Cloud data migration can be a daunting task. It can be expensive, time-consuming, and complex. But for businesses that need scalability, agility, and security – it’s often the best option. According to a report by Gartner, by 2024, enterprise cloud spending will make up 14% of IT revenue globally. Although companies claim that cloud migration is essential to their strategies for business, many face difficulty in moving to the cloud.
Successful cloud-based adoption requires a shift in culture, laser-like focus, and a precise plan of action that incorporates input from all departments. A single oversight or incompetency in your IT infrastructure could result in lengthy and costly delays.
So how do you know when it’s time to make the move? And what are the best practices for a successful cloud data migration? In this blog post, we’ll explore these questions and find answers to them. We’ll also highlight the need for a cloud migration strategy to help you make the right decision for your organization. Let’s get started!
What is a Cloud Migration Strategy and Why Do You Need One?
A cloud migration strategy is a plan that an organization creates to transfer all assets in its infrastructure, including data, services, and applications into the cloud.
To keep day-to-day business operations more efficient, companies should implement a cloud migration strategy. Cloud migration techniques are especially crucial for companies transitioning their existing systems to cloud computing for the first time and current cloud users seeking to make the most of their investment.
Adopting a cloud data migration strategy helps businesses identify and execute the fastest, least disruption transition from on-premise to cloud. A well-executed migration strategy also helps determine which existing workloads can be replaced, discontinued, re-written, or kept on-premises.
Since every organization is different, a cloud migration strategy should be tailored exactly to their needs to achieve the desired business goals and improve their overall efficiency.
A successful enterprise cloud data migration strategy should include prioritizing workloads, determining the correct migration plan for each workload, developing a pilot, and modifying the strategy as per the results of the pilot.
Cloud Migration Process
In this section, we are going to discuss the four-step process of migrating apps and data to the cloud. While the process may vary depending on the size and complexity of your environment, here are a few basic cloud migration steps that you need to follow for a successful migration.
Plan your Migration
When planning to migrate to the cloud, it’s crucial to understand the reasons for your move and which strategy can best support them. You can start by assessing the current cloud environment. Make sure to calculate your cloud server requirements based on current application resource requirements to avoid buying more than you require. You can take the help of an expert or specialist to get real-time visibility into your environment.
Choose your Cloud Environment
Now that you have the visibility you need to achieve success, your next step is to identify the cloud migration solutions you want to adopt. Be it hybrid cloud, public cloud, or multi cloud – choose the one that best suits your current and future needs.
Migrate your Apps and Data
The next crucial step is to migrate your apps and data to the cloud. If planned accurately, your cloud application migration should be plain sailing. However, still keep in mind cloud security issues such as planning for data backup and recovery and complying with security policies.
Validate Post-Move Success
Once you move to the cloud migration solutions, make sure to compare pre- and post-move application performance, from both technical and business perspective in a low-risk test environment. This will help identify whether cloud migration techniques have been successful or not.
Now that we have understood the cloud migration process, it’s time to understand the different cloud data migration strategies.
Different Types of Cloud Data Migration Strategies
There are a number of cloud-based migration strategies that can be implemented as per your business environment. Here are the 6 most popular and effective strategies.
Rehosting
It is also described as the “lift and shift” method. Rehosting involves transferring a complete replica of the existing infrastructure onto the cloud. Businesses that have low-impact workloads and are still trying to figure out long-term strategies regarding their scaling and service offerings should consider this option. It’s also a viable option for companies whose infrastructure relies heavily on virtual machines. While rehosting is the quickest method of migration, it can be very expensive, to begin with.
Replatforming
Replatforming is also known as the move and improve strategy. It involves making minimal adjustments while shifting to the cloud and includes plans to make scaling easier. The basic architecture of the application remains unchanged. This strategy is suitable for businesses that have already planned to scale up their services and are looking to upgrade their performance by using cloud-powered solutions. The issue with replatforming is that it does not fully utilize the cloud’s capabilities.
Repurchasing
In some cases, certain aspects of the legacy architecture could become difficult and costly to maintain, and even impossible to expand. For instance, in the case of internal customer relationship management (CRM) software. In such scenarios, it’s imperative to move to a cloud-based solution. The downside of this strategy is that employees and users may have to be educated to operate a new system from a third party, which takes time and money.
Refactoring
Refactoring is a method of building the entire infrastructure from scratch. It is the best option for companies that want to take advantage of all the benefits cloud computing provides, including auto-scaling and serverless computing. Both of these are challenging to attain through an on-premise configuration. However, writing the entire system from scratch will require time and effort. While it is the most expensive approach, it will yield huge dividends in the long run.
Retirement
This strategy involves getting rid of applications that are no longer useful or have become outdated. If an application is considered not worth migrating to the cloud, it can either be eliminated or downsized. This helps businesses to concentrate on services that are most used and have immediate value. Retiring the right modules will also save costs and improve security.
Retention
There are times when one or more modules of the current infrastructure may not work with cloud-based platforms available in the market. This is usually information that cannot be transferred because of compliance or infrastructure built recently with huge capital. In these instances, maintaining the modules on-premises makes financial and operational sense.
Now that we have seen the different cloud migration types to overcome cloud migration challenges, it’s time to look into the best practices when planning to move to cloud-based solutions.
Best Practices for Cloud Migration
When planning to migrate to the cloud, the foremost best practice is to formulate a well thought-out strategy, as already explained above.
However, apart from choosing the best strategy for your business, there are a few other practices that you must follow for successful migration to the cloud.
