Cloud Computing is one of the most implemented methods for developing and delivering enterprise applications currently. It is also the most opted solution for the ever-expanding needs of SMEs and large-scale enterprises alike.
As businesses grow and their process technologies improve, there is a growing trend towards companies migrating to the cloud. This process of moving services and applications to the cloud is the basic definition of Cloud Migration. The enthusiasm that companies have towards cloud migration is evident in the massive amounts of money and resources they dedicate to improve their operations.
In this article, we will introduce how leaders can communicate the benefits of cloud to the business and plan a successful Cloud Migration Processes.
What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud Computing is an enhanced IT service model that provides services over the Internet. Scalable and virtual resources like servers, data storage, networking, and software are just examples of these services. Cloud computing can also mean running workloads in a provider’s powerful data centres and on servers for a price.
The Cloud Migration process is an inevitable outcome of Cloud Computing. It has revolutionized the business world by facilitating easy access to data and software through any IoT (internet-connected) device. Moreover, it facilitates parts of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), such as development and testing, without considering physical infrastructure.
What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud Migration is simply the adoption of cloud computing. It is the process of transferring data, application code, and other technology-related business processes from an on-premise or legacy infrastructure to the cloud environment.
Cloud Migration is a phenomenal transformation in the business information system domain as it provides adequate services for the growing needs of businesses. However, moving data to the cloud requires preparation and planning in deciding on an approach.
Analysis
Prioritize IT Capabilities That Are Critical to Business Differentiation
In traditional IT organizations, most applications are hosted in on-premises environments. The public cloud is a form of outsourcing. Leaders who are building the justification for moving to cloud must focus on the criticality of each application.
Align Cloud Initiative Outcomes with Business Goals
Making an effective case for a cloud-migration project depends heavily on citing the right justifications.
Consider which of the following would resonate within your organization:
- Agility and scalability — The resource is pay-as- you-go. If an application is designed properly, it is easy to scale in a short period of time.
- Business innovation — Cloud enables lower barriers to entry for innovation and prototyping. It is expensive and time consuming to build testing and development infrastructure in-house.
- Broader geographic distribution — The global distribution of cloud infrastructure and platform services (that is, IaaS and PaaS) enables applications to be deployed to other regions quickly and more cost-effectively.
- Cost optimization — Use functions based on business demand to build and compare the traditional IT cost model and a public cloud cost model
- Increased application availability — The major IaaS and PaaS providers have demonstrated high levels of security and reliability.
- Shorter project times — Cloud IaaS is a good approach for Mode 2 trial and error, offering the speed required to test the business model’ s success.
- Functions basis — Build a cost or revenue forecast based on the ability to reduce the cost using new functions or to drive new sources of revenue using new data analytics capabilities.
- The technical flexibility — This offload the responsibility for the configuration and operation of servers, storage, the network and data centres.
- Security improvement — Use automation to build immutable infrastructure. This approach can improve the infrastructure security fundamentally in terms of automation, templates and elasticity.
Launch Private Cloud with Initiatives That Reduce Complexity, Increase Agility and Ensure Compliance
In this case, reduce the complexity of the private cloud project by avoiding advanced features such as metering by hour and serverless computing. Virtualization automation (VA) is the ideal first step for organizations that need to keep some workloads internal and are looking for a low-cost quick win.
Justifications for private cloud deployments include the abilities to:
- Fulfil compliance requirements in highly regulated industries — Use private cloud to fulfil regulation requirements on critical data and workloads.
- Reduce data centre space and hosting cost — Promote physical server reuse.
- Increase server provision agility — Reduce the server provision time on delivery.
- Increase reliability and availability — Reduce the entire system’ s downtime.
- Security demand fulfilment — Meet security needs compared with public cloud.
- Reduce operational complexity — Reduce complexity through standardization.
Cloud Migration Process
These cloud migration steps depend entirely on the specific resource that the organization is planning to move to the cloud and the type of migration performed.
Here are the five main stages of the process:
Step 1. Create a Cloud Migration Strategy
This step is the most important part of the process. It’s where you create your cloud migration plan and identify the specifics of the migration. You will need to understand the data, technical, financial, resource, and security requirements and decide on the necessary operations for the migration.
Step 2. Selecting a Cloud Deployment Model
While part of this stage is related to the first one, you must choose the best-suited cloud deployment model considering both the organization and the resources at hand.
Step 3. Selecting your Service Model
In this stage, you can decide on the different service models necessary for each of your business operations. The available service models are IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-service), PaaS (Platform-as-a-service), and SaaS (Software-as-a-service).
Step 4. Define KPIs
Defining KPIs will ensure that you can monitor the migrated application within the cloud environment. These KPIs may include system performance, user experience, and infrastructure availability.
Step 5. Moving to the Cloud
You can adopt many different methods to move data from your infrastructure to the cloud. This move may be using the public Internet, a private network connection, or offline data transfer.
Kanoo Elite has over 20 years of experience providing Infrastructure services. Over the last five years we have advised and assisted several enterprises to move to the cloud.
Each migration is unique, so your plan will also need to be tailor-made. Please speak to us to build a roadmap and business case for your cloud journey.
