What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is such a major topic in the current technology-oriented era. All organizations, regardless of their sizes, are going through a tremendous change in their IT models. The cloud provides a level of agility, readiness and cost-efficiency that locally installed systems we can only dream of.

But what does it truly entail to shift to the cloud? It is the relocation of data, applications, and workloads from physical servers or systems onto a cloud-based environment. Although this shift might look scary at the very first glance, knowing the different types of cloud migration can ease the transition.

Benefits of Moving to the Cloud;

The cloud’s greatest benefit to businesses is the ability to scale on demand.

•  Resources can be scaled up or down based on requirements, therefore, only what is in use is paid for.
  
• Another benefit that is pronounced is cost savings. Budgetary constraints on organizations are eased due to lower hardware and maintenance costs, thus these organizations can prioritize growth over sustenance.
  
• Data security provides another leap. There is a lot of investment in technology that smaller organizations cannot afford on their own, thus a third way to provide enhanced security.
• Collaboration improves too. Employees can move around to any country and have access to data at all times, allowing for a more flexible working atmosphere.
  
• Finally, cloud solutions allow for faster updates and deployments which shortens the time it takes to bring products and services to the market, thus giving businesses a leg up in a fast-changing environment.

Key Considerations Before Picking a Migration Strategy;

It is not a matter of moving with fashion to pick any migration strategy that one chooses. The following AMZT view should be the main consideration whenever undertaking a migration strategy.

• Expenses

Expenses are another aspect that one needs to keep in mind in the cloud migration process. Most businesses tend to underestimate the costs associated with cloud migration and end up incurring losses. Owing to these unaccounted expenses, the initial set up costs in organizations can appear realistic while, on the contrary, they can be high.

• Risk

It has to be acknowledged that risk is one of the main areas of concern when it comes to cloud migration. Each of these approaches comes with a number of risks which could potentially interfere with the operations of the organization.There is the final point which is more towards resistance, human beings – change management is another tough nut to crack. In the event that new systems or new processes are put in place, workers do tend to resist or make mistakes and therein comes the need for proper onboarding of employees via training sessions or communicating to them beforehand.

• Timeframe

Timeframe is a crucial dimension in the planning of the types of cloud migration process. This will have a great effect on all the strategies as well as the execution.Consider the urgency of the timeframe. The pressure could be imposed by several things such as business expansion or even regulations. If there is high pressure, it will push us towards the adoption of more effective methods but with a lot of over-haste.

Each Cloud Migration type: its Step by Step Guide

With Lift and Shift, applications are pushed to the cloud with little to no modifications. 

1. The first step to this would be the evaluation of the current architecture of the organization. Understand which applications lend themselves well to this method, and then simply move them to the cloud.
   
2. There is more to Rehosting or Replatforming than just moving apps. In this case, existing applications must be modified to some extent, but the fundamental code needs to stay the same. This step may include certain changes in style for integration purposes, yet it is easier than reengineering the entire model.
   
3. A more stringent approach to app change is referred to as Refactoring or Rearchitecting in practice. Cloud capabilities often necessitate certain portions of the application to be rewritten by the teams. This should be done by focusing on your architecture and which parts of it would need changing.
   
4. Repurchasing means that the on-premise options used will be done away with and this only leaves SaaS options. Look at the available ones in the market and see if they can provide what you are looking for and whether they can fit with other existing ones.
   
5. Retiring, during migration, implies phasing out applications which are not critical. Retaining applications on the other hand, refers to retaining an application on a local server because it has some specific requirements or is for compliance reasons; such decisions have to be considered critically for the business goals – Application Deciding Framework.

Cloud Migration in Real Life Workplaces;

The challenge of cloud migration as previously mentioned has not deterred many organisations from reaping the benefits associated. An exceptional case is that of Netflix which moved from physical servers to entirely cloud based services. This shift improved not only the scalability of their needs but also the ability of the network to handle peak usage levels.

Airbnb is another significant case. When the team moved all of their data and application workload to the cloud, they reported an efficient operational deployment and low latency for users around the globe. The agility that they were afforded enabled them to cope without much hassle during a period of swift upsurge.

These cases also show how different organizations use cloud migration strategies based on their constituencies, with positive results in performance and creativity.

Conclusion: 

           There are many factors to be considered before defining the appropriate type of cloud migration for your business. Every strategy comes with its own benefits and tradeoffs suited to the specific needs and objectives of the organization.

The lift and shift method will be useful in such a case as it is possible to get the systems running quite fast with minimal replacement since speed is of essence. Re-factoring might however be the right option for you if you wish to improve performance or take advantage of other enhanced features in the process. In the end, if you manage to integrate your selected migration approach with business goals, the likelihood of success exponentially increases.