The great cloud migration slowdown was generally thought to have been triggered by COVID-19, but it had the opposite effect. What will cloud adoption look like when the masks fall off? In the corporate world, pain tends to be the trigger for change. In recent weeks, companies that have switched to the public cloud have had a strategic advantage over those that are still predominantly using traditional data centers. As workplace and store closures across the United States have driven more activity online, “cloud-computing businesses” are emerging as one of the few commercial winners in the post-COVID era, according to a study.
Traditional data centers are managed by workers who may not be able to operate remotely due to enforced lockdowns or even self-quarantine. These difficulties are not a concern for those who have shifted to public clouds. The virtual and extensive quality of the future of cloud computing, which has concerned many IT professionals in recent years, is one of the key reasons for switching to public cloud. The priority will move away from high-speed lift and shift to application upgrades and advancements that make use of the target public cloud’s existing features. By 2022, the global public cloud services industry is expected to grow by over 22%, generating nearly $482 billion USD.
What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration is the process of moving digital enterprise processes to the cloud. Cloud migration is similar to physical relocation in that it includes transferring data, apps, and IT processes from one datacenter to another rather than physically moving items. Importance of cloud migration, like moving from a smaller to a larger office, involves considerable planning and preparation, but it is usually well worth the effort, as it results in cost savings and more flexibility. According to a study conducted after Covid-19’s impact, 87% of “global IT decision-makers” believed Covid-19 would encourage businesses to accelerate their cloud migration.
What is the 4-step cloud migration process?
- Cloud Migration Plan:
Identifying the use case for which the public cloud will be used is one of the first tasks to be done before transferring data to the cloud. Is it possible to host all of an enterprise’s workloads in the cloud? Will a hybrid deployment approach be the most effective? It’s vital to evaluate your business at this stage and determine what aspects, such as core application data, legacy data, and application compatibility, will regulate the transfer.
It’s also crucial to assess your data dependency: do you have data that has to be resynchronized on a regular basis, do you have data compliance responsibilities to meet, or do you have non-critical data that can be moved in the first few migration runs? Recognizing which data must be migrated and when, as well as whether or not the data requires any scrubbing, the type of destination volumes to use, and whether or not data encryption is required both at rest and in transit, can assist you in developing a good strategy for the tools you’ll require during migration.
Business Case for Migration:
Once you’ve determined your enterprise’s requirements, learn about the essential services provided by cloud providers and other partners, as well as their cost. Determine the estimated benefits of cloud migration in three dimensions: operational benefits, cost savings, and architectural enhancements. Create a business case for each application you want to move to the cloud, comparing the cloud’s predicted total cost of ownership (TCO) against the present TCO.
Use cloud cost calculators to predict future cloud expenses based on reasonable assumptions such as the quantity and kind of storage needed, computing resources, instance types, operating systems, and particular performance and networking requirements. Consult with cloud computing service providers to see if there are any cost-cutting options for your upcoming cloud adoption to meet business plans.
Execution of Cloud Data Migration:
The migration must be carried out once the business has been assessed and a strategy has been created. The main goal here is to finish your migration with as little downtime as feasible, at the lowest cost, and in the shortest period of time possible. You risk disrupting your business operations if your data becomes inaccessible to users during a relocation.
You can continue to sync and update your systems in the same way after the first transfer. Each individual workload element should be proven to operate in the new environment before migrating another workload element. You’ll also need to find out how to maintain source data updates synchronized while the migration is going on.
Ongoing Maintenance:
It’s vital to ensure that data is optimized, secure, and accessible in the future once it’s been moved to the cloud. It also assists in the real-time monitoring of critical infrastructure and the forecasting of workload contention. In addition to real-time monitoring, you should assess the security of data at rest to ensure that working in your new environment conforms with regulatory compliance regulations. If your RPO and RTO objectives change, it’s also important to remember to meet ongoing performance and availability standards.
What are the common cloud migration challenges?
- Inadequate Planning:
Many businesses go into cloud migration without giving their strategy adequate attention. For effective cloud acceptance and implementation, an end-to-end cloud migration plan is necessary. Each application and dataset may have its own set of requirements and concerns, necessitating the development of a custom cloud migration approach. Each activity that is moved to the cloud by the organization must have a compelling business case.
- Cost Management:
Many businesses haven’t established clear KPIs to assess how much money they anticipate to save or spend after moving to the cloud. As a result, establishing whether migration was economically beneficial is difficult. Furthermore, because cloud systems are dynamic, costs can change substantially when new services are implemented and application demand grows.
- Locked-in-Vendors:
Vendor lock-in is a common problem among cloud technology customers. Although cloud companies provide a wide range of services, many of them are not transferable to other cloud platforms. Migration of workloads from one cloud to another is a time-consuming and expensive process. Many companies begin using cloud services only to learn that moving providers is difficult if the current provider no longer satisfies their requirements.
- Data Security & Compliance:
Cloud migration is limited by two major roadblocks: data security and compliance. Cloud services follow a shared responsibility paradigm, in which they are in charge of infrastructure security while the client is in charge of data and workload security. While the cloud provider may provide advanced security features, it is your company’s responsibility to ensure that they are configured correctly and that all services and apps have the required security controls.
What are the various cloud migration strategies?
The “5 R’s” are a phrase that refers to a number of cloud migration strategies:
- Rehost:
Rehosting is the same thing, but on cloud servers. Companies must choose an IaaS provider and use this strategy to rebuild their application architecture on that infrastructure.
- Refactor:
Refactoring, as opposed to rehosting, allows businesses to reuse existing code and frameworks while running their applications on a PaaS platform rather than an IaaS platform.
- Revise:
This strategy comprises rewriting or expanding the code base in parts, then rehosting or rearranging it for distribution.
- Rebuild:
Rebuilding an application from the ground up on the platform of a PaaS provider is required. This is a time-consuming process, but it allows developers to take use of current PaaS features.
- Replace:
Businesses can also choose to use pre-built SaaS applications from third-party vendors instead of their current software.
What are the main benefits of cloud migration?
Here are some of the reasons why businesses should move their data to the public cloud:
- Scalability:
Cloud computing is much more scalable than on-premises infrastructure when it comes to serving additional applications and users. In traditional IT environments, organizations had to purchase and set up physical servers, software licenses, storage, and network equipment in order to scale up commercial services.
- Cost:
IT Consulting Companies that go to the cloud may save a lot of money on IT operations since cloud providers handle maintenance and updates. They will be able to devote more resources to innovation, such as developing new products or improving existing ones.
- Performance:
Migrating to the cloud can increase speed and improve customer satisfaction. Cloud-hosted apps and websites can scale fast to serve more users or offer more throughput, and they can run near to end users to reduce network latency.
- Digital Experience:
Users may access cloud services and data from anywhere, whether they are employees or clients. This helps with digital transformation, enhances customer experience, and provides employees with up-to-date, adaptive technology.
Wrapping Up:
Enterprises that accept change are more likely to adopt new technologies like cloud migration, artificial intelligence, and edge computing, which were previously thought to be too risky to even discuss in meetings. The business will become more flexible as a result of this willingness to accept change and disruption, allowing it to better react to customer and market dynamics. Enterprises can start embarking on cloud transformation for their business at an affordable price by connecting with the world’s leading cloud migration services.
