It is important to understand what application migration is before moving toward strategies. Application migration refers to the process of moving software applications between environments. This can include moving from on-premises to a cloud center or public to private cloud platforms. Even though many businesses require specialized network architectures or custom software development, this approach can be challenging. A secure and accurate data transfer must be ensured during the migration process. Application migration is usually done to get benefit from lower costs, flexible scaling, and the ability to update software quickly in response to demand changes. According to a study by Flexera, a large IT organization that manages millions of servers and devices, 94 percent of the litigators say they use the cloud for their business operations.
Strategies used for application migration
Application migration may be complex and risky due to a lack of strategy, cost management, vendor lock-in, data security, and amenability. Gartner, in 2010, identified 5 strategies commonly known as 5R’s for successful application migration to the cloud. This model was later adopted by Amazon Web Service (AWS) and broaden into 6R’s. Following is a brief description of each.
- Retire: You can decide after discovering some applications that you no longer require these applications. So, you will simply retire them to just get rid of them.
- Retain: This strategy is used for applications that are too problematic to migrate or are not designed for the cloud. Hence, the application remains in as-is form. examples of these applications are Unsupported operating systems and applications like Legacy applications that do not have a business justification for migrating to the cloud
- Re-host: This strategy includes simple and basic ways to migrate applications from premises to the cloud, simply called “lift and shift”. It involves using infrastructure-as-a-service (laaS). This can be done automated or assisted by a third party where Scalex comes to play its role. In many cases, re-hosting aims to achieve business goals by migrating the whole business with configuration. However, there may be some inherent issues that can cause problems.
- Re-platform: Re-platforming, sometimes called lift or shift and reshape. In this case, a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model is employed. It gives you the privilege to grant some change in the application system before moving it from the legacy platform to the modern cloud platform. Scalex helps you migrate your application to a superintended platform like AWS Elastic Beanstalk is an example of this migration strategy. You get the opportunity to use services closer to infrastructure without changing codes, modern tools and become independent
- Re-architect: Re-architecture or revising builds upon foregoing strategies. Application migration is done after executing significant changed in core architecture and code of the system to make its performance batter in any cloud environment. For instance, you can decide to use services like Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service, AWS Lambda, or AWS Fargate to modernize your hidebound programme by dividing it into smaller microservices. It is highly efficient, and favourable for your business but at the same time the most expensive strategy and requires a deep apprehension of code, application, compliance and so on.
- Re-purchasing: Re-purchasing includes application migration to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. Scalex, as a third party, helps the organizations to run this upgraded platform. It saves your time, reduces efforts and enables to have a new version of your system. Well-known SaaS examples include Dropbox, Google Workspace, and Salesforce.
How to make application migration strategy works? A step-by-step guide
Developers start the migration process with proper planning and execution after selecting one of the appropriate strategy. Here are the steps which are followed to achieve easy and smooth migration:
- Background knowledge: When you start thinking migrating an application, you must have an entire review of existing toolset and comprehensive analysis of various scenarios to get a solid final plan. Any squabble between current and target tool should be considered beforehand. You can test the process on the migration model before starting application migration to the cloud.
- Convince the stakeholders: You should be able to persuade the stakeholders by communicating your goals associated with this migration. Practically, it takes a couple of months. While application migration, just keep in mind that sometimes avoiding a little risk is even more risky.
- Requirements for migration: The next step after receiving approval is to gather business, technical, and security needs from end users as well as stakeholders. In order to properly shape our final decisions, from infrastructure recovery to tool configuration, it is essential to document, organise, and prioritise the resulting list. All stakeholders must agree on the final requirements document, thus there must be opportunity for negotiation and collaboration while assessing potential solutions.
Scalex caters to application migration strategies for its customers and help them to make it efficient by its resilient and tailored team.
