Moving Towards the Cloud: An Introduction to Cloud Migration Strategies

With technology being mainstreamed in personal as well as business space, it is reshaping both our personal lives and enterprises to a great extent. Technology, forming alliances with evolving digital transformation, has been an inclusion into the business world that has completely changed and molded the way that people do business. And this results in […]

Updated 1 February 2024

Chandrapal Singh
Chandrapal Singh

Director at Appventurez

With technology being mainstreamed in personal as well as business space, it is reshaping both our personal lives and enterprises to a great extent. Technology, forming alliances with evolving digital transformation, has been an inclusion into the business world that has completely changed and molded the way that people do business. And this results in enterprises adopting several digital transformation trends that could work in their favor to achieve broader scalability and enhance business operations. Though companies have so many tech trends to follow suit for, there are a few that have gained traction among the majority till now and appear to continue to take the cake in the forthcoming years as well. 

If we look at the current tech trends that are enticing the brands much more than anything else in the marketplace, they should be strategies for cloud migration. Besides, cloud-based solutions are also evidence to be advantageous for many businesses, aiding them to reinvent complex business processes, streamline core operational areas, improve agility, reduce barriers, etc. Since there are so many aspects to look into the cloud trend, cloud migration projects, and related service is something that might be completely alien to many. This is why the majority of businesses are oblivious to adopting the strategies for cloud migration consideration to their business.

Migrating resources, digital assets, and services to the cloud is not an easy feat to pull off. Cloud migration involves a complete transition and a well-crafted plan. Moreover, the advancement of technology is leading brands to employ the latest cloud migration tools that streamline the migration process to the fullest extent.

But before we get headfirst to the steps and strategies of cloud migration, let’s begin with discussing the grassroots for implementing strategies for cloud migration and considerations and what are the practices employed by the enterprises to bring the process into being.

What is A Cloud Migration Strategy?

To perceive the cloud migration strategy, it is imperative to comprehend “what is cloud migration” first and the fundamentals of cloud storage as well. Also known as a virtual pool of scalable networks, the cloud is one of the technology trends that have been in the ecosystem for a long time. It is made up of online servers which run with the help of the internet. Google Drive, Dropbox, and iCloud are some common examples of cloud storage. 

Now the process of moving all your digital assets, system resources, databases, and IT processes into the cloud is known as cloud migration. It is to be noticed that cloud migration is not something you decide to perform in a jiffy and set on functioning the task. The businesses need to roadmap the whole migrating process which depends upon a lot of factors such as size and complexity of the database, interoperability, etc. In short, a migration process carries a certain degree of risk that needs to be adjudicated vigorously. 

Cloud Migration Examples

Since it is evident that cloud migration strategy is a complex process enclosed with some considerable challenges, this is why many business leaders suggest looking at case studies and cloud migration examples from other companies and learning from their experiences. Many esteemed companies such as Shopify, Spotify, Etsy, Evernote AdvancedMD, etc. have earlier performed a successful migration to the cloud. And their strategies for cloud migration and results are surely the epitome to seek inspiration from.

Common Types Of Cloud Migration Performed By Businesses: 6 R’s Of Migration

There are mainly six types of strategies that are performed by enterprises when it comes to moving workloads to the cloud. These migration types are widely referred to as “the 6 R’s of cloud migration.” While conducting cloud migration, the IT team maintains a comprehensive view of all infrastructure components and available options for migrating each workload comprehensively. Here are the most common types of strategies for cloud migration and considerations.

types of cloud migration

Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift Model)

Being one of the most straightforward cloud migration models, this path of cloud migration sticks true to its name and adopts the lift and shift approach for migration. This means the team performing migration can lift applications, server operating systems, etc. from the current hosting environment and take it to public cloud infrastructure without any changes.

Replatforming

Another variant of rehosting, re-platforming follows the strategy of lifting and optimizing the databases for different platforms rather than just being limited to shifting the landscape directly to the cloud (read about – top database management trends in 2021). It involves certain extensive changes and optimizations to the operating system for making the landscape adjustable for the cloud. 

Repurchasing

As the name itself suggests, this cloud migration empowers businesses to go for a completely new cloud-based platform or service rather than opting for the existing ones. But how does this work? In these types of cloud migration considerations, the owner drops the existing license agreement and shifts the services and applications to a new cloud-native platform.

Rearchitecting (Refactoring)

It is one of the most broadly adopted types adopted by businesses when they talk about strategies for cloud migration spills in the market. Such a type of migration is largely implemented by large-scale organizations that are looking forward to changing the entire business architecture and rebuilding all the applications from scratch. The enterprise takes this approach forward to explore the cloud capabilities beyond the existing environment.

