Cloud computing
Cloud Migration: types and how to do it in the enterprise
Cloud migration is the process of moving a company’s digital operations to the cloud. Migration is somewhat like a physical move, except that it involves moving data, applications, and IT processes from one data center to another, rather than packing up and moving physical assets. Just like moving from a smaller office to a larger one, migrating to the cloud requires a lot of preparation and groundwork, but it’s generally worth the effort, resulting in cost savings and greater flexibility. In most cases, “cloud migration” refers to the transition from on-premises or legacy infrastructure. However, the term can also apply to a migration from one cloud to another.
There are various types of cloud migration: migration from an on-premises data center to the public cloud; migration from one cloud platform or provider to another (C2C, Cloud to Cloud); and, finally, “Uncloud” (also known as “Reverse Cloud” or “Declouding”), which is the process by which data and applications are moved back from the cloud to the on-premises data center. This is a key issue: to effectively support business growth and diversification, companies are undergoing a digital transformation that goes beyond simply adopting the latest technologies and is instead focused on achieving greater operational efficiency, reducing costs, and increasing flexibility and agility.
In computing, hardware or software is considered “legacy” if it is obsolete but still in use. Legacy products and processes are usually not as efficient or secure as more up-to-date solutions. Companies forced to use legacy systems run the risk of falling behind their competitors; they are also exposed to a greater risk of data breaches. Legacy software or hardware may become unreliable, run slowly, or no longer be supported by the original vendor. Windows XP, for example, is a legacy operating system: released in 2001, its capabilities have been surpassed by later versions of Windows, and Microsoft no longer supports the operating system by releasing patches or updates. Infrastructure includes servers, networking equipment, applications, databases, and any other software or hardware critical to the business. Legacy infrastructure, such as obsolete servers or physical firewall devices, can slow down business processes. It may also pose additional security risks, as the original vendors will discontinue support for their products and stop releasing security patches. Legacy infrastructure is typically hosted on-premises—that is, it is physically located within the buildings or properties where the organization operates. For example, many companies host an on-premises data center in the same building where their employees work. Businesses that rely on on-premises legacy infrastructure are unable to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. For this reason, most organizations today have completed at least a partial migration to the cloud.
The benefits of cloud migration
The main goal of a cloud migration process is therefore to ensure that data and applications are hosted in the IT environment, based on an analysis of factors such as the costs, performance, and security of the various options. The steps and processes that an organization follows during the migration process vary, but the benefits are more or less the same.
Scalability
Cloud computing can scale to support larger workloads and more users much more easily than on-premise infrastructure, which requires companies to purchase and configure additional physical servers, network equipment or software licenses.
Cost
Companies that move to the cloud often significantly reduce their IT operating expenses, since service providers handle maintenance and updates. Instead of monitoring their equipment to ensure it is always up and running, companies can focus more resources on their core needs, such as developing new products or improving existing ones.
Performance
For some companies, moving to the cloud can help improve performance and the overall user experience for their customers. If the application or website is hosted in cloud data centers rather than on various on-premises servers, data won’t have to travel as far to reach users, thereby reducing latency.
Flexibility
Users—whether employees or customers—can access the cloud services and data they need from anywhere. This makes it easier for a company to expand into new markets, offer its services to an international audience, and enable its employees to work flexibly.
The main challenges
Very often, companies that migrate their applications to the cloud focus on infrastructure metrics and neglect those more closely related to user experience. To ensure a smooth cloud migration, it’s essential to take a broader view and pay attention to various indicators related to user experience, application performance, and infrastructure quality. In addition, there are also some challenges to keep in mind.
Migration of large databases
Often, databases will need to be migrated to a completely different platform in order to operate in the cloud. The migration is difficult, especially when large amounts of data are involved. Some cloud service providers actually offer methods for physically transferring data—such as loading it onto a hardware device and then shipping the device to the cloud service provider—for large databases that would take too long to transfer over the internet. Regardless of the method, data migration is often a time-consuming process.
Data integrity
After the data has been transferred, the next step is to ensure that the data is intact and secure and not disclosed in the process.
Business continuity
A company must ensure that its systems remain operational and available during the migration. There needs to be some overlap between on-premises and cloud environments to ensure uninterrupted service; for example, it is necessary to create a copy of all data in the cloud before shutting down an existing database. Generally, companies need to make the transition gradually rather than all at once.
