Navigating the Cloud Migration Journey 

Cloud migration involves moving applications, data, or infrastructure from an existing environment to the cloud. A successful migration starts with understanding the business need, assessing the current environment, and planning how the application will operate after the move.

This article explores when to consider cloud migration, common challenges, planning priorities, and the role of an experienced migration partner.

How Cloud Adoption Became a Business Decision

Many industries set visions for the future and encourage organizations to adopt their vision. The technology industry is well-known for declaring the next great shift to the future.

There will be interested parties that will immediately adopt the vision. These early adopters test the validity and shape the vision’s practicality. For visions that truly gain traction because of the demonstrated value they offer, adoption grows.

There may be setbacks, but as practical solutions are found and validity is continually demonstrated, growth continues. Eventually, proven vision becomes utilitarian. This is what’s known as the hype cycle. 

The adoption of cloud technology is no doubt one of the most well-known, and most successful examples of a technology vision that has reached what the hype curve terms the Plateau of Productivity.

The Plateau of Productivity doesn’t mean that it’s about to fall off a cliff. Rather, it means that its value, while still growing, has been consistently proven. 

Today, as new applications are developed, one must make a strong case against building an application that won’t be deployed to the cloud. This applies to applications of any size. 

At the same time, there are still many applications that started their life in on-premise environments. Whether it be an application housed within a corporation’s private data center, or larger applications hosted by third-party infrastructure providers, organizations are considering whether the move to the cloud is beneficial.

The question is: “What business value will be derived by moving our application to the cloud provide?”

Often this question is answered by looking at costs. Does a move to the cloud improve the bottom line by reducing costs? This is a valid question.

At the same time, as the cloud adoption hype curve evolved, another shift has occurred. Rather than looking at application infrastructure as a cost center, successful, growing businesses are reviewing their current and future investments in technology as developing a competitive advantage.

Investing in technology can be incremental, but the competitive advantage is often driven by the adoption of new technology. The discussion moves to how can an organization be more cost-efficient in their use of technology while leveraging advancements in technologies that would be challenging to develop or host in-house. 

When Should You Consider Cloud Migration?

Many organizations that host their own applications regularly ask this question. Wise stakeholders aren’t interested in hopping on the cloud bandwagon simply because everyone else is doing it.

At the same time, those stakeholders recognize that many organizations are adopting cloud strategies. They may become particularly interested when they discover their competition has successfully built for or migrated to the cloud.

As with other technology decisions, there must be a business need. The following factors may indicate that it’s time to look at a migration.

Hardware or Data Center Leases Are Ending

At face value, this is about cost. However, it may be the reason to take a serious look at the advantages of relevant cloud service offerings, beyond simply investing in a new set of hardware.

Infrastructure Limits Technology Choices

You’re locked into the current infrastructure. It’s challenging to make changes to environments, and technology choices are limited or difficult to adopt.

Cloud migration may offer an opportunity to review those constraints and consider services that better support the application’s needs.

Hardware or Data Center Leases Are Ending

At face value, this is about cost. However, it may be the reason to take a serious look at the advantages of relevant cloud service offerings, beyond simply investing in a new set of hardware.

Infrastructure Limits Technology Choices

You’re locked into the current infrastructure. It’s challenging to make changes to environments, and technology choices are limited or difficult to adopt.

Cloud migration may offer an opportunity to review those constraints and consider services that better support the application’s needs.

User Demand Changes Throughout the Year

Many applications are cyclical in use. They may have peaks at certain times of day, at the end of the month, or during a particular season. Conversely, those same applications may have extended periods of lower demand.

Scalability is the ability to adjust capacity to support changing demand. Elasticity allows resources to expand and contract as demand changes, often automatically.

Building infrastructure to handle peaks can leave a lot of hardware idle during slower periods. Overprovisioning for those peaks can become costly.

Migrating to the cloud is not a cure for every infrastructure challenge. However, the appropriate use of cloud services can help address these issues.

 Common Cloud Migration Challenges

Some organizations have migrated to the cloud without realizing the expected benefits of cloud-based application deployment.

The challenge is not always that the selected provider lacks the required services. Major cloud providers offer a broad range of services and infrastructure options. Organizations still need to understand which options fit their applications and business needs.

Choosing the Right Lift-and-Shift Approach

Lift and shift is a term often used when moving applications. It involves moving an application to a new environment with minimal changes to the application itself.

A lift-and-shift migration can increase total cost of ownership if the existing environment is moved without reviewing resource sizing, service choices, and ongoing operating costs.

The issue is not that lift and shift cannot work in the cloud. It is understanding the appropriate migration path and services to use.

 

Understanding the Existing Environment

Capable operations or DevOps teams can execute a lift-and-shift cloud migration. However, the steps required to reach the execution stage may be more involved than anticipated.

Regardless of the detail included in architecture and playbook documentation, some implementation details may be missing.

Missteps during migration can be challenging. The greater challenge is learning and fully understanding what will be moved and how it will operate in the new environment.

What to Plan Before Cloud Migration

Migrating to the cloud is an involved process. It needn’t be unnecessarily complex or difficult, but it needs to be planned.

Organizations will have different tasks to address. Identifying and prioritizing these tasks is the first step toward a successful cloud migration.

