The question for modern organizations is no longer “Do we move to cloud?”; instead it’s “When and how do we move to cloud?” Some IT departments get top down imperatives to move everything to cloud, while others seize the opportunities offered by impending license renewals or the possible loss of vendor support. Regardless of the […]
The question for modern organizations is no longer “Do we move to cloud?”; instead it’s “When and how do we move to cloud?” Some IT departments get top down imperatives to move everything to cloud, while others seize the opportunities offered by impending license renewals or the possible loss of vendor support. Regardless of the reason, critical decisions must be made to ensure a successful transition.
Every successful cloud migration begins with the same two steps. Invest the proper diligence in these decisions and you will maximize the value of your transition.
One of the first steps in any trip is to identify who’s going and determine what they need to pack; successful migrations are similar. What systems are migrating to the cloud? What aspects need to move? How soon do they need to get there? What baggage should they bring with them? Work with the business stakeholders of those systems to establish priorities for moving them to the cloud. Think about what they need to bring with them, especially with regard to data. At this early stage it is important to define the current state for business processes and consider your plan for migrating data or ensuring seamless interoperability between cloud data and legacy on-premise storage.
Once you have a destination in mind, you can pick a vehicle and plan your route. Stakeholder priorities, objectives and concerns can help you determine which cloud vendor to use and whether a public or private cloud (or both) is most appropriate. The major cloud providers all have similar feature-sets, so picking a target environment is usually a combination of price (each vendor provides a tool to gauge pricing), matching technology stacks with IT expertise and leveraging existing vendor relationships.
The more difficult—and more important—choice is choosing a method for the transition. You have three roads to choose from on your journey; this is the first option.
With Lift and Shift, current infrastructure is replicated in the cloud with minimal change in features. This model is a strategic choice to achieve greater flexibility and a broader range of services and features. It is often chosen when an expensive software license needs renewal, costly hardware demands replacement or security issues associated with the end of life arise.
Moving to the cloud is inevitable for most organizations and there are many strategies for the transition. Understanding your current system architecture, reviewing the available cloud services and assessing the pros and cons of each strategy can save you time and money. Whether you choose to replicate your systems directly in the cloud, rewrite an entirely new cloud-native system or revise the architecture over time, make sure to do the research before choosing a strategy.
Check out other installments in the “Three Approaches to Cloud Migration” blog series:
How Can Independent Validation & Verification (IV&V) Integrate with Agile: Traditional IV&V
Many government organizations and heavily regulated industries use a separate group to perform Independent Validation...
3 Approaches to Cloud Migration (Pt. 3): A Hybrid Cloud Approach
The question for modern organizations is no longer “Do we move to cloud?” Instead, it’s...
3 Approaches to Cloud Migration (Pt. 2): A Brand New Start
The question for modern organizations is no longer “Do we move to cloud?”; instead it’s...