The What, Why And How Of Cloud Migration Services

"I'm too comfortable to move..." We bet that you've heard that from someone at least once in your lifetime!

Whether it's for the lazy discomfort one experiences when asked to get out of bed and shower on a cold morning or shift between geographical locations with tons of baggage, moving from one's comfort zone is indeed a pain. That's probably why people in relatively successful positions in their careers sometimes decline super attractive offers.

Don't you agree? Okay, allow us to paint you a picture.

Imagine you're given the opportunity to work for a great organization at an amazing remuneration. However, to accept it, you'll need to relocate halfway across the world. Now, even though your heart wants to leap out of your chest and grab that opportunity, your mind will always pick the path of least resistance and tell you to factor in the learning curve of a different environment, the language, the unknown living expenses and whatnot.

The result? You'd be torn between the eternal battle of "mind versus heart" and that's when you'll want an easier solution, a middle road of sorts.

Organizations using legacy architecture face a similar dilemma when asked to upgrade to the cloud services. They want to do it for its obvious perks but are too worried about the logistics and hurdles. This is where Cloud Migration Services play the part of the coveted middle-road solution.

In this article, we're going to apprise you of some of the key highlights of Cloud Migration Services; what it is, why you should go for it, how it works and its hassle-free future. Let's start!
 

What Is Cloud Migration?

 
Cloud Migration refers to the process of transferring workflows and data over to the cloud infrastructure (or rarely, the other way around). In the cloud model, an organization introduces its clients, workforce and partners to virtual resources. Simply put, there's no need to install or manage IT infrastructure on company premises. Instead, all business processes run from servers hosted by the cloud service provider.

The characteristic of everything being available online has made cloud systems so commonplace. Thanks to cloud managed services, the need to create and manage a full-blown IT infrastructure is eliminated and everyone knows what a huge time and cost saver that can be.

In addition to time and cost savings for the company, a cloud-based working model has perks for individual employees as well. Suppose you live 20 miles away from your office and need to complete a critical task over the weekend due to an approaching deadline. You don't have access to the VPN (Virtual Private Network), so sadly, you have no other choice but to travel those 20 miles to finish your work. That was the norm until cloud setups became the order of the day.

With more organizations moving their processes and data to the cloud, all you would need to do in the above scenario is log into your organization's secure cloud account, access all confidential workflow tools (cloud architectures are extremely secure!) and finish the work right from your couch – no need to travel all the way to work and back!

Sounds interesting, right? What's even more intriguing is that today, your organization doesn't have to flex a single muscle to shift its infrastructure to the cloud. Thanks to subscription-based Cloud Migration Services offered by the leading providers, migrating to the cloud has become a cakewalk:
 

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  Amazon Web Services - probably the first name that comes up when talking about cloud migration, AWS lets you seamlessly migrate your workflows, applications, databases, servers (physical or virtual), as well as complete data centers.

• Microsoft Azure Migrate

  If your organization relies heavily on Microsoft tools, Microsoft Azure Migrate would be ideal for you. It's a hub of services that lets you assess your cloud readiness and then plan and execute your transition to the cloud.

• Oracle Cloud Migration

  End-to-end automated cloud migration services by Oracle are not just extremely cost-effective but also highly scalable. What's more, they promise virtually no downtime!

Now, let's take a quick look at some critical aspects of Cloud Migration Services.
 

Types Of Cloud Migration Tools

Executing a complex technical procedure like a legacy to cloud migration is impossible without the right tools. It's like being asked to paint a picture without a palette or a paintbrush! There’s no way you can pull it off as intended!

Though you might get some of these tools built-in (if you choose one of the above-listed Migration Service Providers) knowing about them will surely add to your domain knowledge and that can't hurt, right?
 