Retiring

A method of eliminating some of the applications and workloads which according to businesses are no longer in use before migration is referred to as the retiring type of cloud migration. Elimination of components does not mean permanent riddance, it implies the turning of a few vital elements to reduce any procedural complexity. 

Retaining

Technically this should not be touted as another type of strategy for cloud migration and consideration but many marketers include it in the Six R’s migration model. Retaining is simply the process of putting a period on cloud adoption. Enterprises most often decide to restrain themselves to migrate to the cloud as they feel it’s not right for their businesses as of now. 

Cloud Migration Stages: Three Substantial Levels Of Cloud Adoption

Cloud migration strategy sets the futuristic foundation for businesses and helps them validate the most efficient way to prioritize and migrate applications for the newer infrastructure. But moving data and other business elements to a cloud-based environment is not as easy as it appears. Though there are various types and strategies for cloud migration, the stages of cloud migration and consideration remain the same. Here are three evident cloud migration stages.

three stages of cloud migration

STAGE 1 (Pre-Migration)

This is the elementary stage where the organizations need to carry out a well-thought-out strategy to pull off the migration. This stage is focused on analyzing the workloads of migration.

STAGE 2 (Migration)

Being the center stage, it is the phase where migration takes place. Here all the cloud provisioning and go-live approaches are pondered over by the IT personnel which is executed only after adequately testing the environment.

STAGE 3 (Post-Migration)

This is the last stage of cloud migration consideration. As the name itself suggests, this level is considerate about enforcing everything that takes place after the migration is performed. It includes post-migration support, updates, troubleshooting, etc.

Whenever the term cloud migration catches people’s attention, the consideration of cloud migration tools piques business leaders’ curiosity as well. AWS migration services, Azure migration tools, Corent SurPaaS, and Google migration are some of the widely popular cloud migration tools that allow businesses to move to the cloud quickly and easily.

7 Pivotal Strategies For Cloud Migration Consideration Businesses Should Adopt

Cloud migration services are proving to be beneficial for substantial business growth. But before skipping hastily to anything else, if you are wondering what is cloud migration services, let us clear this very doubtful part right now. Cloud migration services are just another way to say the process that is involved in cloud adoption which is distinctive as per the organizations. So do not get confused about that. The cloud computing trend has picked off in recent years discarding enterprises to give second thoughts to cloud migration consideration. 

While cloud adoption is one of the mediums for organizations to embrace digital transformation (read – digital transformation lifecycle explained), either way, the workflow model, approaches, and strategies for cloud migration are some potent things often overlooked by enterprises. Keeping that in mind, we will be discussing a few significant factors that need to be considered by companies before moving applications to the cloud.

Infrastructure Stack

Before taking your applications and business components live on online servers, determining the migration architect role in which the infrastructure stack will be helpful. The infrastructure stack is the collection of resources and services that a business environment provides. Identifying the right availability and resource utilization of your company leads to better architecting the cloud environment. Since this is the core aspect to be considered to make the migration successful, technical plans must be taken into consideration.

Workload Analysis

There are plenty of cloud migration examples and workloads enterprises think of adopting while moving to the cloud, however, out of many there are a few, such as general compute, CPU-intensive, memory-intensive, static, periodic, and hybrid workloads, which are highly acknowledged by the enterprises. Since a workload is a service or an application in the cloud that gives the IT team an edge to decide how they can identify all the significant factors before deciding which workloads to migrate to the cloud.

Systems Compatibility

When it comes to undertaking strategies for cloud migration, system accessibility plays a pivotal role. It is important to have up-to-date versions of the operating systems, middleware, and databases when adopting the cloud otherwise it would lead to a major failure might not at the moment but later for sure. Cloud migration is not just a method that needs to be processed, it is more about identifying how sensitive data will be handled during the migration.

Comprehend The Access Pathway

While embracing digital transformation in a business, giving thought to user experience matters is integral. So while rolling out the new strategies for cloud migration and considerations, business owners should track their application usage and identify how it will be impacted after the migration. In other words, it is better if enterprises would think of enhancing the user experience than before and this is why opting for the feasible possibility is deemed.

Discover Application Dependencies

Finding out application integration potential and dependencies is as important as any other strategy. However, it is another ball game in that the majority of companies identify the opportunities either after the migration takes place or too late in the process. This results in causing havoc to the planned procedures and unleashing limited functionality to explore the strategies for cloud migration. There is an integration between applications and other business components which is crucial to Understand from a relationship perspective to plan cloud adoption.

