As much as Cloud is gaining popularity amongst businesses, it is important to note that Cloud migration does not happen overnight. A well thought out application migration strategy, the right cloud platform & tool, and proper security layers depending on your application type are necessary. Sometimes it is even indispensable to remould your applications to leverage the maximum benefits out of the cloud migration. Some of the key points to consider while moving to cloud are:
- Full understanding of the migrating components
Whether you are migrating an application, Data Center or infrastructure, it is important to have a thorough understanding of how the component works, and what can be expected out of a cloud-based platform. Having a performance metrics that lists down your application’s current performance and expected performance will ensure proper refactoring of the component and ensure optimum functionality and scalability. That is half the battle won.
- Adjusting the applications
There are two ways to approach a migration strategy. Either the lift-and-shift method where the applications are just lifted from the ground and taken to cloud just as it is. This however comes with a bunch of challenges such as legacy applications, high maintenance cost etc. So instead of a lift-and-shift approach, organizations should refactor the applications to ensure they are compatible with Cloud. This will ensure high performance and low maintenance.
- Scalability
When it comes to Cloud, scalability is an important factor and it mainly depends on understanding which application is bound and which application can be scaled horizontally. Horizontal scalability is the ability to increase capacity by connecting multiple hardware or software entities so that they work as a single logical unit. When there is no horizontal scaling, there would be diminishing returns and system resistance.
- Selection of tool
Selecting the tool is a tricky task. It depends on your requirements, servers and also the people who manage them. They have to first rehash the way they look at their servers. The important thing here is to build a blueprint to automate small things such as operating systems and VMs. A lot of cloud providers offer back ends such as XenDesktop or a familiar hypervisor that people can work their way into.
- Availability
One of the major ROI organizations are going to leverage through Cloud is minimum downtime. Unlike physical infrastructure, cloud comes with in-built features to eliminate downtime. This will help organizations to organize applications and infrastructure accordingly. Also, a lot depends on how we manage Disaster recovery. When a particular part goes down, it is simply removed and replaced. That’s how cloud works.
- Cost
One of the best approaches to reduce cost is moving your development into DevOps (Agile development) while moulding your applications to become cloud-friendly. This will reduce massive amount of time and offer an opportunity to train and grow your organization. It is also important to create a strategy that suits your budget, requirement and expected scalability. This will eliminate unwanted cost and unanticipated changes.
Cloud Benefits
Cloud migration offers a bunch of benefits that will certainly boost your organizational growth and productivity. Some of the benefits of Cloud are increased traffic, Minimum operational costs, increased IT effectiveness, time-error-human control effort, less storage needs, efficient disaster recovery system, better tracking and upgrading etc. The key to maximize the benefits and minimize risks is to have a meticulous strategy in place before planning to go cloud. In short, take cloud migration as another step towards the overall efficiency increase and not as a way to get rid of your storage and maintenance agonies.
