Cloud Services are the new buzzword in the professional industry these days. Much of the hype for cloud migration is because of all the new features that are possible due to cloud servers. In this article, we are going to talk about the best cloud migration strategy.
We will also look at the different benefits and challenges a user might encounter when moving their data to the cloud servers.
What Is Cloud Migration?
It is important that we know what cloud migration is before we take a look at the best cloud migration software. Cloud migration can be explained as the process performed by a user or an organization to migrate their data partially or completely to the cloud servers.
Commonly there are 2 types of cloud migration. The first one is on-premise to cloud migration. This process is usually done by users that are trying out-migration for the best time. In this type of cloud migration, the data is transferred from the user’s on-premise server to the cloud system.
The second type of cloud migration is cloud-to-cloud migration. In this type of cloud migration, the data is transferred from one cloud server to another. This process is usually performed by organizations that are not happy with their current service provider and wants to change to another platform.
Benefits of Migrating to a Cloud Platform
Before learning about the best cloud migration strategy let us also look at the different benefits/advantages of using cloud systems.
Cost Benefits
The cost of migrating your data to the cloud servers is initially high., But overall in the long term the cost of maintaining a cloud server is lower when compared to an on-premise server. The main contributing factor to this is since the maintenance and security updates of the cloud servers is taken by the cloud service providers. This allows both the organizations and IT admins to spend time and money on more important things.
Scalability
With the ever-increasing workloads and users, it is easier to scale the cloud systems to incorporate the increasing workload. Whereas in an on-premise environment, the company has to buy more physical servers, software, licenses, and the associated storage and network equipment. After all this, the company has to spend time and money on setting up the right way. But on a cloud system, it is as easy as upgrading to a higher plan.
Performance
With the ability to easily scale applications and websites. Moving to a cloud-based system can also improve the performance and end-user experience. The user can solve the latency issues usually associated with cloud systems by requesting to move the data to a geographically nearby server.
Better Accessibility
Migrating to cloud-based systems also allows users to access services and data from anywhere in the world. The only requirement that is needed is an internet connection. This enhances the user experience for provides the employees with modern and flexible tools.
Best Cloud Migration Strategy
A cloud migration strategy is one of the important parts of cloud migration services in the planning phase. Thereupon it is very critical for us to ensure that the right strategy is chosen. Let us have a peek into the different strategies.
- Rehosting: One of the most simple and easiest strategies to implement. It works by simply copying your data from an on-premise server and directly puts it on a cloud server. It has the quickest ROI and is used by organizations that don’t have any plan for using advanced cloud capabilities.
- Replatforming: A few changes are made to adapt to the cloud systems but the core architecture of the data and applications remains the same. Best suited for companies that want to try out cloud platforms and build trust in them.
- Repurchasing: In this migration strategy, we buy new applications on the cloud systems for workloads that are similar to the ones used before. The issue with this approach is that the users lose the familiarity associated with the old software and might have to be trained again.
- Refactoring: Whole applications are rebuilt from scratch to incorporate the new features available on cloud servers. This is the most expensive method out of the bunch. But it is also the one that will be more compatible with future versions of software when they are released.
- Retiring: Not all data and applications need to be migrated to the cloud server. After reviewing the data, the applications that are no longer needed can simply be turned off.
- Retaining: If and when the organization isn’t ready to move to cloud services due to any reasons like lack of apps for a specific workload or anything else. Then the organization can simply just put off the cloud migration further down the line.
Challenges During Cloud Migration
From the previous section, we have learned about cloud migration strategies which is one of the important parts of cloud migration services. Now There are various challenges a user might face while migrating to cloud servers.
Here are the most common challenges that occur during the migration process.
Cost Management
During the migration process, there are chances of unexpected costs. Even though in the long run cloud migration does reduce cost by improving the productivity of the user. But for initial setup, the cost to setup and migrate to cloud services can be very expensive
Vendor Lock-in
A common fear after the cloud migration process is vendor lock-in. Most features provided by a cloud platform are limited to their platform and can not be extended to other platforms. Organizations find it difficult to switch from one cloud platform to another if their current provider doesn’t suit it.
Data Security and Compliance
One of the biggest challenges for cloud migration is data security and compliance. Even though cloud migration services and platforms do provide the proper infrastructures and security protocol to keep the data safe. It is the organization’s responsibility to make proper use of them.
The data is the most vulnerable while migrating from on-premise to the cloud server. This is since migrating sensitive data and configuring controls for different applications across different environments exposes the data.
Professional Cloud migration Service Providers
As we have discussed above there are a lot of inputs for migrating to cloud servers. We have also read about how cloud migration works and what are the different things that we have to take care of for the same. Cloud migration has a lot of benefits and challenges that accompany it. Hence it is critical to have people with expertise in this area for ensuring safe migration. SysTools offers Cloud Migration Services. They are one of the best in the industry with years of experience. They do provide their own in house Professional Cloud Migration Tools if you want to perform the migration on your own.
Conclusion
In this article, we have talked about the best cloud migration strategy to easily migrate your data to the cloud servers. We have also looked at the different benefits and challenges that we might face while performing the same. Hence for a smooth and hassle free operation we recommend using the above mentioned services.
