follow the seven-step approach. Below is a list of the seven quick steps for moving to the cloud.

Assessment

Assessment of the migration-related challenges at the application, code, design, and architectural levels is the first step in the migration process to the cloud. Additionally, evaluations are needed to check the utilization of the application's configuration, test cases, functionality, and various tools being used. The POC (proof of concepts) for migration and the associated pricing information will aid in appropriately evaluating these challenges.

Isolating

The next step is to isolate the environment and system dependencies systematically. These include dependencies on libraries, applications, and architecture. The complexity of the migration is better understood as a result of this stage.

Mapping

The components that should be housed in the captive data center and those that will go into the cloud are divided using a mapping construct.

Re-Architect

A sizeable portion of the application may need to be redesigned and put into the cloud. Due to this, the organization might lose some of the application's functionality.

Augment

The intrinsic capabilities of the cloud computing service are used to supplement our enterprise application in the next process step.

Validate

After performing the augmentation, we validate and test the updated version of the enterprise application using a comprehensive test suite that includes testing its cloud-based components. Positive or mixed test findings are both possible.

Optimization

Iteration and optimization are needed since the test findings from the previous phase can be inconsistent. The migration might need to go through numerous optimization iterations before success. It is preferable to repeat these seven steps because doing so will guarantee a solid and thorough migration.

Cloud Migration Planning

The chances of obtaining the ideal cloud benefits are significantly lowered if one does not have the proper plan in place. When businesses go to the cloud, they might make several mistakes, and a failed migration can result in decreased performance and higher expenses. More than half of businesses reportedly don't experience the anticipated cloud benefits. This is frequently caused by flaws in the migration plan and a shortage of the required cloud talent. The following are some of the points that must be on your checklist during the cloud migration process.

Why to Migrate

Cloud Migration is an important decision that decides the future growth of an organization. The concerned teams in an organization should go for multiple rounds of talks and identify why shifting to the cloud is essential. The aim of the migration and the list of ambitious goals should be properly documented and reviewed a couple of times by relevant experts. This also helps in laying down the key performance indicators for cloud migration (KPIs) which will help the company to measure the success of cloud migration.

What to Migrate

Take into consideration the major components of your IT infrastructure, note any interdependencies, and decide what to migrate first and how to migrate it. Examine which apps can be migrated in their current state, which ones will require some (or a lot of) rewriting, and which migration solutions are available to make it easier to move those more challenging workloads. Choose from the available tools and services and cloud deployment types. Ideally, it would be best if you calculated the ROI (return on investment) for the items you plan to migrate and the duration that it will take to complete the migration.

Migrating to the Cloud

It's always advisable to start migrating with something simple and non-business-critical. Hopefully, the swift victory will increase your excitement and provide you with some valuable lessons. Utilizing one of the migration methodologies, applications should be created, migrated, and validated. After relocation, you should test everything out and shut down your old systems. It could be necessary to run two environments temporarily. Still, you can avoid this time of uncertainty from lasting too long by ensuring your cloud leaders are equipped to validate everything is operating as it should and to evaluate your cloud success.\

Cloud Migration Strategies

The following are the different types of cloud migration strategies.

Lift and Shift (Rehosting)

The lift-and-shift strategy, often known as rehosting helps moves your application quickly with minimum downtime. The drawbacks of lift-and-shift, however, include the possibility of missing out on the advantages of being cloud-native because you're only making the bare minimum changes. Lift-and-shift can be utilized for straightforward, low-impact tasks, especially by businesses that are still in the early stages of cloud adoption. It's relatively simple if your present configuration uses a lot of virtual machines. Even vendors have items that they say will assist you in automating your transfer. The good news is that once apps are running in the cloud, they are easier to redesign and optimize, even if you quickly made a lift-and-shift.

Move and Improve (Replatforming)

In this strategy, we add certain modern capabilities, like scaling or automation, without totally replacing the original application. This is why this technique is called replatforming technique. This approach could initially seem like the best course of action, but it could result in migrations where you end up with all of your technical debt and none of the benefits of cloud-native development.

Rip and Replace (Refactoring)

This strategy, known as refactoring or re-architecting, entails starting over with your workload to make it cloud-native. It requires time and skill development (especially reskilling and upskilling your current talent), but it pays off with the greatest cloud benefits. While every business and workload is different, if the goal in shifting to the cloud is to profit from its amazing features and advantages, the organization should adopt cloud-native design principles. This entails planning and doing things correctly, including making sure your staff is equipped to handle the transition and rewriting your code.

