Introduction
The migration journey to Amazon Web Services is accompanied by numerous benefits. Apart from scalability and flexibility, the cost effectiveness of Amazon Web Services deserves a notable mention. Whenever a business enterprise plans a migration strategy, it is bound to be troubled by numerous challenges. Mapping an effective strategy helps in overcoming these challenges and makes the cloud journey a hassle-free process with a memorable experience.
Mapping an effective strategy
Mapping in effective strategies could transform the working and operations of business organizations. That said, there are various factors that play a key role in successfully drafting an effective migration strategy. The initial migration trial is very important as it helps to give a firsthand experience of the entire journey. This also sets the foundation for a successful migration process.
Let us look at some of the most prominent application migration strategies. The first important application migration strategy is called rehosting. Rehosting is popularly known as a lift and shift mechanism. One of the most important advantages of hosting is that it allows us to migrate applications without any change in their present state. Rehosting is one of the most popular application migration strategies because it saves more than 25% of the cost as compared to other strategies. In the present time, there are a large number of tools that help in automating the process of rehosting.
The second important strategy is called replat forming. This strategy is important as it helps in making some changes, but the core architecture of the platform remains intact. This strategy reduces the time of database management by a considerable amount. This strategy is especially popular among large media companies that are planning to migrate to aws.
The third important strategy is called refactoring. This strategy is utilized when a business feels a strong need to add novel features that would boost the overall performance. One of the disadvantages associated with this strategy is that it is relatively expensive. However, the degree of customization of applications that it allows overshadows its expensive nature.
The fourth strategy related to cloud migration is called repurchasing. This strategy relies on the software as a service model for the purpose of migration.
The fifth important strategy is called retiring. As the name suggests, this strategy discards applications that have become redundant and are no longer required. This strategy is important as it helps in reducing the expenses of a company.
The final strategy is known as retaining. This strategy can be imagined as the opposite of the retiring strategy. All those applications that are crucial for various business needs are retained by refactoring them appropriately.
Business drivers of migration
There are five prime business drivers when it comes to drafting a migration strategy to the cloud environments. The most important driver is the cost of operations. The cost of operation is associated with an investment in new applications and risk associated with market dynamics.
The second important driver is called the productivity of the workforce. This factor takes into account the resonance of your services with the needs of the market. The third important driver is the cutting down of unnecessary costs. This may include the cutting down of costs related to maintenance of various programs and the need for refreshing hardware periodically.
The fourth important driver is called resilience. This is related to the adoption of various services of a company to the cloud environs. The better performance of applications and enhanced security are critical components of this driver. The last driver is the ability of a business to react to market dynamics. Business agility is associated with new ventures and new products that put a company in an advantageous position as compared to its counterparts.
Choosing the best migration strategy
Due to the compelling nature and range of advantages associated with various migration strategies, it becomes relatively difficult to cherry-pick a specific one. As such, one of the important cornerstones for choosing the best migration strategy is to rely on your business drivers. By considering various financial constraints and source requirements, a particular migration strategy can be zeroed in.
Statistically speaking, one of the most prominent and successful cloud migration strategies has been the refactoring of applications. This is followed by re-platforming. The retiring and retaining strategies usually depend on specific business needs. That said, the complexity levels associated with refactoring strategies are relatively higher. The complexity levels decrease when we move from re-platforming to retiring strategies. So, the final decision is for the businesses to make.
