Two Key Questions Before Initiating a Cloud Migration

The expansion of remote teams is driving an accelerated cloud migration for many enterprises, but it is a process that requires important initial decisions. There is not a one-size-fits-all path for cloud migration, and two critical questions need to be addressed before pursuing a particular plan.

What Are the Options for Cloud Migration?

An enterprise may choose one of these three common paths, or they may determine that a hybrid approach is the best fit:

Rehosting, or Lift and Shift: This method for cloud migration does not require any code modification, but simply moves existing applications to the cloud. It offers a few advantages, including speed to migration and fewer resources, but enterprises generally give up some of the benefits associated with cloud computing, like elasticity. It is also considered less costly to implement, but enterprises often find that this approach is more costly in the long run than replatforming or refactoring.

Replatforming: Enterprises move applications to the cloud, but with some up-versioning that allows systems to benefit from cloud infrastructure. This approach takes more time than rehosting, but it uses immutable infrastructure to capture the benefits of base cloud functionality and cost reductions.

Cloud Native Migration: This is also called refactoring, and it requires more involved re-coding and re-architecting of an application to capture the benefits of cloud-native functionality, such as managed infrastructure or serverless options. While this is the most time-consuming cloud migration approach, it also offers the greatest advantages in terms of cost efficiencies and maximized productivity.

Which Option Is Right for Your Enterprise?

Teams should begin by evaluating infrastructure and workloads as a way to determine which should be retired and which should be migrated to the cloud. Considerations such as the business value, strategic benefits, and contribution to revenue should all help determine whether the application should be migrated and by which path.

Most decisions will be made to prioritize the lowest total cost of ownership possible. Resources are generally prioritized according to the strategic position of the technology.

Applications with the lowest value to the business may be best migrated through infrastructure automation that allows for the reinstallation of the app in the cloud on a virtual machine. Applications with a higher value to the business will require a full cost-benefit analysis to determine whether a cloud native migration is beneficial. Because of budget constraints, this approach may be reserved for only a small number of applications.

Each cloud migration is different, so it is important that enterprises maximize the benefits of the cloud by detailing organizational goals and the workloads that make reaching them possible.If your enterprise is contemplating a strategy that includes cloud migration, contact us at AMD Technology. We will guide you through the process – determining the right path for migration and then selecting the right provider for your business goals, budget, and requirements.