Cloud Migration Strategies (the 7 Rs)

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If you are considering a migration to the cloudIf you are considering a migration to the cloud, you are taking an important step towards the digital transformation of your business. Migrating to the cloud offers a number of benefits, but it is also crucial to consider several aspects. There are 7 different cloud migration strategies, each with specific advantages.

Choosing the most appropriate migration approach will depend on your objectives, resources and the particular circumstances of your business. A solid migration plan is essential to ensure a successful transition to the cloud and to take full advantage of its benefits.

the 7 rs of cloud migration

A migration strategy is a plan or approach designed to transfer applications, data and services from one existing technology environment to another, often to the cloud, because of the benefits it offers in terms of scalability, cost, resiliency and agility, or sometimes simply because of a systems upgrade. These strategies are employed to ensure that the transition is made efficiently, effectively and without significant disruption to business operations. Below, we’ll tell you about seven migration strategies:

Rehosting / Lift and Shift (Rehosting)

Rehosting, the first “R” of cloud migration, involves migrating your existing applications without making significant changes to their architecture. It’s like moving your house to a new neighborhood, in this case to a new cloud, but maintaining its original structure. This strategy is fast and cost-effective, ideal for applications that work well in their current form. A constantly recurring scenario is to migrate the local (on-premise) Oracle database to an Oracle database deployed on an Amazon EC2 instance in the AWS cloud.

Replatforming

Replatforming is the “R” that involves making some adaptations to your applications before migrating to the cloud. Similar to renovating your house before moving in, this ensures that your applications are optimized for the cloud environment. This can improve performance and efficiency.

Refactoring (Refactoring/Rearchitecting)

Refactoring goes a step further by redesigning your applications to take full advantage of the cloud. This is the equivalent of a complete remodeling of your house. If you’re looking for greater scalability and efficiency, this is the strategy for you. This strategy tends to be more expensive, but it can also be the one that can bring the most benefits to your business down the road.

repurchasing

Repurchasing is when you decide to replace your existing applications, usually with software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. It’s like selling your house and moving to an apartment complex. This strategy is ideal if you want to simplify management and reduce costs. Another example already in the technology realm would be like moving from a CRM to Salesforce.

relocate

Relocate is a new option to streamline migrations on AWS that are focused towards VMware. This new strategy is based on lift and shift migration moving existing infrastructure to the AWS cloud without the need to rewrite code or make modifications to processes, back to the example it is like moving your house to a new neighborhood. Ultimately, this helps companies that have most of their applications or their data centers on VMware to start their transition to the cloud in a simple way and without compromising their applications.

retain (retain)

In this strategy you will keep the applications in their source environment, without making significant changes. This can be a suitable option when you are not yet ready to migrate or when you want to keep legacy applications that do not justify their migration due to business reasons. This would be like keeping your old house in its original state instead of renovating it immediately due to personal or financial reasons.

retiring

The last “R”, retirement, involves removing obsolete or unnecessary applications. It’s how to get rid of your unwanted possessions before the move. This reduces complexity and operational costs. Cloud migration is a critical step in a company’s digital transformation journey. Different factors, constraints and business objectives influence the choice of migration strategy. Each of these choices will impact the speed, costs and benefits associated with the migration. For this reason, it is critical to have an expert partner, who apart from guiding you all the way, is also capable of carrying out the migration successfully.

Cloud migration strategies, such as the 7 R’s, are essential for industries to adopt more efficient and flexible models. In sectors such as retailBy migrating to the cloud, it is possible to manage large volumes of consumer-generated data in an agile way, optimizing the personalization of offers and improving the customer experience. In addition, these solutions help to dynamically scale resources to adapt to fluctuations in demand, especially in critical sales seasons.

If you want to learn how these strategies can transform your industry, see our specific solutions in key industries and harness the power of the cloud to empower your business.

At XalDigital, we are proud to count with the AWS Cloud Migration CompetencyCloud Migration Competency, which allows us to offer cloud migrations of the highest quality. Get ready for your digital transformation and take the first step into the cloud by by contacting us at today. We are here to guide and facilitate your journey to the cloud efficiently and successfully.

faqs

Can I combine different migration strategies?

Yes, you can combine strategies according to the specific needs of your applications and data.

The first step is to understand the company’s needs and objectives, which will help choose the right migration strategy.

A hybrid cloud combines on-premises infrastructure with public or private cloud services. This offers flexibility and the ability to keep certain critical data on-premises, while taking advantage of the cloud’s scalability.
Rehosting involves moving applications without significant changes, while refactoring involves redesigning applications to optimize the cloud.

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