Cloud migration strategies

When organizations face decisions about legacy or outdated resources, they typically have seven strategic options. These options generally fall into three main categories: keep-as-is, lift-and-shift migration, and cloud-native transformation.

Each option has advantages and disadvantages, particularly when considering time, cost, and potential opportunities. Let's take a look at them.

Keep-as-is

When planning a cloud migration, it's important to recognize that not all applications are suitable for the cloud. In some cases, maintaining the status quo or retiring the application altogether might be more practical rather than migrating it.

• Retire - This option is best suited for resources where the costs of maintenance outweigh the benefits. This might include rarely used applications, resources that no longer serve a business purpose, or duplicate resources resulting from mergers and acquisitions.
• Retain - Retaining a resource is typically necessary when contractual obligations, budget constraints, or technical limitations prevent cloud migration.

Lift-and-shift migration

Lift-and-shift migration is the fastest way to migrate applications to the cloud. It involves minimal effort and code changes, making it a quick and easy solution. However, this approach only partially utilizes cloud-native features and may not provide the optimal benefits of cloud services.

• Relocate - If your application is containerized using technologies like Docker or Kubernetes, migrating it to the cloud is straightforward. This approach requires minimal effort, as the containerized workloads can be easily deployed onto cloud platforms without significant code changes or extensive testing.
• Rehost - This is the simplest approach to cloud migration, involving minimal changes to the application and infrastructure. Applications are lifted from their on-premises environment and shifted directly to the cloud, often as virtual machines. While it's a quick and easy way to migrate, it doesn't fully leverage the cloud's potential benefits, such as scalability and elasticity. Common cases for rehosting include development and testing environments.
• Replatform - When an operating system, hardware, database, or any other resource reaches its end-of-life, re-platforming becomes a viable option. This involves modernizing the application by upgrading to a newer version, migrating to a 64-bit architecture, etc. While this approach requires more effort and testing, it enables organizations to provide additional but limited benefits of cloud-managed services, such as storage and monitoring.

Cloud-native transformation

A cloud-native transformation requires a significant upfront investment and a longer implementation timeline. However, it pays off in the long run by unlocking the full potential of cloud management services, leading to decreased costs over time.

• Repurchase - It involves acquiring cloud-compatible licenses for existing applications. This often involves transitioning to SaaS offerings of the same application. For example, if your organization used QuickBooks Desktop, you might consider transitioning to QuickBooks Online.
• Refactor - A significant application overhaul, including rearchitecting, rewriting code, and adopting modular design principles like microservices. This approach leverages the full capabilities of the cloud services. While it demands more time, resources, and highly skilled cloud experts, it ultimately leads to highly scalable, secure, and cost-effective applications.

AWS offers rich tools to help organizations with cloud migration, such as Data Transfer Service, Database Migration Service (DMS), Application Discovery Service (ADS), AWS Migration Hub, etc.

Not sure where or how to start with cloud migration? Reach me any time.