12-27-21 | Blog Post

Cloud Migration Strategies and Challenges

Blog Posts

Advances in cloud technology over the past few years have made businesses more willing to ditch their traditional network infrastructure and migrate their applications to the cloud. The ability to easily scale up or down as needed, access data remotely, work flexibly, and save money in the development and maintenance of their technology infrastructure are some of the reasons that businesses have increasingly embraced the cloud. In 2018, the worldwide market for public cloud services was $175.8 billion; this market is projected to increase by 17.3 percent to $206.2 billion in 2019. What does this mean? Cloud adoption is still growing, and growing fast.

Before making the transition to the cloud; however, it is essential that you take some time to develop a comprehensive plan regarding how to migrate services to the cloud with minimal to no interruption in business operations and processes. Not having a well thought out plan may result in cloud migration failure and adversely impact your business. This post addresses some of the strategies as well as challenges of cloud migration so that you will be better informed and prepared when you decide to make the transition.

Cloud Migration Strategies

Depending on your business’s needs, there are several ways that you can switch your business services to the cloud. These include:

1)  REHOST

Re-host, also known as lift and shift, is one of the easiest and quickest ways to migrate your services to the cloud. With Re-host, your applications are simply transferred to the cloud without any modifications or reconfigurations done during this process. The major drawback to this approach is that since the applications are not optimized for the cloud, they may not work as expected and users may experience problems with its use.

2)  RE-PLATFORM

Re-platform is also known as “lift, tinker, and shift”. With this strategy, your applications are transferred over the cloud; however, the applications are reconfigured to make them cloud compatible. Reconfiguring the applications prior to cloud migration ensures that the applications work as designed with no issues or flaws.

3)  RE-PURCHASING

With re-purchasing, you let go of all your traditional legacy applications and switch over to cloud-native applications. This strategy should be considered if your traditional applications are nearing end-of-life and there are newer, improved versions available. Since the applications are cloud-native, you will not have to deal with compatibility issues.

4)  RE-FACTOR

This is also known as re-architect. This strategy involves a complete overhaul as well as the redesign of your applications with desired cloud-native features. Though this may be the most expensive option, it enhances your applications and helps to improve business continuity.

Challenges of Cloud Migration

Some of the pitfalls you need to be aware of when migrating to the cloud include:

1)  CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS

All cloud service providers are not the same. Different cloud service providers offer different services and have different service level agreements. It is therefore important to research and choose a cloud service provider whose offerings align with your business’ processes and goals. Choosing the wrong cloud service provider can hinder your business significantly.

2)  CLOUD SECURITY

With the cloud, there are multiple access points to your data and applications. As such, the attack surface for cybercriminals wishing to penetrate your network infrastructure is large. This is in contrast to traditional physical infrastructure which has fewer access points and a smaller attack surface for cybercriminals to exploit. Therefore, extra care must be taken to ensure the security of your cloud applications and data. Having a strong Identity and Access Management policy is one of the ways that you can control who has access to your cloud system.

3)  BAD DATA

Data integrity is essential for the optimal functioning of cloud services post-migration. Therefore, it is important to ensure quality data is migrated to the cloud in the first place. Measures should be taken to correct any bad data identified during the cloud migration process. The bad data can be corrected prior to migration, during migration, or post-migration.

The Bottom Line

At Otava, we know the various strategies for cloud migration and some of the potential pitfalls. We work with you to assess your cloud needs and develop a cloud migration strategy guaranteed to have minimal impact on your business’s operations. For more information about our services, contact us.

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