Cloud Migration Tools and Services

Moving your application to the cloud might appear to be overwhelming at the beginning. Many teams struggle to know where to start due to the numerous moving components involved in cloud migration and the concern regarding downtime. However, teams can avoid worrying about these issues by employing cloud migration tools to guide them through the process. Some of the cloud migration tools are discussed below:

AWS Migration Tools

Databases can be moved to AWS quickly and securely with the help of AWS Migration Services. It helps the migration of both homogeneous and heterogeneous databases. Thanks to this utility, applications that rely on the database will have as little downtime as possible. These services continuously replicate data for a variety of use situations. Users of AWS Migration Services don't need to install any drivers or software or make any changes to the source database.

Additionally, the programmer can monitor and target databases continuously. In the event of an interruption, the program has the power to restart itself. The programmer can also move data between the cloud and a local computer for development purposes.

Corent SurPaaS

Teams can package applications using Corent SurPaaS, enabling customers to purchase Software as a Service (SaaS). The technology allows users to optimize their operations by utilizing commercial opportunities and balancing workloads. It uses tenancy models to control each application environment. To manage the application lifecycle effectively, one can monitor tenants wherever deployed.

Carbonite Migrate

The Carbonite Migrate tool considers that data movement can be hazardous and even result in data loss. By creating a standardized and repeatable procedure for data migration, Carbonite Migrate lowers the risk associated with data migration. With the tool, teams can easily innovate to ensure that their workloads run on the appropriate platform. This tool allows workflow migration between cloud-based, virtual, and physical environments with little downtime and nearly instantaneous failover in the event of an emergency.

Turbonomic

Workloads are analyzed and enhanced via the hybrid cloud automation platform known as Turbonomic. The technology uses plain intelligence across the operating phases to handle complicated hybrid clouds. Teams can easily understand what's happening with their data. When something happens with their data, using visual components like resource consumption mapping in Turbonomic helps issue troubleshoot. This increases infrastructure use and broadens the reach of their data centers.

Velostrata

Velostrata is a migration tool that significantly enhances cloud migration capabilities. The technology is intended to increase migration agility and decrease migration-related risks. It is also known as Migrate for Compute Engine. Some of its core features include built-in validation testing before migration and real-time streaming for workloads and migrations that are in use. Another feature is the on-premise rollbacks that give teams a sense of security to roll back to the previous version in the event of failures.

Cloudscape

Cloudscape assists organizations in determining the first stages of cloud migration by learning about the company's data and the best ways to arrange it. Teams can choose which applications to relocate, which cloud provider to utilize, and more by using the tool, demonstrating how data is dispersed inside enterprises. Cloudscape uses planning and analysis to make cloud cost models for businesses simpler. This technology gives teams total access to the cloud lifecycle, enabling them to make wise business decisions.

VMware

VMware is a cloud migration platform that is acquired by CloudHealth Technologies. VMware employs analysis and analytics to match infrastructure with corporate goals. Teams can also implement policies to guarantee that infrastructure performance and configuration are carried out correctly.

Cloud Migration Trends

The following trends are expected to be the driving forces behind cloud migration this year, especially in the post-pandemic era. Firms continue to change course to align with strategic plans and react to macroeconomic conditions.

Alignment of Human Interests and Technology

Large-scale transformation initiatives, like cloud migration, frequently focus on technology, but many human elements are also at play. Transparency, universal accessibility, political unrest, and socioeconomic variables, all function as global cloud acceleration drivers. Enterprises have directed these into cloud-related initiatives due to the pandemic's more direct and urgent alignment of human and technological interests. When technology and human nature come together to combat a familiar foe, such as dealing with COVID, innovation and new paradigms have no boundaries.

Migration Inspires Modernization

Migrations to the public cloud were initially perceived as a simple approach to quickly replace storage and VMs in data centers without altering the programs themselves. However, once in the cloud, businesses discovered that the lift-and-shift strategy did little to fully utilize the cloud's potential to support innovative business practices. More people who have adopted the cloud know that to fully benefit from it, they must upgrade their essential programs. The most significant trend driving cloud migrations is the need to upgrade apps as part of the process and achieve more transformative business outcomes.

Increased Data Migration due to demand for Analytics

Business executives created cloud migration plans to help them understand the quickly evolving business landscape. To keep up with the pace of company changes, most cloud providers enable tools that integrate data into new analyses and use business intelligence (BI). The vendors are constantly improving their analytics tooling, and many of them have created industry-specific analytics capabilities. Making on-premises data warehouses more responsive is becoming a challenge for businesses. By utilizing richer data streams across supply chains and new data services, these new cloud services make it simpler to integrate BI and analytics workflow.

Distributed Computing

Application modernization will continue to gain relevance, but migration techniques will change to take advantage of multi-cloud and dispersed cloud capabilities. Businesses frequently deploy workloads across many clouds due to oversight or poor planning. Companies now consciously assess the unique value of the various clouds. This more thorough analysis suggests methods for deliberately utilizing best-of-breed services across cloud providers. Additionally, new connectivity choices like 5G will increase the accessibility of cloud services at the edge and on-premises locations. In order to install apps closer to where they will be used, it is anticipated that cloud users will seek difficult cloud migrations on a more frequent basis.

