Cloud Migration Strategy: A Comprehensive Guide

According to recent studies by Markets and Markets, the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $445.3 billion in 2021 to $947.3 billion by 2026. Such an increasing demand for cloud solutions is mainly attributed to rising digitalization among enterprises. Another factor is more significant investments in cloud migration strategies from various enterprises across different industries.

Being one of the leading cloud technology providers, Devox Software will explain the phenomenon of the cloud migration process, covering its definition, benefits, and specifics to decide whether or not this solution will work for your business. As a part of our discussion, you’ll discover the successful cloud adoption case studies and major challenges based on the experience of the Devox Software team.

What Is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is the iterative process of moving some or all digital assets, such as data, workloads, IT resources, or applications, to the cloud storage system. With the help of advanced storage solutions, like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), or Microsoft Azure, the process aims to:

• Optimize performance
• Reduce costs
• Maximize the full business potential
• Increase scalability.

In most cases, cloud migration refers to moving the operational assets from old, legacy infrastructure or an on-premises data center to the cloud. However, it can also describe relocating a company’s digital assets from one cloud solution to a more efficient alternative. 

Our vast experience in cloud solutions proves that creating a powerful migration strategy is essential to ensure successful and efficient cloud adoption. As a rule, it implies prioritizing workloads for migration, determining the right migration plan for each workload, developing a pilot, project testing, and adjusting the strategy based on the performance results of the pilot modeling. 

Creating detailed documentation for your cloud migration strategy will help to successfully guide your team through the process, define the algorithm for the possible issues that might occur in the process, and facilitate the rollback if needed. Moreover, migrating from one cloud solution to a similar alternative can notably impact the effort and cost of migration for your business in particular. 

The desired outcome of any cloud migration process is the smooth transition of all the assets to the desired cloud solution without affecting the infrastructure availability or performance.  

Once you now have an understanding of what is cloud migration, let’s discover its main use cases and benefits.

Why Use a Cloud Migration Strategy?

Regardless of the business size and industry of operation, a cloud-based migration strategy is a proven way to identify and execute a smooth transition from on-premises to a cloud environment in terms of time and cost efficiency. This process implies a variety of different aspects, such as:

Depending on the organization’s specifics, an enterprise cloud migration strategy is not a one-size-fits-all approach. To provide the most efficiency at the lowest risks, it should always target the objectives, needs, and technical specifications of the desired business. Cloud development experts have to deeply study the business structure and products to ensure the most accurate TCO and ROI of such a migration.

Benefits of Cloud Migration Strategy

Should you implement cloud migration for your business? Yes! Here are some of the advantages you’ll get when moving all your digital assets to the cloud:

• Advanced security for sensitive data and applications
• Easier disaster recovery due to the variety of backup and recovery solutions performed under fewer time and investments
• Better agility and scalability, which perfectly match your current business needs
• Improved resource allocation and cost operations
• Increased productivity and collaboration

As you can see, cloud migration can substantially enhance your business performance while improving its profitability and competitiveness. So, what does the migration process actually look like?

What Is the Process of Cloud Migration?

After we’ve learned the basics of cloud migration strategies, it’s time to review the comprehensive checklist for any cloud migration process. Overall, it consists of the following four stages:

Planning Phase

First of all, you need to clearly outline the reasons or cloud trends that have motivated you for the move and which strategy will better target those. For this reason, estimate the cloud server requirements based on the resources you’re planning to migrate to ensure the best efficiency in terms of features and costs. 

To ensure you’re investing in a long-term solution, Devox Software recommends getting expert assistance with cloud migration plan. This will help you get qualified assistance in the migration process with greater efficiency and at the most reasonable costs.

Choose Your Cloud Provider

Choosing the cloud environment for your digital asset relocation greatly affects the migration process. Typically, you’ll choose a provider from one of the following deployment models: public cloud, hybrid cloud, private cloud, or multi-cloud, depending on which service best serves the current and future needs of your business. 

In the next section, we’ll explain each model and possible options to consider within each deployment approach.

Migrate the Assets

This stage implies the actual migration process with properly implemented cloud migration techniques. Here, we’d like to highlight the importance of complying with security policies and planning for data backup and recovery. 

Additionally, don’t forget about application performance management (APM) to capture the pre-migration performance of your business to compare it with the outcomes. 

Evaluate the Results

The last step to complete is to evaluate the results of the work done. At Devox Software, we utilize the top-notch cloud migration approach and solutions to accurately assess the pre- and post-move performance and ensure you’re getting the most value in terms of technical and business efficiency. 

Now you’ve got it all set!

Which Cloud Deployment Model & Provider to Use?

Having discovered the full potential of cloud solutions for enterprises, business owners typically rush to start their migration planning. However, one more thing to consider before you start – defining the most efficient cloud deployment model for your business. 

