Everything You Need to Know About Migrating to Cloud-Based Software

What is cloud migration? The process entails moving data, IT applications, and other components of the business network to a cloud computing environment. In other words, migrating to cloud software is about moving tools and data from old, legacy applications to the cloud.

The strategy is gaining popularity, seeing that the global cloud computing environment might be worth approximately $1,554 billion by 2030. Cloud systems play a business-critical role in streamlining communication within an organization.

What Is the Cloud Exactly?

The cloud is a simple reference to cloud computing, a pool of computer services that users access over the internet. Businesses can store the apps they once had on-premises data centers in massive data centers globally.

Unlike a server closet or server room, data centers are massive and designed to purposely house tons of computer equipment. Likewise, data centers are under the management of companies whose business is to run data centers. Despite moving to the cloud, your business still needs human resources to manage the cloud environment.

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Types of Cloud Computing

You’ll come across four types of cloud when looking for a cloud provider:

• Public cloud: The services belong to a third-party vendor and become available to you through the public internet. Examples include Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, and Oracle Cloud.
• Private Cloud: The resources belong to one organization, making this type ideal for financial and governmental organizations with sensitive data. Examples of private cloud service providers are Microsoft, Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
• Hybrid Cloud: This is a private and public cloud combination, allowing resources to move between the two platforms. As such, the environment works well for organizations that want to enjoy the numerous benefits of the public cloud while having an element of privacy.
• Multicloud: It entails using multiple cloud services in a single environment.

Benefits of Cloud Computing

Benefits of cloud migration include:

Scalability

With cloud-based software, a business can support larger workloads and more users more efficiently than on-premises infrastructure.

For example, think of cloud-based digital signage software that allows you to remotely manage a network of digital content, signs, playback schedules, and playlists.

With such a platform, you can manage content for different digital displays spread across various locations by accessing it through cloud applications.

Cost Savings

Cloud service providers take over the maintenance and upgrade costs of cloud infrastructure.

Therefore, the cloud costs significantly, especially where IT operations and DevOps specialists are concerned. At the same time, cloud solutions provide a flexible pricing model.

Digital Experience

Migrating to cloud software lets users access cloud services and data from any location. That provides the advantage of having your employees work in a remote or hybrid environment without the challenges that come with it.

Performance

By migrating to cloud software, businesses can enhance baseline performance and end-user experience. Notably, websites and application migration to the cloud enhance scalability to meet the needs of more users. Interestingly, they can run in geographical locations near end-users, reducing network latency.

Strategies to Use When Migrating to Cloud Software

Data shows that by Quarter 4 of 2021, 28% of businesses will have shifted to cloud adoption. What types of cloud migration will they use? Gartner identifies the five most common techniques in the cloud migration process.

Rehost

Rehosting is a cloud migration strategy also known as “lift and shift” or Replatform. The process uses infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) to automate the migration.

It entails redeploying existing data and applications on the cloud server. As a tip, the technique works best for organizations less familiar with cloud environments.

Refactor

Refactoring is the “lifting, tinkering, and shifting” of business infrastructure in real-time. In other words, it refers to tweaking and optimizing business applications for the cloud using a platform-as-a-service (PaaS). The central architecture of the applications remains unchanged.

Revise

The cloud strategy entails building upon previous methods and requires more significant changes to the system’s build and code. Doing this enables applications to optimize the services available in the cloud and sometimes entails considerable code changes.

Rebuild

The approach incorporates the Revise strategy but takes it further by discarding the existing code base and inputting a new one. It’s recommendable to use this technique for cloud deployment only when the existing solutions don’t meet the current business needs.

Replace

When you Use the Replace cloud migration plan, you adopt the Rebuild approach in a way that addresses the challenges present in Rebuild.

However, your company doesn’t develop cloud-native applications from scratch. Instead, you migrate to a third-party, prebuilt application that a cloud migration service provides.

Also Read: The Importance of Understanding Data-Driven Approaches

Is Your Business Ready for Data Migration to Cloud Software?

Ultimately, moving to the cloud frees a company’s IT team from the burden of managing downtime. By having a platform for cloud data, you set your business up for growth.

If you’re yet to make a move, you’re missing out on the cloud’s numerous exciting opportunities. However, note that the process isn’t without migration challenges.