Proper Training For Staff

This could simply be the most essential strategy to lean towards when it comes to channelizing the entire process of moving to the cloud. Unless your staffs are not well-aware of the cloud services and how exactly it takes place in a different business environment, the whole crafted stratagem would flunk. Therefore, before you agree upon cloud migration, roll out the training classes to the staff to make them understand the concept of taking business components to online servers. 

Application Architecture

There are so many cloud types, strategies for cloud migration, and platforms that empower enterprises to explore the myriad of options before concluding to one particular environment. Here the application architecture allows the organizations to review the optimization interoperability of the application with the platform. With this, the companies will understand which architecture needs to be modified so that it can be settled through an alignment of the cloud infrastructure for migration.

Why Companies Should Migrate Data To The Cloud?

Now the crux of all the discussions sums up – why move to the cloud? What are the benefits of cloud migration that opens doors of opportunities for businesses to grow? There are some obvious and highly touted advantages cloud migration brings, out of which, major ones are given below.

Cost-Effectiveness

Cloud migration promotes ongoing maintenance and supports cost reduction in businesses which is why the majority of enterprises look forward to moving certain workloads or systems to the cloud.

Improved IT Operations

The IT workers have an essential role to play in the success of the company. And keeping that in mind, the strategies for cloud migration help IT personnel in maintaining servers and troubleshooting faulty applications.

Remote Collaboration

One of the highly admired benefits of moving business components to the cloud is to empower organizations to have access to plenty of things from remote servers. It means the databases, apps, and documents can be accessed anytime anywhere.

Requires Less Maintenance

If you know what are cloud migration tools, you may have an idea of how cost-efficient they are. Honestly, cloud migration tools require no maintenance at all. Cloud provider looks after the hardware, software, and networks in the cloud. With minimal IT staff and operations, the data can be accessed from anywhere with no downtime and cost.

Cloud Migration Checklist: 7 Steps to a Successful Migration

easy steps for perform cloud migration

STEP 1 (Define the Purpose of Migration)

The objective and defining purpose of performing any task is paramount. If you do not know the reason for migrating your workloads and other essential components yet, discover it asap for holistic business growth.

STEP 2 (Analyze the App Framework & Complexity)

Identify every aspect of the workload that is being prepped for the cloud migration strategy. Is your application optimized for the new infrastructure? Does architecture require any reformation? Find out.

STEP 3 (Choose Cloud Environment)

Ensuring a virtuous Cloud Service Provider (CSP) and the cloud environment could uplift your decision of moving to the cloud from a business perspective. Determine whether you want to get your necessary elements shifted to a public, private, or hybrid cloud.

STEP 4 (Determine the Deployment Model)

Deciding on the deployment model along with the strategies for cloud migration is as important as settling upon the cloud environment. Since there are only three main models i.e. – SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS (Platform-as-a-service), you would not be struggling a lot in concluding your decision.

STEP 5 (Establish Performance Baselines)

Cloud migration has now grown beyond the radical idea for businesses to pick up steam in the marketplace. However, to measure the success of the migration, organizations need to create performance baselines which are also known as KPIs in general terms.

STEP 6 (Create a Cloud Migration Plan)

In this step, the cloud providers will pay heed to the sketched-out process of outsourcing their workloads to the online server along with prioritizing the migration components in particular.

STEP 7 (Carry Out Migration)

This is the final step of going cloud-live. In this step, the cloud provider will take the decisive sagacity of executing the migration either in parts or fully. Some CSPs move the entire workload at once while some adopt a more piecemeal approach to implement strategies for cloud migration and considerations.

How Will Appventurez Help At Different Stages Of Cloud Migration?

Embarking on cloud migration is a formidable undertaking, especially for organizations venturing into this domain for the first time. It’s crucial for them to be cognizant of key factors before initiating the cloud-shift process. In this dynamic landscape, where versatile and skilled cloud providers, tools, and technologies abound, organizations can benefit from the wealth of experience in executing numerous cloud-migration projects. Appventurez, a distinguished cloud application development company, is well-versed in these prevailing principles. With a team of highly skilled professionals possessing extensive knowledge in both IT and cloud computing, we are committed to providing comprehensive information on cloud migration. Our aim is to empower organizations with the insights they need to achieve significant and successful results in their cloud migration endeavors.

If your organization is planning a cloud migration but unsure of where to begin, reach out to our IT professionals who will bestow you with all the necessary measures concerning cloud migration that will maximize your chances of successful cloud migration.

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    Chandrapal Singh
    Chandrapal Singh

    Director at Appventurez

    Director and one of the Co-founders at Appventurez, Chandrapal Singh has 10+ years of experience in iOS app development. He captains client coordination and product delivery management. He also prepares preemptive requisites and guides the team for any possible issues on a given project.