In 2023, are you looking to lower long term costs, increase staff adapability,and insure the up-time of your operations? Migrating to the cloud is going to be the goal this year and getting ahead of the compeition is invaluable. Let's take a look at the five strategies you can use to migrate to the cloud.
What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration is the process of moving applications , data and other types of business components to Cloud. There are several components of cloud migration an organization needs to perform and the most widely used model is the applications and data transfer through an on-premises and local data center to any public cloud.
The 5R Strategy to Cloud Migration
The best way to analyse the applications environment is using Gartner five R’s of application modernisation. This will help to choose the right path for cloud migration for your organization. The 5Rs strategy was coined by Gartner.
If you are looking to modernize your business and take it onto the cloud then you need to ensure that the approach you choose fits the long-term business strategy, motivations, and current state environment.
The 5 Strategies
Rehost
Rehosting is when you are moving your applications from on premises to cloud without making any changes. This is the least risky and lean effort strategy and helps in reduction of infrastructure and operating costs. Rehosting is best suited for legacy migrations or having an IT team with limited knowledge and you are looking for moving fast from on premises to cloud as running costs are high in on premises setup.
Rehosting is generally best if you have an IT team with limited cloud knowledge; when you’re needing to move fast; or if on-premise is costing your business too much.
Revise
Revise, replatform, or the “lift tinker and shift” method is the middle ground between the two strategies already covered. You still move applications as they are, but also make small modifications to components that will enable you to take advantage of cloud environment benefits. For instance, revised applications may show some cloud characteristics such as horizonal scaling and portability.
When you want to take use of the cloud for greater scalability, elasticity, cost, and performance but don't have the resources or time to rearchitect your application, the revise option is recommended. However, be careful that it doesn’t turn into a full-blown refactoring project. Scope management and the avoidance of needless adjustments are critical to mitigate the chance of this happening.
Refactor
To refactor or rearchitect your application, is the process of transforming a non-cloud application into a cloud-native application. This requires a complete overhaul of an application where you modify your existing software, or a large chunk of the code base, to be able to take advantage of cloud-based features.
Typically, refactoring is driven by a strong business need to add features, scale or performance that would otherwise be difficult to achieve in an existing environment. But as it is one of the much more complex strategies, you need to ensure you have the right expertise and test carefully to avoid issues with functionality.
This being said, while the most time-consuming and resource-intensive, rehosting can provide the best return on investment in the long-term once you're running on the cloud.
Retire
While migration activity you may identify applications which are redundant and closing them down will save costs. The savings achieved will help to strengthen business cases. Moreover the team efforts would be more direct towards usable services and you will lower the surface area you must secure.
Essentially, if an application is now redundant you should retire it.
Retain
When there is a hefty investment in on-premise applications, or currently has active development projects, or have applications that require high performance, existing applications are working well, there is need to comply with strict regulations where the data is on-premise, in such conditions they should migrate when it is required too, otherwise retaining applications on-premise could be a best suited strategy.
When it comes to migrating your applications to the cloud, there is no one-size-fits-all option. Each strategy includes advantages and disadvantages, as well as risks and rewards. In fact, if you're moving multiple applications to the cloud, you may find you need to use more than one of the choices listed in this blog.
Kick Off Business Success in 2023 Using the Cloud
Rehosting can be done fast and is best if you have little in-house expertise, but you can lose out on the benefits of cloud characteristics. Refactoring, revising, and rebuilding will improve the cloud-naiveness of an IT environment, but all require more time and advanced expertise to be done effectively. Finally, replacing will minimise cost and effort but you do risk vendor lock-in and several other issues.
If you need help figuring out the best strategy for getting an application to the cloud, or are looking for a partner with extensive cloud experience to migrate with, then the entrust IT Group are here. We have over 15 years of experience in moving businesses to the cloud and take time to get to know their unique requirements. As a result, we form a cloud migration strategy that is right for them in the long-term, not just the most convenient at present. Please get in touch on 0330 002 0045 or email enquries@entrustit.co.uk to have a chat with one of our experienced consultants to take the next step.
