A Guide to Successful Cloud Migration

Cloud migration is not necessarily a new concept, but the adoption of this concept is only a recent development. Cloud computing is safe, convenient, and offers a dedicated check and balance when it comes to management and implementation costs. In essence, these are only a handful of some essential advantages that cloud computing has to offer. There is scalability, agility, DevOps initiation and integration, as well as ultimate protection and security of the data that resides in the cloud.

There are various things that might accompany your cloud migration decision. First of all, there are new technologies being introduced daily and that businesses might find of interest. If you want to make an impression on your business and grow further then it is advised that you grab cloud computing as soon as possible. to learn more about our cloud certifications. Connect with our experts to learn more about our cloud certifications. 

What Is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is the practice of relocating the company's data, applications and workloads to a cloud-intensive infrastructure. It is the ultimate turn that an organization can take in the course of its continuity of services. It can help them cut costs, re-plan the entire development and deployment strategy at hand, and assess the company's future goals.

It is possible that an organization might only choose the relocation of all of their computing assets and elements to the cloud, but a few confidential parts and assets might still remain in-house due to the security basis. It will make the companies shake off their dependency on physical workplaces while introducing virtual management of the resources.

There are two distinctive classes of cloud migration; the first one is the migration of the cloud systems from one cloud to another, and then there is the migration of the assets, data and processes from cloud systems back to the on-premises. It depends on what your priorities are and what you are going to use the service for.

The cloud types used within the migration of these systems might involve one or more clouds. Some of these clouds are public, and some are private. The private cloud systems are only available to specific organizations, and then there is a hybrid solution that will include both the on-premise and cloud intensive computing solutions.

Different cloud service models

There are various cloud service models, such as IaaS, PaaS and SaaS. The following is a clear-cut overview of the cloud models and which you should choose to:

IaaS is known as the infrastructure as a service model, and it does involve the partial or complete migration of the physical infrastructure of the cloud.

PaaS is the deployment of the cloud-based framework where developers get to have an experimental playground with tons of resources, regarding application optimization and building.

SaaS is known as software as a service; here, the cloud-based applications are hosted by a provider. It means that you don't have to worry about the availability of the resources to run the program, nor do you have to install something like software or an application. All it takes is an internet connection and a browser, as the apps you will be using are web-based. This way, you can ensure 24/7 access to these cloud-hosted environments without having to manage any part of it whatsoever.

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Deployment Models for the Cloud Systems

As mentioned earlier, there are three different types of cloud systems that are active and providing their diligent services to users, such as public, private and hybrid clouds. The following explains the differences between the public, hybrid and private cloud.

The public cloud is the most common cloud environment that is present to the organizations. Here the users would have to co-exist and share not only the server space but also other resources. But there is no extensive interruption or interference involved here, and that is why many people/companies love the idea of going with the public cloud. The majority of IT services have to buy the public cloud in order to ensure access anywhere and at any time all around the world. 

Private cloud is the type of cloud environment that is specifically designed and has customized elements intended to be used by a single organization. The data center might be available on-site for the enterprise or made available somewhere off-site. 

Hybrid cloud is the most intensive and complicated type of cloud model. When a concept of sharing some of the applications with the cloud interface while storing most of them on-premises is formulated, this is the type of cloud deployment system that comes into mind. Here an orchestrated arrangement is provided to the consumers, which they can alter or customize according to their own incentives. This on-premise setup is used for the storage of sensitive data while at the same time cloud computing is rendered from the cloud systems to take care of various complicated and resource-intensive tasks and processes.         

What Are the Benefits of Cloud Migration?

