Cloud Migration Strategy

A cloud migration strategy is a well-defined plan that outlines the processes needed for an organization to move its data, applications, and infrastructure from on-premises or legacy systems to a cloud-based environment. Although some organizations may manage their own private cloud, the more common approach is to use a public cloud through a provider.

With each year, more businesses are migrating to the cloud, and cloud spending continues to increase. Consider the following stats:

• Gartner forecasts that spending on public cloud services worldwide will reach US$679 billion in 2024, an increase of 20.4% from the year before.
• Research from Forrester expects that revenue from infrastructure, database and analytics, development services, and cloud applications will grow to exceed US$1 trillion by 2026.
• The 2024 State of the Cloud Report by Flexera shows both enterprises and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have at least 50% of their application workloads in the public cloud, with more planned to migrate to the public cloud in the next 12 months.
• A survey from the New Stack shows the shift away from on-premises data centers, with use cases spanning different types of clouds. For example, 98% of survey respondents said that they host their applications in the public cloud, while 43% also host their applications in off-premises private clouds.

When formulating a cloud migration strategy, an enterprise must have clear thinking and proper planning. In this blog post, we’ll provide a complete overview of the task of cloud migration. We’ll look at key benefits, common strategies, and the steps you need to formulate a successful cloud migration strategy. Along the way, we’ll also highlight key migration challenges.

Let’s begin by looking at some noteworthy cloud migration benefits.

At the end of the day, a successful cloud migration should result in an IT infrastructure that is scalable, resilient, and secure. The ideal post-migration infrastructure is one that can seamlessly adapt to changing business needs while supporting innovation and growth. What is the business case for reaching this end goal? The benefits of cloud migration include:

• Cost savings
• Performance and availability
• Scalability
• Digital transformation
• Faster development

A cloud migration effort typically involves one or more of the following common strategies — also known as the 6 Rs of cloud migration (Figure) — including:

1. Rehosting
2. Retiring
3. Retaining
4. Replatforming
5. Refactoring
6. Rearchitecting

A successful cloud application migration strategy is one that aligns with your organization’s objectives. To reach your desired outcomes, you need a strategy for cloud migrations that takes into account your current IT landscape and outlines a clear path for you to get there. At a high level, a successful strategy should follow these guidelines:

• Establish clear goals. Examples of goals include cost savings, improved performance, or increased agility. Clearly defined objectives help guide decision-making throughout the cloud migration process, including selecting the most suitable cloud provider, choosing the appropriate migration strategy, and determining which applications and infrastructure components to migrate.
  
  Determine the metrics you need to track (for example, the daily cost of compute resources) before and after your migration, so that you can report to stakeholders on the cost-effectiveness of the effort.
• Assess your current IT landscape. By performing an assessment of your current IT landscape, you can identify the applications, data, and infrastructure components that are most suitable for migration. Having a baseline in place will help you evaluate the successfulness of your upgrades and cloud migration.
• Identify interdependencies and critical systems. By identifying potential bottlenecks, risks, and areas that require special attention during the migration process, businesses can better plan and prioritize their migration efforts, ensuring that crucial components migrate in a coordinated manner to minimize disruption and maintain business continuity.
• Prepare to address potential risks and challenges. These will include security, compliance, and downtime issues. Businesses can prepare adequately by implementing robust controls and creating contingency plans. For many organizations, a cloud migration effort is an ideal time to reassess and rework their disaster recovery plans.
• Use automation and infrastructure as code (IaC). Use automation tools and IaC to streamline the deployment, management, and scaling of cloud resources. These approaches can help reduce human error, improve consistency, and increase efficiency in your cloud operations.

By following these guidelines, businesses can increase their chances of a successful migration while mitigating potential risks and challenges. For a more detailed treatment of this subject, take a look at the ebook Maximizing return on cloud investments.

When it’s time to migrate to the cloud, follow these 8 concrete steps:

1. Select the appropriate cloud migration strategy
2. Choose the right cloud provider
3. Develop a migration plan
4. Establish a governance model
5. Upskill and train staff
6. Implement the migration in stages
7. Monitor and optimize
8. Review and iterate

Choose the appropriate cloud migration strategy (or mix of strategies on a per-workload basis) based on the goals and assessment results. Don’t move everything all at once. Developing a detailed migration plan that outlines the required resources, timelines, and responsibilities for each phase of the migration process is crucial for success.

Evaluate the offerings, capabilities, and pricing models of various providers to ensure that they align with your organization's goals, needs, and budget. Key factors to consider include:

• Data center locations
• Performance
• Scalability
• Security and compliance features
• Support for specific technologies or platforms
• Integration capabilities with your existing applications and systems
• Portability/minimal vendor lock-in

Assessing the provider's reputation, customer support, and long-term stability is also essential. Remember to evaluate the right cloud for each workload. Capabilities, locations, and costs vary. Take advantage of each one’s strengths for each workload.

Creating a comprehensive migration plan involves outlining the resources, timelines, and responsibilities required for each phase of the migration process. This plan should take into account the chosen cloud migration strategy, the specific applications and infrastructure components to be migrated, and their dependencies.

The plan should also include risk mitigation measures and contingency plans to address potential challenges. A detailed migration plan helps ensure a coordinated and efficient transition to the cloud. Don’t forget to include rollback thresholds and plans.

Define the policies that will govern the use and management of cloud resources. This model should include access control, security measures, cost management, and compliance requirements. A clear governance model helps maintain consistency and best practices across the organization.

Ensure that your team has the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively manage and optimize the cloud environment. This may involve providing training, hiring new talent, partnering with cloud experts, or selecting a cloud solution that leverages existing skills. Equipping your team with the right skills is essential to the long-term success of your cloud adoption.

Testing and validation at each stage of the migration ensure a smooth transition and minimize disruption to business operations.

Use monitoring data and real-time analytics to identify areas for optimization, such as resource allocation, cost management, and security improvements. Regular monitoring and optimization ensure that you are getting the most business value out of your cloud investment.

Regularly review the success of your cloud migration by assessing whether it meets the objectives set out in your cloud strategy. Use this information to refine your approach and make ongoing improvements to your cloud environment. This iterative process enables your organization to continually adapt to changing business needs and market conditions.

Even with guidelines and concrete steps to help you toward a successful cloud migration, your organization should be clear-eyed about the challenges common to such an effort. These challenges include:

• Security and compliance. Ensuring data security and meeting regulatory requirements can be challenging, especially in multicloud and hybrid cloud environments. Implement robust security controls and work with your cloud service provider to maintain compliance.
• IT support and skill set. Migrating to the cloud requires new skills and expertise in areas including DevOps, virtual machines (VMs), and containerization. Invest in training existing staff or hire cloud experts to support the migration process and ongoing management.
• Budgeting and cost management. Although the cloud can provide cost savings, unexpected expenses can arise during the migration or because of improper resource management. Develop a comprehensive budget and track expenses to avoid cost overruns.
• Infrastructure compatibility. Not all applications and systems are compatible with cloud environments; incompatibility may require modifications or replacements. Assess compatibility early and plan for necessary changes.
• Data migration and integrity. A high-volume data transfer can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Use reliable data migration tools and ensure data integrity through validation processes.
• Downtime and business continuity. Minimize downtime by scheduling migration during periods of low demand and having a rollback plan in case of issues. Implement disaster recovery and backup strategies for business continuity.
• Change management and organizational resistance. Cloud migration can impact workflows, roles, and responsibilities. Address potential resistance through clear communication, training, and stakeholder involvement.

These challenges must not be ignored, but don’t worry: Your cloud migration is achievable with the right help.