The following considerations are not exhaustive, but they provide a starting point for an organization’s migration strategy.

Review Documentation and Knowledge Gaps

Review current build and deployment documentation and knowledge bases for gaps.

Some gaps may emerge while executing the migration, but reviewing the current state can minimize surprises. Important knowledge may also exist only in someone’s head.

Independent of the migration effort, uncovering and documenting that knowledge is an asset to the organization.

Identify Business Process Dependencies

Applications are developed for use by businesses. It’s an obvious statement, but it can be overlooked by those focused on application deployment.

Multiple business processes are affected by an application’s build and deployment strategy. Delivering features to users is one example.

Like technical documentation, business process documentation can be at different stages of maturity. Some knowledge may be maintained simply by word of mouth.

Identify the points where business processes and application deployment connect. These dependencies need to be understood before migration begins.

Address Security, Compliance, and Auditing

Cloud providers offer services that support a range of security and regulatory requirements. Understanding your organization’s requirements is important to a successful migration.

Identify which activities need to be audited and how that auditing will work in the new environment.

Review existing application auditing to confirm that it will continue to meet requirements after migration. Any auditing or tracing outside the application’s scope also needs to be accounted for.

Prepare Your Team Through Training

When migrating to the cloud, there’s a lot to learn. Topics include network topology, effective use of services, deployment strategies, and cost structures.

Educating the people responsible for each aspect of cloud deployment is essential.

Investing in team education helps support application reliability, cost control, and service to users. It is foundational to the migration’s success.

Working With a Cloud Migration Partner

While many migration tasks can be addressed internally, there may be benefits to partnering with an organization that has experience in cloud migrations.

Large cloud providers offer a wide range of services. Even when choosing a familiar service, such as a database or virtual machine, the options can be overwhelming.

Document the Current Environment

Choosing cloud services isn’t the first step.

Understanding and documenting the current inventory of applications, support services, and infrastructure may be a substantial effort. Developing or improving the current environment’s documentation is an essential part of migration planning.

Understanding what exists is the first step in knowing how a cloud deployment should be configured.

Maintain Operations During Migration

Business as usual must continue.

Internal resources will play key roles in the migration process. Those same people are also servicing and supporting current applications and infrastructure.

A partner can help by:

• Working alongside existing teams.
• Gathering information to complete documentation of existing systems.
• Preparing cloud deployment proposals for review.
• Guiding the development of an execution process.
• Supporting the team through each phase of migration.
• Updating final documentation to reflect changes made during rollout.

This support helps the organization move forward while maintaining its existing responsibilities.

Prepare for Ownership After Migration

A good partner will assist in all cloud migration phases, including defining each phase. They will help keep stakeholders and the people executing the migration informed throughout the process.

After migration, the organization should have the documentation, knowledge, and processes needed to support the new environment.

While a good partner may remain available, the goal is to leave the organization able to operate and maintain its cloud deployment.

Make an Informed Cloud Migration Decision

Cloud technology has demonstrated its value. At the same time, not every migration delivers the expected benefits.

Is the cloud the right place for every application? As with most technologies, the answer is no. The decision should reflect the application’s requirements, the business need, and the investment involved.

Is it the right time to migrate your applications to the cloud, beyond following what others are doing?

Assess your current environment. Review the services cloud providers offer. Consider the investment required and the return expected on that investment. In other words, make an informed decision.

An organization can execute a cloud migration internally. An experienced partner can also help guide, assist, and educate the team throughout the process.

If you’re ready to discuss your application and cloud migration needs, schedule a free consultation with SOLTECH.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cloud Migration

What is cloud migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving applications, data, or infrastructure from an existing environment to the cloud. It involves assessing the current environment, selecting a migration approach, and planning how systems will operate after the move.

When should a business consider cloud migration?

Consider cloud migration when aging infrastructure, expiring hardware leases, limited technology choices, or changing demand create business challenges. The decision should be based on expected business value, application requirements, and total cost of ownership.

Does cloud migration always reduce costs?

No. Costs depend on resource sizing, service choices, licensing, usage, and ongoing management. Moving an existing environment without reviewing these factors can increase costs. Compare migration expenses and projected operating costs with the cost of maintaining the current environment.

What should an organization assess before migrating to the cloud?

Assess applications, infrastructure, dependencies, documentation gaps, and business processes. Review security, compliance, auditing, training, and support requirements. This assessment helps the team choose suitable cloud services and plan the migration.

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Ray Elenteny

Solution Architect

Ray Elenteny is a seasoned Solution Architect with an impressive career spanning over 35 years in the IT industry. He finds great fulfillment in leveraging his vast experience to guide organizations in delivering top-notch applications that generate substantial business value. Ray’s enthusiasm for software engineering has been a driving force throughout his career, and over the past 10 years or so, Ray has taken a keen interest in the cultural and technical dynamics of efficiently delivering applications.

Drawing from his extensive experience as a Solution Architect, Ray shares his expertise through insightful writings that cover various aspects of software engineering, Kubernetes, application development, and the essential cultural and technical factors that contribute to the successful and streamlined delivery of high-quality applications. His writings provide valuable guidance to individuals and organizations seeking to optimize their application development processes and maximize business impact.