Most organizations are using the legacy interface to this date; it is a collection of the hardware and software-intensive elements. If you cling to the legacy interface, i.e., having your own maintenance team and implementation team to take care of the workload, then not only are you talking about man-hours on end but the dent it would create into your finances will also be taken into account. Hence the idea of cloud adoption is not only facilitated by these conglomerates and other digital companies, but it seems to be booming nowadays. There are various other potential benefits associated with it such as:

Optimization of the Costs

This is by far the most intriguing and exceptional benefit of creating ties with the cloud computing systems. You don’t have to worry about the implementation of the services, as it is done primarily by the cloud service providers. You also don’t have to intervene in any way for the maintenance or troubleshooting of the systems, something this typically happens just in case. So, what do you get? You get a wallet full of cash and unoccupied focus and attention of the employees that can be better utilized. What more do you want?

There are various different cloud providing platforms that are providing their services, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. And the most lucrative package is with the cloud service providers, as you are not overcharged even a dime and only pay for the services and resources that you are using or have utilized so far.

Extreme Agility

Cloud computing means that you are getting undivided and uninterrupted access to the full potential of the cloud. Just think about the deadlines of the projects that will be matched or overcome. This is the cloud-based agility we are talking about. You get responsiveness that is mind-blowing, and the computing force is simply amazing. This can provide you with a competitive edge in the market if you provide dedicated services to the clients.

Remote Access

The biggest and most sought advantage of cloud computing is the virtual access to your data, applications and assets. This usability can not only be extended to your employees but to your clients or end-users as well. All you need is an active internet connection to have access to your dedicated cloud computing interface, and then you will be in the game. There are some strict guidelines and authentication systems in place to provide you access and verify the authenticity of the request made to access the cloud systems, but that is also for your own good.

Just think about it, you can do business from any part of the world, and that is the most lucrative use companies find for cloud systems.

Unbeatable Computing Force

When you migrate your services and applications to the cloud, you get access to some of the top-rated resources, and you can also adopt newer technologies for a competitive edge faster than you think. Also, you don’t have to worry about the overall compute force, as you can upgrade and downgrade at any given moment, depending on your scalability needs. Other than that, you also won’t have to worry about the downtimes at all, as this is a cloud intensive environment. Someone is always monitoring those systems and managing their working to make sure that you bump into fewer downtimes and can ensure better productivity and efficiency of the service rendered.

Scalability

If there is one thing that you won’t have to face as a problem when dealing with cloud computing, it is the limitation of cloud resources. You have an essence of scalability lurking with you at all times, which means that you can scale up and scale down according to your own distinct requirements. Add in a few services, and you can instantly take care of a more comprehensive consumer base and remove a few services if the work is not that intensive, and you get to save substantially in terms of costs and billing. You have full control over the scalability of things, and there is simply nothing that can stop you from scaling all the way up if need be.

Cloud makes it easier and affordable to have that essence of customization of the services according to your requirements, and the costs overhead also become nominal.

Cloud Migration Strategies: The 5 R's of the Cloud Migration

Five different cloud migration strategies are implemented while migrating your assets, data or applications to the cloud systems.

Rehost

This is a complete shifting of all your data, assets and other dedicated applications from the on-premises setup to a cloud intensive environment. That is why another name for this process is the classic lift and shift because you shift everything from the on-premises systems and dump it into the cloud. If you have a hard time understanding this process, consider an example: It is a simple copy and paste mechanism where you copy the data and applications from the on-premises and then paste it onto the intensive cloud servers.

Refactor

It is also called the lift, tinker and shift mechanism, as it involves a dedicatedly complex process that involves even the customization of the resources before these can be shifted to the cloud-based resources. Here, some of the optimizations are done to the company's legacy infrastructure while the PaaS cloud service gets adopted. It will definitely prove extremely beneficial for the developers, as they can experiment with the platform and take advantage of the cloud systems to its full potential.

Revise

This is the strategy that involves the complete rewrite or issuing some significant changes to the cloud architecture of the cloud before these systems can be uploaded or shifted to the cloud systems. This is done in order to optimize the assets or the applications that need to be shifted or migrated to the cloud systems to engage with the dedicated requirements of the cloud properly. Because the migratory assets, data or applications are not optimized according to the cloud's exact needs, the chances are these won't get published or migrated. Even if these do, users might experience severe glitches.

