Cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications and workloads from an on-premises data center to a cloud-based infrastructure, or from one cloud environment to another, known as cloud-to-cloud migration.
A company might migrate to either a single cloud or multiple. They can use public cloud models, where services are delivered over the public internet, or private cloud models, with a secure, proprietary cloud infrastructure accessible only to them. Many organizations choose a hybrid cloud environment, which combines public and private cloud services to create a single, flexible, cost-effective IT infrastructure that supports and automates workload management across cloud environments.
Multiclouds offer another option, which allows companies to migrate IT infrastructure by using multiple public cloud providers. Multiclouds can be as simple as using software as a service (SaaS) from different vendors to employ portability features across infrastructures. However, they often involve managing enterprise applications on platform as a service (PaaS) or infrastructure as a service (IaaS) across multiple cloud vendors—such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud® and Microsoft Azure—from a central console.
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There are different types of cloud migration, varying in terms of what is being migrated and where it is moving to:
This cloud migration is the process of moving all data, applications and services from on-premises data centers to a cloud provider’s servers. This process is generally extensive and requires thorough planning and testing to ensure efficient execution.
Hybrid cloud migration involves moving a portion of resources to public cloud while leaving others in on-premises data centers. This hybrid cloud scenario allows organizations to take advantage of current investments in on-premises infrastructure while also using the flexibility, efficiency, strategic value and other benefits of public cloud.
Enterprises also use hybrid cloud migration for data backup. In this case, a company backs up its private cloud resources on a public cloud as a mitigation technique when an attack or disaster renders an on-premises data center inoperable.
Organizations might move their resources from one public cloud to another for many reasons. These reasons include taking advantage of specific pricing models, security features or products (such as new AI or machine learning tools) or because of changes to company structure or service level agreements.
Another option is to migrate specific workloads to the cloud. For example, an organization might choose to migrate certain databases or mainframes to the cloud as a way to capitalize on lower costs, or for more reliable performance, better security and other factors.
Cloud migration has become a modernization imperative for businesses looking to streamline IT operations, implement cost-saving measures and realize end-to-end digital transformation. Tech analysts predict that 75% of organizations will adopt cloud-based data infrastructure by 2026.1
To ensure a successful transition, organizations should follow a well-defined workflow that focuses on comprehensive planning, execution and optimization.
The first step in the workflow is cloud migration planning, which includes clearly articulating the business case for the migration. After the team has established the reasons for the migration, it’s important thoroughly assess existing IT infrastructure, apps and data to identify what’s suitable for migration and to assess dependencies that require attention. In this phase, teams typically:
- List and categorize apps and data
- Analyze app dependencies and interdependencies
- Evaluate security and compliance requirements
- Assess performance and scalability needs
- Establish migration goals and priorities
- Identify potential migration challenges
When the assessment is complete, it’s time to select the cloud provider that best aligns with business needs. Some factors to consider:
- Provider compatibility with existing apps and data
- Service offerings, pricing models and support capabilities
- Data sovereignty and compliance considerations
- Scalability and availability of required resources
- Interoperability with existing systems
This process involves determining how apps, data and infrastructure are organized in the cloud environment. Key considerations include:
- Designing scalable and resilient cloud architectures
- Defining networking and security configurations
- Identifying appropriate cloud services and features
- Optimizing cost-efficiency and performance
- Ensuring data backup and disaster recovery mechanisms
In this stage, the team transfers the existing IT infrastructure to the new cloud environment. Depending on the migration strategy (such as lift-and-shift, replatforming or refactoring), the execution process involves:
- Setting up the target cloud environment
- Provisioning virtual machines, storage and network resources
- Replicating or migrating data to the cloud
- Deploying and configuring apps in the new cloud infrastructure
Rigorous testing is vital to ensuring the functionality of newly transferred apps and data. Many teams choose to conduct:
- Functional testing to validate application migration
- Performance and load testing to assess scalability and responsiveness
- Security testing to identify vulnerabilities and ensure compliance
- User acceptance testing to validate end-user experience
It’s also important to resolve any issues or bugs identified during the testing and validation process.
At this point, the focus shifts to optimizing the cloud resources and configurations. This step entails:
- Fine-tuning applications
- Installing the necessary security measures and access controls
- Setting up monitoring and alerting mechanisms
- Streamlining resource usage
- Establishing governance and management processes
But cloud adoption isn’t a single-step process. Massive infrastructure and data transfers require continuous, real-time performance monitoring to really optimize the features of the new cloud infrastructure and ensure the long-term success of the migration. Organizations should be prepared to update or upgrade software and security protocols, scale up or down based on demand patterns, and monitor cloud costs to optimize cost-effectiveness.
Successful cloud migration requires a comprehensive strategy that lays out migration goals and anticipates challenges. For instance, legacy applications in an organization’s network might not be optimized for the cloud, so they must be prepared for the process with migration tools and approaches designed for the task.
