Introduction to cloud migration
Understanding cloud migration, its benefits, and what’s involved in the process can help you choose the best strategy for a seamless transition to the cloud.
The global pandemic has accelerated many companies’ move to the cloud, enabling them to reinvent their operations and become more cost-efficient, agile, and innovative. As an on-demand, self-service environment, the cloud has become essential for achieving end-to-end digital transformation. Now more than ever, the cloud is vital for businesses to reopen, reinvent, and navigate uncertainty.
What is cloud migration?
Cloud migration involves moving a company’s digital assets, services, databases, IT resources, and applications—either partially or entirely—into the cloud. It can also mean moving from one cloud environment to another. Businesses looking to move away from outdated, inefficient legacy infrastructures, such as aging servers or unreliable firewall appliances, are increasingly turning to the cloud for the benefits of cloud computing. This is why many organizations are at least making a partial migration to the cloud.
Cloud migration is critical for achieving real-time performance and efficiency, requiring careful analysis, planning, and execution to ensure the cloud solution aligns with your business needs. It’s important to understand that cloud migration is not just about getting there; it’s also about optimizing operations once you’ve arrived. For example, companies need to consider how to rebuild applications to perform optimally in the cloud. This leads to questions like: What is application modernization?
There are many considerations along the way, and businesses of all sizes need assistance in navigating their cloud journeys. Consequently, many service firms offer capabilities in lift-and-shift cloud migration or classic modernization services like automated language translation and re-platforming.
What are the benefits of cloud migration?
Cloud migration offers significant benefits, including reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO), speeding up delivery times, and enhancing opportunities for innovation. The cloud provides agility and flexibility, which are crucial for meeting evolving consumer and market demands. Recent trends show companies migrating services and data to the cloud to adapt to increased online demand and remote work, leading to a cloud transformation that will drive business growth in the years ahead.
Benefits of cloud migration include:
- Increased agility and flexibility
- Faster innovation
- Better management of resource demands
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Cost reduction
- Immediate business results
- Simplified IT operations
- Shift to everything-as-a-service
- Enhanced consumption management
- Cloud scalability
- Improved performance
How does the cloud migration process work?
Before beginning the migration process, it’s crucial to understand what’s involved. Moving to the cloud can be transformative for your entire business, so starting with an end-to-end view of the cloud journey is essential. This approach will help identify the capabilities and activities needed for successful execution across the three main cloud migration steps:
- Define your strategy and build your business case:
Start by asking, “What’s the business value of moving to the cloud?” A cloud migration should be rooted in business outcomes—specific objectives the company aims to achieve. Based on these objectives, develop a cloud migration strategy and business case, determining which applications to move, to which cloud environment, and what the final infrastructure should look like. - Discovery and assessment:
Managing risk is a key component of any business. It’s important to understand your current state through discovery and assessment—scanning and assessing your existing infrastructure, application, and data landscape. This helps determine the most appropriate applications and data to migrate to the cloud. - Cloud migration:
This is the phase where the actual migration occurs, involving the modernization of existing applications, development of new cloud-native applications, and transformation of architecture and infrastructure. The goal is to create a new technology operating model and culture that enables the company to innovate more quickly and efficiently. Automated management and migration tools play a crucial role in ensuring a smooth migration, helping to accelerate the process while maintaining quality and consistency.
By following these steps and utilizing specialized tools and skills, businesses can achieve a successful cloud migration, setting the stage for long-term growth and innovation.
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