Pre and Post Challenges of Cloud Migration

This section will discuss the most common challenges businesses face while migrating their applications to the cloud.

Lack of a Proper Migration Strategy

Many businesses make the error of not defining their cloud strategy. Every organization has different demands for cloud migration, but problems can be greatly reduced with a thorough checklist.

Downtime

Network Outages are one of the major risks when sending large amounts of data to the cloud. Insufficient data backup can cause irrecoverable data loss in the event of an interruption. A workable solution is to create a backup IT environment that can house and run apps while the migration is ongoing. Remember that temporary servers typically struggle to manage heavy user traffic.

Skills

When it comes to managing the challenges of cloud migration, internal IT teams are constrained by their skill sets and resources. If your IT personnel lacks the necessary credentials and you work in a sector with strict requirements for data security compliance, your company may be at risk.

Bandwidth

Applications hosted in the cloud should perform equally well as on-premise systems, if not better. But failing to specify the bandwidth needs for applications hosted in the cloud, can lead to latency, bad user experiences, and negate the benefits of cloud migration. It's critical to map your network restrictions and bandwidth needs before moving to the cloud.

Benefits of Cloud Migration

The following are the benefits of migrating to the cloud.

Elasticity and Scalability

Businesses may instantly add or remove resources to meet the demand thanks to the cloud's improved scalability. Elasticity is the power to expand or decrease computing, memory immediately, and storage resources (data storage optimization) to meet fluctuating demands without worrying about cloud capacity planning. Thus, scalability and elasticity go together, and elasticity makes scaling possible. Scaling can be carried out automatically (known as autoscaling), depending on factors like the time of day or the number of processing resources being used. For example, consider the case when an increase in users can exhaust a server's resources. Therefore, requests would be denied using customary self-hosted hardware. However, the cloud's resources are practically endless. To handle the pressure, servers can quickly scale up.

Cost Cutting

Cloud computing enables customers/organizations to only pay for the resources they utilize. You now have access to resources that, in terms of scalability, would be excessively expensive and time-consuming for you to maintain independently. A traditional approach for scaling up IT resources is typically costly. It takes months of planning and maintaining expensive equipment and electricity to keep everything running and cool. A team of skilled IT professionals is also required to maintain the system. All this hassle is finished when we migrate our services to the cloud. However, cloud scalability outperforms on-premises scalability regarding shrinking resource requirements. Cloud infrastructure can scale up and down to accommodate the peaks and valleys in demand. It is important to note that without a good cloud utilization strategy and execution, the billing of that organization for the utilization of cloud resources might go out of bounds. Thus, instead of the intended advantage expected in terms of cost savings, cloud use might become a nightmare if not utilized properly.

Agility and Flexibility

Cloud agility refers to the capacity to design, test, and quickly deliver commercial apps. Cloud, however, also provides you with the adaptability to act swiftly as needs alter. With the advent of cloud computing, the technologies used by the largest corporations are now also available to the smallest firms. New services are easily accessible, making it easy to act immediately when a new need, difficulty, or opportunity materializes. Additionally, using the cloud can simplify things for businesses that operate at multiple locations. This is because it removes the need to set up infrastructure at each location separately. It enables the option of working remotely as well.

Moving from CapEx to OpEx

The cloud converts tech systems into an operating expense (OpEx), or a regular, continuing cost for running the firm, instead of an investment you hold onto for a few years that will depreciate. That's fantastic news for companies that like to keep their cash on hand for as long as possible.

Security and Compliance

The vast majority of cloud service providers are the big businesses that depend on them. They take extra care to consider security and compliance, which includes remaining current with technological advancements and industry trends to ensure the security of your sensitive data in the cloud. Public cloud providers typically provide controls, technologies, and policies vastly superior to the security measures employed by most organizations. Additionally, almost any industry-specific compliance standards are taken into consideration. Data stored in the cloud instead of on your hard drive may be safer if a device is lost or damaged.

Reliability and Performance

The major cloud service providers operate a vast, top-notch network of facilities outfitted with cutting-edge technology. This guarantees various things, including minimal network latency and almost unmatched data backup and catastrophe recovery. The cloud often brings the people who need access to your tools closer together, wherever they may be.

Low Maintenance

Computer hardware and software maintenance is a full-time occupation. By using the public cloud, you can do away with the requirement for workers to spend time on time-consuming equipment maintenance that doesn't directly contribute to company objectives. Thus the enterprise's tech experts can concentrate on achieving business objectives, and the cloud service provider ensures the infrastructure is in place.