Cloud migration is an extremely popular and efficient strategy designed for migrating the information or application software stored on-premise systems to the cloud environment. This is usually used for business strategies to transfer files such as databases, data, and computer processes to the cloud.
Now you may be wondering, how shall one successfully migrate their application to the cloud? The answer to this question is perfectly explained in our article as we will help you through this in a step-by-step process for a successful cloud migration. Follow our guide below to understand this migration process in a detailed manner.
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Why do we migrate applications to the cloud?
Among enterprises, cloud migration to the cloud is becoming very popular. According to a report, the cloud migration business is to reach 628.83 billion by the next five years.
Now many people are migrating their applications to the cloud because they are seeing some benefits. Some of them are:
- Cost-effective
Cloud providers are generally simpler and require services with lower costs such as upgrades and maintenance.
- Higher throughput
This means that the performance is enhanced since more users can be served through the cloud and the end-user experience is much better.
- Larger scale
Cloud environment offers a larger scale as a huge amount of users and workload is supported compared to on-premise systems.
Steps to migrate an application to the cloud
Now to achieve this successful migration of our applications to the cloud, let us follow a set of steps below:
1. Assess the application beforehand
This step is the first step that is crucial to proceed further. You will need to study your application beforehand to check its readiness for the cloud. For example, you may need to redesign or alter some of your application slightly so that it meets the performance requirement.
When you choose the desired application for migration, make sure to look at its cloud readiness, hardware, storage, and operating system as well as workload limits.
Decide on how much data you want to transfer to the cloud and keep a record of their workload performance so that you may compare when in cloud trials.
2. Check for any application updates.
To successfully migrate your applications to the cloud, check for any case of refactoring, lifting shifting, or applying containers. These are the different methods used for understanding the cloud readiness of an application.
In refactoring, the native cloud computing environments are employed for their features and functions. This means that your application will run faster and smoother as the developers can explore the vast capabilities of the cloud and further increase parameters like speed or quality. However, refactoring can be time-consuming depending on application type.
Lifting and shifting allow you to copy your application and reinstall it in the cloud on a specific platform. This is on a smaller scale compared to refactoring, but it is also faster and less risky at the same time.
Lastly, containers modify your applications by lifting and shifting some of the components while refactoring the others. Containers are a working unit of software where the code for the application is stored along with the libraries that will allow the application to run.
More importantly, containers slowly migrate your application to the cloud without entirely refactoring the whole application. This reduces the time to mitigate risk.
3. Compare your cost investments and performances
Once you have checked the cloud readiness and the method for cloud migration, follow up by studying your cost prices for running the application on-premises and on the cloud. Compare the two results and choose the cost-effective one. You will have to remember to include the hardware and software types as well as the time for refactoring for cloud migration to analyze your costs. Compare the performance and workload of both methods.
4. Pick the correct cloud environment
To run smoothly and effectively, it is important to choose the right environment for cloud migration. There are generally 4 types of cloud environments that include:
- Multi-cloud
- Public cloud
- Private cloud
- Hybrid cloud
Some things to consider when you choose your cloud environment are application performance and workload so that they perform well and do not become the downfall instead and cause a loss of profit.
5. Confirm your Cloud service provider
There are several Cloud service providers (CSP) you may opt for but there are some things that you might want to keep in mind before choosing the right Cloud service provider for yourself. These usually include the Cloud service provider’s performance, data security, certifications, migration support, and many more parameters.
According to the qualities they offer, you may want to choose the appropriate cloud service provider. Some of the common CSPs are the Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, Amazon web services, and Oracle Cloud.
The bottom line
We hope that to increase the performance, cost-effectiveness, and resilience of your application you have read clearly through this article to successfully migrate your application to the cloud. This will be a turn in the positive direction for your application and by following our steps properly you will be perfectly well-versed with this process.
Author
Boris Shiklo
The CTO at ScienceSoft since 2003, Boris has established high quality standards for software solutions and IT services. Boris ensures that ScienceSoft’s programming competencies are relevant to ever-evolving needs of businesses. Under his management, ScienceSoft has successfully started data science, big data, and IoT technology directions. Boris authored and co-authored more than 50 publications.
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