Below, Devox Software experts have reviewed three different types of cloud deployment models and platform examples, explaining the specifics and use cases of each.

Public Cloud

With this platform, the cloud services are provided by a third-party vendor over the public Internet. These services can be offered for free (usually with certain limitations) or at a pay-per-use model to the clients.

Key Advantages to Consider for Public Cloud:

• 24/7 access to the services
• Billing upon receipt
• Near-unlimited scalability
• Accelerated infrastructure management
• Simple and easy-to-use 
• Lower costs

Examples: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud.

Private Cloud

When choosing the private cloud, businesses get the resources used and owned exclusively by one organization. This solution features advanced security, privacy, and reliability, which is highly important for critical infrastructure: governmental, financial, and banking institutions, healthcare organizations, and others that require more customization or control opportunities. 

A private cloud environment can be hosted remotely or in an on-site data center.

Key Advantages to Consider for Private Cloud:

• More control over the resources and hardware
• Better security and privacy
• Advanced flexibility and scalability
• Larger scalability

Examples: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Dell, IBM, Oracle, and more. Also, some providers featured under “public cloud” solutions offer private cloud options as well, for instance, AWS, Google, and Microsoft.

Hybrid Cloud

From its name, you’ve probably discovered that the hybrid cloud model combines the characteristics of private and public cloud solutions, offering enterprises to use both options at a time. This solution works exceptionally well for organizations that require a private environment for sensitive assets and also want to take advantage of public cloud features as well. 

Key Advantages to Consider for Hybrid Cloud:

• Advanced infrastructure control: privacy for sensitive assets and improved accessibility for workloads that require low latency
• Improved flexibility with the add-on resources delivered
• Cost-efficiency and high scalability
• Seamless migration

Examples: AWS Outposts, Azure Stack, Azure Arc, Google Anthos, and VMware Cloud on AWS.

Multicloud

Often misinterpreted as a hybrid, multi-cloud is another strategy you can apply when planning your cloud migration project. Unlike hybrid cloud (which implies using different deployment models, such as public or private cloud networks), the multi-cloud strategy refers to utilizing multiple services instead. In other words, this means you can use several cloud platforms you need, for instance, AWS, Azure, and Microsoft, at a time. 

Multicloud solution allows reduced dependency on a single cloud provider and utilizes the benefits of different platforms instead. 

Key Advantages to Consider for Multicloud:

• Ability to leverage the benefits of different platforms
• Greater flexibility
• Lower dependence on a single provider

Examples: Anthos, Azure Arc,vRealize, Netapp, Morpheus.

Which Cloud Deployment Option Is the Best?

Considering the best cloud deployment model from those outlined above, you should remember that no one type will perfectly fit any business. Various cloud migration projects may require completely different cloud computing models, types, and services, even if the companies are featured under the identical industry segment. 

Moreover, you’re not limited to a single cloud solution and can instead take advantage of several platforms at a time to achieve the best performance and profitability for your enterprise.

Defining the best cloud platform for your business highly depends on the cloud migration plan explicitly designed to meet its needs, objectives, and technical requirements.

Key Challenges in Cloud Migration Process

The last aspect we’d also like to outline for the cloud migration process is the possible challenges you can face when deploying the cloud solution to your business.

• Workflow downtime is mainly caused due to the technical reasons of server migration. 
• Resource management, which in most cases implies exploring the new (cloud) infrastructure from scratch. 
• Data loss or third-party breach risks occur with low cloud security precautions and possible technical vulnerabilities.
• According to application adaptation, you might need to readjust the existing apps and other digital assets to communicate appropriately with newer cloud environments.
• Evaluating the results aimed to address the challenges and ensure the cloud migration strategy is successfully performed. 

Now that you’re fully ready to launch your cloud migration campaign! If you need expert assistance, Devox Software is always ready to help!

Ensure the Smooth Cloud Migration with Devox Software

different business aspects, choosing the correct tools and proper solutions to ensure its smooth performance in the cloud environment. Depending on the specifics of your enterprise, you’ll need to find the most optimal type of cloud migration methodology which helps to maximize the gains for your business. 

At Devox Software, we know how hard it is to migrate all digital assets to the cloud. With years of experience within the target field, our team has helped multiple businesses excel in a cloud migration strategy, achieve new heights in their performance, and reach the top ranks within their target industry. Now, we’re here to help your business!

Review our portfolio to learn more about the latest projects of Devox Software and ensure our expertise in cloud migration, custom app development, database development, IT consulting, and many other services we provide. 

If you’re ready to get started with your migration to the cloud, feel free to contact our experts anytime! Devox Software developers help you to discover the most efficient cloud migration strategy that perfectly works for your enterprise!