subject: 10 Practical Steps to Cloud Migration [print this page] 10 Practical Steps to Cloud Migration 10 Practical Steps to Cloud Migration
Moving Applications and Processes to the Cloud is one of the key trends of 2011. Many vendors have come up with interesting solutions to facilitate this task but many challenges have to be dealt with and it is very important to take into considerations all implications of such migration.
In this post we have tried to summarize the 10 key steps you should follow. We have gathered this information from various posts and by attending industry events during the year. They represent the main aspects thatanyone should be looking at before embarking into a migration of all (or part) of his applications portfolio and processes into the Cloud (being public, private or hybrid)
1) Applications readiness
The first questions to ask yourself is about the readiness of your current application.
Is it already web-based ? Will it benefit from a multi-tenant architecture ? Can it scale out ? Does it really need elasticity ?
Migrating legacy apps based on old technologies to a Cloud based infrastructure will not bring the right benefits and a more traditional managed hosting solution would be a better bet. First make an assessment to determine an application's readiness for the Cloud. You should evaluate the readiness of all your key applications in the portfolio using a multi-dimensional analysis of Cloud application characteristics. This will provide clear recommendations on suitable migration options private or public and migration paths IaaS, SaaS or PaaS.
2) Processes readiness
Can they adapt with minimum changes to a Cloud delivery infrastructure ?
This is certainly the right time to look at streamlining internal and external processes to boost productivity and lower costs (with or without the Cloud).
3) Data ownership and access
The application, the hardware, the operating system and everything else can be owned by the cloud provider. But the data is what your intellectual property is predicated upon and it has to be acknowledged that you can take that data away with you as you see fit. Your Cloud subscription gives you access to the functionality of the application or function that you use. If that access is removed, can you still access the data so that you can take it away with you?
Make sure the contract allows for access to the back-end data, either directly or via the provider offering an export capability, even after the contract has finished.
4) Data Volumes
Cloud is great for off-site elastic computing, where extra resources can be applied in the form of more compute power, or more storage. However, as that storage capability grows, so does a specific problem.Migrating 1GB of data across a wide-area network is pretty simple but how about 1TB? That migration can take a long time, and if you need to work against that data in real-time, you'll have to plan for a degree of downtime while the data is pulled from the Cloud and reinstalled against a replacement application or function.Even if you can agree to set up a mirrored cloud or on-premise data topology, look out for clauses in the agreement that charge for data volumes.
5) Integration
Applications running in the Cloud will require integration with applications running on-premise and other applications in the Cloud. A robust integration platform needs to be available to facilitate this. SOA and BPM providers plays a critical role in minimizing integration challenges.
6) Management and Monitoring
Due to lack of control on the virtual infrastructure (especially in Platform as a Service, PaaS scenarios), application architecture itself should have provisions to provide better control to administrators on various management aspects.
7) Compliance
Organizations considering using Cloud services should perform a gap analysis between the specific requirements identified in relevant regulations and the set of controls provided by the Cloud service provider. Using Cloud computing services for data and applications subject to compliance regulations requires a high degree of transparency on the part of service providers. If you're considering these services, you need to think through what use cases make sense, closely review contracts and service-level agreements and understand how the Cloud service meets your specific compliance requirements.
8) Beware the vendor Lock-in
At this stage, there are no open standards that exist which will facilitate the migration from one Cloud provider to another. There are some encouraging industry initiatives trying to address this issue like the "Open Cloud Manifesto."
9) Cost Analysis
The business case for Cloud application migration is never complete without taking the target Cloud platform into consideration. The migration and overhead costs vary widely based on the target Cloud platform and thus will skew the estimated cost savings. Cost analysis helps decide whether to go ahead with moving a particular application to the cloud or not from a TCO/ROI perspective.Cost should include capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and overhead costs involved with migration.
10) Migration Strategy
Defining a migration strategy involves understanding the various migration options available, establishing business priorities, and evolving a strategy that offers a fine balance between costs and meeting business priorities. Fundamentally, enterprises have the two following options with a cloud infrastructure private or public. Against these, they have the following migration paths to consider IaaS, SaaS or PaaS. The choice is driven by priorities such as elasticity, business model, go-to-market strategy and constrained by factors such as technical feasibility, security, migration costs, etc. It's not uncommon for a large enterprise to leverage a hybrid approach in any of the above migration options and paths.
We believe this list should provide you with a good start. If you already have experience in this field please do share your thoughts with us using the comments below. Your feedback will be really helpful for the community!
