Strategies for Migrating to the Cloud

In this edition of the blog we look at the different strategies for migrating to the cloud.

In 2011, Gartner identified five strategies for cloud migration - rehost, refactor, revise, rebuild and replace - and these still have merit for businesses today. 

Rehost.

This is infrastructure as a service (IaaS) or lift and shift. You rehost your application in another hardware environment without changing the app’s architecture. Migration is fast and relatively inexpensive, but ongoing operation can be costly because you’re not leveraging cloud efficiencies.

Refactor.

Also known as platform as a service (PaaS): You run your apps on a cloud provider’s infrastructure. Developers can reuse languages, frameworks, and containers leveraging code that’s strategic to the company. The downside is missing capabilities, transitive risk, and framework lock-in.

Revise.

First, you support legacy-modernisation requirements by modifying or extending the existing code; then take the rehost or refactor route to the cloud. This means you can leverage the cloud characteristics of your provider’s infrastructure—but not without some upfront development expense.

Rebuild.

You throw out the code for an existing app and re-architect it. The advantage is access to innovative features in the provider’s platform that improve developer productivity. The price you pay is either lock-in or abandoning your application assets if the situation becomes unacceptable.

Replace.

Discard your existing application set and adopt commercial software delivered as a service (SaaS). When requirements for a business function change quickly, this approach avoids the time and investment of mobilising a development team. But you may face issues like inconsistent data semantics, difficult data-access, and vendor lock-in.

If you're looking for help migrating your business to the cloud, message me here on LinkedIn, call 07884 264 813 or email [email protected]