• SaaS (Software as a Service) Tools

  SaaS tools secure the connection between on-premises applications and the cloud storage destination. They're user-friendly and completely automated, which makes the whole process quite easy and secure. These tools are self-scripting, which enables them to support any source and cloud destination. Moreover, they don't have any OS (Operating System) limitations and the cloud vendor can upgrade them to support new OS versions and data sources if needed.

• Open-Source Tools

  Open-source tools are those for which the source code is released by the developers under a standard license, with the permission to study, use, change, and distribute it as per need. Quite evidently, such tools are preferred by IT teams as they can easily customize them to work with the existing setup. However, with this type of tool, businesses need a knowledgeable IT team onboard to complete the data migration effectively.

• Batch Processing Tools

  These tools are ideal for migrating large volumes of data. With these types of tools, the business data is collected over time, entered and processed overnight in a batch-wise fashion till all the data is migrated to the cloud. The benefit of using such tools is that they are programmed to work only at specific time intervals (generally after work hours) to avoid network congestion.

With that out of the way, you surely must be thinking – how should one plan for a cloud migration strategy? Well, read on!
 

What Should A Great Cloud Migration Strategy Be Like?

We know that you already realize this but it needs to be said one more time - migrating from an on-premises setup to the cloud is a huge business decision. It needs planning, budgeting and preparation; it shouldn't be taken lightly. Ideally, you should have a proper strategy in place before you migrate to the cloud and your strategy should have the below-listed characteristics.
 

• Rehost

  According to Gartner, organizations should redeploy applications to a new hardware environment and then change the application infrastructure configuration. This is better than making infrastructural changes and then deploying them to the cloud, as compatibility issues and other factors make the process costly and time-consuming.

• Refactor

  In application and data migration, the cloud infrastructure acts like Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), which offers backward compatibility. The “Refactor” aspect of the strategy allows developers to reuse languages, frameworks and containers and take advantage of the organization's strategic code.

• Revise

  Revising expands on existing strategies, necessitating more significant changes to the architecture and code of the cloud-based services. This is done to allow apps to fully utilize the cloud services offered, which may necessitate considerable code changes.

• Rebuild

  As the name suggests, this focuses on rebuilding the application for cloud PaaS. It involves removing existing code and rebuilding the entire application. You may need a new framework as well as new code to ensure the applications run as expected. The brighter side is that you get the ability to implement new features, which may be beneficial.

• Replace

  Finally, you should replace your current legacy applications with existing commercial software that is available as a service. This strategy helps reduce the costs of mobilizing development teams whenever you need to modify or rebuild the application.

Finally, we're down to answering the prime question – why should you opt for cloud migration?
   

What Are The Key Benefits Of Cloud Migration?

Let's keep it simple. Migrating to the cloud offers the following benefits:
 

• Scalability

  Helps meet the demands of fluctuating work environment seamlessly.

• Cost-efficiency

  You only pay for the services you need, which reduces extra costs.

• Enhanced Security

  Continuous security updates help mitigate cyberattacks and other cloud compliance risks.

• Better Application Availability

  Cloud-based services and applications are available on any device and anytime.

• Improved Performance

  Distributed cloud servers share the load and deliver optimum performance.

We’re sure you are impressed – but wait, there’s more in just a few short years. Read on to understand what Cloud Migration Services have in store in the future!
 

The Future Of Cloud Migration Services

The adoption of the cloud is on the rise. So much so that popular cloud service providers recorded $200 billion in sales in 2019 and the trend doesn't seem to be slowing down in the coming years.

According to Adroit Market Research, the cloud market is expected to cross the $695 billion mark by 2025. Experts suggest that companies embrace multi-cloud strategic services and that global cloud expenditures will account for 70% of IT budgets by 2021. Mordor Intelligence even predicted that Cloud Migration Services valued at 119.13 billion in 2020 are expected to grow at a rate of 26% for the forecast period 2021 to 2026 and reach an estimated $448.34 billion by 2026! #CloudIsTheFuture

Only time will tell what the real numbers will be but as for now, the future for Cloud Migration Services looks very bright!