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Cloud Migration

In the current digital landscape, businesses are increasingly turning towards cloud-based solutions to improve their operations and gain a competitive edge. Cloud migration is a key part of this transition. But what does it mean, and what are some of the key concepts around the process?

What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving digital assets, data, and applications from on-premises infrastructure to a cloud environment. It can also mean moving from one cloud environment to another. This transition enables businesses to leverage cloud-based solutions for improved operations and competitive advantage.

Companies opt for cloud migration to gain access to virtually unlimited resources and scalability. Similarly, moving to the cloud enables them to save costs on infrastructure, maintenance, and upgrades. At the same time, they benefit from the scalability, flexibility, and security provided by cloud service providers. The process empowers companies to enhance their digital capabilities and streamline their operations in an increasingly connected and data-driven world.

What are the benefits of cloud migration?

There are numerous benefits to migrating to the cloud. Let’s take a closer look at each of them in more detail:

Cost savings
By moving from on-premise infrastructure to a cloud-based environment, companies can eliminate the need for physical servers and equipment, reducing their hardware expenses. Many cloud providers typically offer pay-as-you-go pricing models, allowing companies to only pay for the resources they use. This eliminates the need for costly upfront investments in IT and security infrastructure.

Increased scalability
Cloud migration allows for easy scaling up or down of resources based on current needs, eliminating the need to invest in expensive hardware upgrades when there is a sudden increase in demand.

Improved accessibility
By moving to the cloud, teams can access data and applications from anywhere. This is particularly beneficial for businesses with remote or distributed teams, as it allows for seamless collaboration.

Enhanced security
Leverage robust security measures provided by cloud platforms to protect against cyber threats. This includes encryption, firewalls, and regular security updates. Companies can benefit from these advanced security measures without having to invest in expensive security infrastructure themselves. This not only provides peace of mind but also helps them comply with various regulations.

How does the cloud migration process work?

Before advancing to the migration, it’s important to understand the process behind it and the key steps that must be taken. A successful migration to the cloud typically involves four phases:

Define your strategy and goals
Data migration and modernization projects involve much more than simply switching technologies. It’s highly linked with the company’s goals. Take the time to consider various factors such as the resources available, potential obstacles, and desired outcomes.

Assessment
Next, assess the current infrastructure – what applications, data, and services need to be migrated? Evaluate the existing infrastructure to determine which components can be moved as-is and which may require modifications or updates before the migration.

Migration
Move data, applications, and services to the cloud environment.

Post-migration optimization
After migrating to the cloud, it’s important to monitor and optimize the environment to ensure it is functioning efficiently. Identify any performance issues and make the necessary adjustments to improve overall functionality.

Types of cloud migration

Cloud migration involves three primary approaches: lift and shift, re-platforming, and refactoring. Each method offers distinct benefits and considerations to ensure a seamless migration. Moving between cloud providers like Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) often involves a careful consideration of the cloud data migration approach. Let’s dive deeper into the 3 approaches.

Re-hosting: lift and shift
This method involves moving from on-premise infrastructure to a cloud service without making any changes. While this is a quick way to migrate, applications moved to the cloud without modifications, they may not be optimized for the new environment. This can lead to potential performance degradation, loss in cost savings, and diminished auto-scaling capabilities.

Re-platforming: lift, modify, and shift
For companies looking to make some bigger changes without starting from scratch, re-platforming is a popular option. It lets you lift and shift, but also tweak the code, architecture, or infrastructure to really take advantage of cloud functionality like auto-scaling, managed services, and serverless computing.

Replatforming gives you the best of both worlds – a quick migration, but with some adjustments to make things run more efficiently and effectively. But, similar to rehosting, this approach might not address underlying application or legacy issues resulting in the level optimization not meeting expectations. Without effective project management, the scope of the project can snowball into a refactoring effort with unexpected costs.

Refactoring (or re-architecting): rip and replace
A complete or semi-complete rebuild of your architecture ensures maximum optimization for performance, scalability, and agility. Rebuilding an environment can take longer than other migration strategies, but many times it’s more cost-effective than trying to fit a square peg (legacy system) into a round hole (new environment).

This process gives you a chance to address technical debt, update outdated frameworks/libraries, and transform aging applications into cloud-native solutions. Plus, you’re able to test and validate that your data works within the brand-new platform before fully cutting over, minimizing disruption, and enabling a successful migration without compromising security posture.

However, rebuilding from the ground up can be a major time and resource investment, but it lets you go all-in on the cloud. Despite saving money in the long term, refactoring requires more resources upfront and can have a slower time-to-value.

Getting started with cloud migration

Cribl helps make your cloud migrations easier and less risky. You don’t need to worry about compromising the security or integrity of your data. No matter if you’re looking to migrate on-premise IT and security data to a cloud environment, upgrade existing cloud infrastructure, or move data between different clouds.

What does that look like in practice? Cribl acts as your safety net. Maintain your legacy systems while branching a copy of that data to your new environment with the ability to transform the data on the fly into the new destination format. Then, validate that everything is working properly before fully cutting over – saving you a headache of fixing forward.

To learn more about Cribl’s capabilities, check out the additional resources:

FAQ

  1. What is Cloud Migration?
  2. Cloud migration lets businesses move data and applications to the cloud for better operations and cost savings. This unlocks benefits like scalability, flexibility, and enhanced security from cloud providers, making businesses more competitive in the digital age.
  3. How does Cribl help with cloud migrations?
  4. Cribl helps customers make their AWS cloud migrations easier and less risky. You don’t need to worry about compromising the security or integrity of your data. No matter if you’re looking to migrate on-premise IT and security data to a cloud environment, upgrade existing cloud infrastructure, or move data between different clouds.
  5. What are the different cloud environments?
  6. There are three main types of cloud environments:
    • Public cloud: Resources are owned and managed by a cloud service provider (CSP) and accessible to the public over the Internet. Examples: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
    • Private cloud: Resources are dedicated to a single organization and can be located on-premises or hosted by a CSP. Offers a more isolated environment.
    • Hybrid cloud: A mix of public and private clouds, allowing for data and applications to flow between them.
  7. What are some challenges of cloud migration?
    • Ensuring the data is secure throughout the whole process
    • Vendor lock-in
    • Migrating complex applications
    • Lack of expertise and need to acquire new skills for cloud management
Top 3 most common cloud migration challenges
  • Lack of clear business goals: A well-defined cloud migration strategy is crucial. Teams need to be aligned to achieve the level of modernization that most migration projects expect. This includes selecting the right cloud platform, measuring success, and ensuring alignment with business goals.
  • Complex existing architecture: Many legacy systems have collected or inherited technical debt throughout the years making it complex and nuanced. Careful analysis and planning is required to ensure a smooth migration process without technical difficulties and delays.
  • Data security and compliance risks: One small human error can open teams up to security risks and legal complications. This can be addressed by implementing the correct measures, cloud security expertise, and compliance protocols.
Want to learn more?
Moving workloads, applications, and tooling to the cloud is a huge and difficult undertaking. Learn how Cribl’s suite of products help you gain the control and confidence you need to successfully migrate to the cloud.
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