Revision can't be done without prior knowledge of the cloud systems; it means that you should not start with the process if you are not sure about executing it the right way. It might come out as a costly endeavor because, in doing so, you will have to either put a load of revising onto your on-premises team, or you would have to rely on outsourcing the whole project to some other development team.

Rebuild

It simply means that what you have right now can't be optimized for the cloud or can't work with the cloud at all. That is why you require the rebuild feature where you have to strip the entire code and architecture for your application and then correct it or build it bit by bit. Another reason for this approach might be that the business needs are changing, and technological advancements could not be met. This is the only way or reason why you require a rebuild of the application completely.

Replace

This is the approach or strategy where the whole application becomes obsolete or can't be updated to the cloud's current requirements and the clients in general. This is the reason to go for this approach in the first place when the application itself has become outdated, and there is no reason why you should keep updating or reconfiguring it. In any case, you must replace the existing application with a SaaS alternative or applications; this might be done in-house or publicly.

But many developers and engineers don't risk using the replace strategy due to their belief that the data is going to be lost forever, and it can't be resurrected. But that is not the case. The data will not be lost, and it can also be migrated over to third-party applications.

Cloud Migration Tools

If you want to migrate to the cloud, then you better know a lot about the cloud migration tools or at least what they do. If you are still running a legacy oriented infrastructure, then the chances are that you might not be able to implement or integrate those assets into the cloud. These tools ensure the effectiveness of the migration and the speed of the transfer without altering or affecting the routine operations of the cloud systems.

The following are some of the types of cloud migration tools:

SaaS tools

SaaS or software as a service-oriented tool works as an anchor between the on-premise applications and the cloud storage destinations. This is done to ensure that all the data can be transferred safely and lossless transfer of the data takes place even during the transit. It makes sure that the quality doesn’t get affected if you think that these tools might not be optimized for someone who has not used these before and will be quite difficult, but this is not the case with these tools. Because these tools are fairly optimized and user-friendly, and you will get your hands on the most optimized and automated essence of these tools.

Open Source Tools

These are the types of tools that are free to use and download from the internet. You will also be able to obtain their educated source code to customize or bring about any changes according to your own interests or requirements. If you are going to use these tools or progress with the idea of using them, then your development team should be able to customize these or change the source code to cater to your business and functional requirements.

Batch processing

The main purpose or use case, as can be derived from the name, is the transfer of large volumes of data. Batch processing tools are not that hard to deal with or use. In fact, these are extremely convenient to use. They are also automated to work at frequent intervals so that the natural congestion over the internet can be avoided.

Cloud Migration Plan

There might be too many details and things at work that go into devising a cloud migration plan or, for the best part of it, making sure that it corroborates with your current itinerary and migration requirements. Most of the time, this plan needs to be crafted well before the migration process has to start, as some inconsistency might arise. Then it will be taken care of ultimately. At first, you need to work on your cloud migration strategy, and once that has been developed and approved, you need to move with the planning stages of the migration.

A migration plan needs to be thorough and not without the minutest of the details. First of all, you must start with or take into account all of the workloads that need to be transferred to the cloud systems and the sequence using which it should be transferred. A step-by-step process can better help the people that are going to transfer the assets to the cloud systems. This will allow them to learn along the way about what will get migrated next and in what specific order. Sometimes the implementers begins with a single workload to start the migration that tests the process and assesses the outcome.

This is taken as the safe step that needs to be complete in order to make sure that nothing with a dedicated error or some other irregularity has made its way to the cloud. If something is caught beforehand that caused problems, then certain adjustments can be made before migrating it to the cloud systems.

The whole process will go seamlessly, as you will see while dealing with the migration process. Even if some errors as illustrated above come forth, these will be dealt with accordingly. That is why the split approach is used to make sure that all the errors and potential criticalities are taken care of beforehand so you won’t have to deal with them after migrating your system into the cloud.

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