Migration strategy should account for workloads that move to the cloud, the workloads that stay within the on-premises infrastructure, and any new capabilities or applications the team should add after the migration is complete. The migration plan should also include roadmaps, timelines, project metrics and goals, and a strategy for relaying information to team leaders, cloud vendors and other stakeholders.
While each company’s exact approach will vary based on their circumstances and cloud service needs, there are some tried-and-true cloud migration strategies that can streamline the process.
Typically the quickest and least complex migration approach, rehosting (also called lift-and-shift) involves migrating applications and data from onsite infrastructure to a cloud platform without making significant changes to the architecture, likely by using IaaS tools. However, this transfer strategy doesn’t fully take advantage of cloud-native features, so it’s best for applications that aren’t tightly coupled to the underlying infrastructure.
A replatforming (also known as lift-and-reshape) cloud strategy attempts to use some cloud-native features while maintaining compatibility by making specific, but minimal, changes to the existing IT architecture. A few examples of cloud-native features include microservice architecture, Kubernetes containers and machine learning models.
A refactoring, or rearchitecting, approach requires the organization to redesign and redevelop applications by using a PaaS tool to fully use cloud-native capabilities. Since it often requires significant changes to existing architecture, it tends to make data migration more scalable, resilient and efficient in the cloud environment. Refactoring allows businesses to maximize the business value of cloud systems and use modern architectural patterns and models, such as microservices and serverless computing.
The repurchasing strategy involves retiring an existing application and replacing it with a SaaS alternative. Instead of migrating the application to the cloud, businesses opt for a cloud-based SaaS system that meets their needs. This approach provides instant access to cloud-based applications without the need for significant development efforts. Repurchasing can be useful for transferring non-core applications like email, customer relationship management and human resources management.
Finally, to implement a retiring approach, businesses must decommission outdated and unused applications. As part of the migration process, teams identify extraneous applications or systems and shut them down, reducing maintenance costs, eliminating redundant resources and streamlining the migration process by focusing only on critical applications.
Be sure to cover specific use cases (for example, mission-critical enterprise applications, data backup and recovery, productivity or collaboration applications, software development projects) for the workloads you’re migrating. Defining use cases up front enables better strategy decisions and smoother execution.
Companies worldwide are embracing cloud migration for the various benefits that cloud computing offers. Here are just a few ways that an organization can benefit from cloud migration:
Because cloud-based infrastructure removes many of the physical and financial obstacles to scalability (for example, data center infrastructure, or onsite server maintenance), it enables businesses to easily upscale or downscale their IT requirements when necessary.
Cloud services let businesses subscribe to workload management services on a pay-as-you-go basis. Instead of adding onsite capacity to anticipate future needs, companies can pay for the capacity they need now and scale on demand. Cloud services also help lower costs associated with setting up and running onsite data centers, which often require hefty hardware and utility expenditures and a large network of servers.
Although no system is foolproof, cloud service providers implement extensive measures to protect sensitive data, and comply with industry standards and government regulations. Security tools and protocols can protect cloud environments and cloud environments can automate software and security updates, measures that reduce security risk.2
Furthermore, cloud migration helps ensure data safety. In the event of a disaster, cloud infrastructure facilitates data recovery and helps maintain business continuity with minimal downtime, latency issues or data loss.
Migrating applications to the cloud empowers businesses to adopt new technologies faster and enables affordable, just-in-time technology adoption in response to new business opportunities.
For instance, if a retail company wants to introduce an AI-driven recommendation system to its online store without cloud infrastructure, the company must make considerable hardware investments. These investments include the cost of purchasing, installing and maintaining on-premises infrastructure, and hiring personnel to manage it. It would also take quite a while to get the new infrastructure up and running. With a cloud-based infrastructure, the company might install the new AI system, at scale, within minutes, significantly reducing the time between decision-making and implementation.
The Instana Observability platform provides real-time performance data that helps businesses optimize their hybrid cloud networks and make the most of cloud migration investments.
The IBM Turbonomic platform provides cloud migration planning that allows you to optimize your cloud consumption from the start and simplify your cloud migration process.
IBM Consulting® cloud migration services help manage cloud migration for your business, allowing you to focus on everything else.
Before embarking on the cloud migration process, use these six steps to gain a clear understanding of what’s involved to successfully migrate applications to the cloud.
Based on research from Forrester, this report will help your business start the modernization journey with migration to the cloud.
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IaaS, PaaS and SaaS are the three most popular types of cloud service offerings. They are sometimes referred to as cloud service models or cloud computing service models.
Application migration is the process of moving a software application from one computing environment to another.
Lift and shift is the process of migrating an exact copy of an application or workload, together with its data store and OS, from one environment to another.
Footnotes
1“Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Reach Nearly USD 600 Billion in 2023” (link resides outside ibm.com), Gartner, 19 April 2023
2“Understanding Patches and Software Updates” (link resides outside ibm.com), CISA, 23 February 2023