Types of cloud migration
Cloud services are designed to be granular, so as to meet the specific needs of end users without redundancy or waste. Users will be able to select, configure, and run infrastructure, platforms, and applications that are truly “tailored” to the needs of their business or business unit. Gartner describes five options for organizations migrating to the cloud. These strategies are commonly known as the “5 Rs”:
Rehosting
Companies that choose this strategy will select an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider and recreate their application architecture on the cloud.
Refactoring
Companies that choose to refactor will reuse existing code and frameworks, but will run their applications on a PaaS (Platform-as- a-Service) instead of IaaS, as in rehosting.
Review
This strategy involves rewriting or partially expanding the code base, then deploying it by rehosting or refactoring.
Reconstruction
“Rebuilding” means rewriting and redesigning the application from scratch on a PaaS provider’s platform. This can be a labor-intensive process, but it also allows developers to take advantage of the modern capabilities offered by PaaS providers. Complementing this strategy is “replatforming,” an approach that involves modernizing legacy systems so they can run in cloud environments while retaining their functionality, through application containerization and software-defined data center virtualization.
Replace
Companies can also choose to eliminate old applications altogether and move to SaaS (software-as-a-service) with applications from existing third-party vendors.
Cloud migration strategies for businesses
With that said, the common elements of a cloud migration strategy include assessing performance and security requirements, selecting a cloud service provider, and addressing business continuity needs. When a company moves applications from an on-premises data center to the cloud, there are two ways to migrate. In the first case, the company chooses to make only the absolutely necessary changes. In the second, however, the company decides to take advantage of the move to the cloud to make the necessary changes to its applications in order to maximize the benefits of cloud environments.
Understanding performance in relation to existing workloads and costs is critical to the success of any cloud migration. First, you need to analyze the expenses associated with purchasing, operating, and maintaining on-premises servers. Next, you need to assess current performance by collecting data from an application performance monitoring tool, such as transactions per second and bandwidth usage. The next step is to compare costs and performance metrics for on-premises and cloud environments. The next step in the cloud migration project plan is to consider the target environment that most accurately reflects future business requirements. Private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud are the most common options.
A private cloud is small-scale and allows a company to keep everything within its existing data center architecture. It requires significant financial and technological investments and, at times, falls short in terms of services and scalability compared to other environments. However, it may be the best solution for those who need the flexibility of the cloud but must maintain total control over their data and workloads.
The public cloud is a typical service provided by third-party providers, who often offer a wide range of specialized, extensive, highly scalable, and large-scale services. A key feature of this strategy is the pay-per-use model.
A hybrid cloud is a combination of the two types mentioned above, offering several advantages: a very high level of control, flexibility, and scalability. Hybrid clouds, however, require more investment and effort to implement. Similarly, some companies that are already comfortable with a single cloud provider may choose to move services between two or more providers, using an approach known as multi-cloud.
How to implement cloud migration effectively
The challenges of cloud migration include thorough planning, cost estimation, security and regulatory issues, business downtime, developing cloud skills and training, and selecting the best migration partner. It is essential to consider these steps while developing migration plans to avoid problems and ensure success. The first step is to understand the architecture, which isn’t always necessarily complex—as in the case of a simple compute instance, which can be addressed through rehosting.
Of course, there are more sophisticated cases that require distributed and critical workloads for mission-critical production environments. This includes cloud-based microservices and the need to run highly demanding applications—such as artificial intelligence applications—in the cloud. This is where the cloud architecture specialist comes in, developing an appropriate migration plan. Leaders can then create the actual plan, ensuring that it outlines all the steps from infrastructure configuration to dependencies. Finally, the company will implement the migration plan and transfer the workload, dependencies, and associated data to the ready cloud infrastructure. This process also includes network adjustments to successfully (and securely) route traffic to the cloud workload, defining domain and IP settings, and preparing the security environment. Every company has different needs and will therefore follow a slightly different process for cloud migrations. Service providers can help set up the migration process. Most migrations will include these basic steps:
Establishing goals
What performance improvements does a company hope to achieve? When will the legacy infrastructure be phased out? Setting measurable goals helps a company determine whether the migration was successful or not.
Creating a security strategy
Cybersecurity in the cloud requires a different approach than on-premises cybersecurity. In the cloud, corporate resources are no longer protected by a firewall, and the network perimeter essentially does not exist. It may therefore be necessary to implement a cloud firewall or a web application firewall.
The copying of data
You must select a cloud service provider and replicate the existing databases. This should be done continuously throughout the migration process so that the cloud database remains up to date.
Moving business intelligence
This could involve refactoring or rewriting the code. This task can be carried out in stages or all at once.
Moving from on-premise production to the cloud
The cloud is now up and running. The migration is complete.
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