Cloud Migration 2024: Strategies and Stages Demystified
Published: 2023-11-28 13:21:10

Simply put, cloud migration involves shifting various parts of an organization's digital infrastructure—from IT resources to data and apps—into the cloud. This procedure is essential in today's corporate environment since it provides greater efficiency, flexibility, and scalability. This post will discuss various migration tactics companies can use while delving into the complexities of cloud migration, from strategy to execution.
Cloud migration: What Is It?
The process of shifting a business's digital assets, services, databases, IT resources, and apps entirely or partially onto the cloud is known as cloud migration. Moving from one cloud to different is another aspect of cloud migration.

Businesses of all sizes need guidance and often [cloud migration service provider](https://artelogic.net/services/cloud-migration/) when embarking on their cloud journeys since numerous issues must be answered along the route.
The Process of Cloud Migration

Before taking any action, businesses must thoroughly understand the situation. This will help verify the skills and tasks required to carry out the three primary cloud migration processes successfully.

The following are the main stages in cloud migration:
Planning
You must plan the entire procedure to select the optimal data migration strategy. To achieve this, you need to audit your IT infrastructure to obtain a comprehensive understanding of all its elements, including systems, data, apps, and the infrastructure itself.
Current Environmental Assessment and Discovery
After developing your cloud migration strategy, you must plan the project's scope by evaluating the current infrastructure, applications, and data landscape. You must carefully examine your current environment to decide which apps and data to include in the migration project.  Sometimes you should get help from [virtual CTO services](https://artelogic.net/services/cto-as-a-service/) to ensure the entire process of migrating to the cloud goes smoothly.
Testing and Implementation
This phase entails the actual cloud migration procedure, which includes moving your company's systems, apps, and other solutions. You and your team should adhere to the migration plan to minimize interruption.

Once the transfer process is complete, evaluate and test your cloud approach. Verify that every application functions as intended and that you have moved all your data to the cloud.
Upkeep after Migration
After your migration, setting up a procedure for routinely checking in with your new cloud platform is critical to ensure it's safe, functioning well, and accommodating your future capacity requirements. Tracking your computing needs over time and looking for changes to your cloud architecture are also beneficial.
Cloud Migration Types

Collectively referred to as the "six R's of migration," these are the six most widely used methods:

Rehosting. As the name suggests, this is lifting your stack and moving it from on-premises hosting to the cloud. For the fastest return on investment, you transfer an identical replica of your current setup without making any significant alterations. 
Re-platforming. This approach entails modifying your current apps as part of the move to improve their performance in the cloud. In this case, it is most customary to make certain adjustments to improve the program's performance in the cloud while keeping the core or main application architecture unchanged.
Refactoring. This is the antithesis of lift-and-shift migration—it is motivated by a deep desire to enhance your product. A clear business objective is expected to be established from the start, such as one pertaining to application performance, reliability, or availability. 
Repurchasing. Using this approach, you switch to a new cloud-based platform or service from the proprietary program that was previously in use. This typically entails choosing a new platform or service in place of the current license agreement if it expires. 
Retiring. After evaluating your portfolio for cloud readiness, you may discover that some of your applications are no longer relevant. In this instance, just switch them off. The resulting cost reductions could potentially strengthen your argument for migrating applications when they're ready.
Retaining. Your legacy infrastructure may still contain some of your IT infrastructure's components. Specific stand-alone workloads and databases may be necessary for an organization to maintain because of security concerns or other limitations. Sorting the workload for this kind of transfer results in a hybrid architecture, with some workloads stored on-site and others hosted in the cloud.
In Summary
As you can see, moving to the cloud is a multi-step, intricate process that needs careful planning and risk assessment. Businesses that want to grow safely and smoothly must move their IT infrastructure to the cloud as the market for cloud development continues to expand.