Digital Themes

Cloud Migration

What is cloud migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving an organization’s digital information, including applications, data, software, and services, to a cloud environment. There are multiple types of cloud migrations, for example, migration can occur either from one cloud service to another, or from on-premises to on the cloud, which is also referred to as cloud adoption. The specific reasons for conducting a cloud migration may vary, but there are always advantages to such a transformation.

Cloud adoption can allow for cost savings, improved disaster recovery, and increased computing power. One of the most common methods of cloud adoption is lift and shift, also known as rehosting. This is when an organization moves an entire application and associated data to the cloud. This can help reduce costs, and improves disaster recovery, as the data is now stored online, and would not be subject to harm from a catastrophic event on-location.

There are also hybrid cloud models that can be utilized in a cloud migration. A hybrid model can include when a company utilizes some on-premise resources, such as a data server, while the application itself moves to the cloud. A common example of this hybrid approach would be Microsoft Azure, which allows integration of on-premises data to cloud services and applications. Hybrid models can enhance the security of the data, by limiting access to only authorized individuals, while benefiting from the availability of the cloud services.

Cloud migration can also occur when moving from a public cloud to a private cloud. Private clouds are generally more secure than public clouds, as they have additional requirements in order to access any of the information stored on them. Businesses might choose this type of migration if they are moving sensitive data off a public cloud and onto a private one.

When considering any kind of cloud migration, it is important to have a cloud migration strategy. An organization must consider not only what cloud solutions they want, but also how they want to complete the transfer and what effect that might have on the availability of any software, data, or services. There are multiple third-party vendors and cloud migration tools that can assist each step of the migration process. These services help ensure that data migration is handled as securely as possible, while also helping to optimize any costs savings from the migration.

Cloud migration can help businesses in the following ways:

  • Data consolidation: By moving to the cloud, businesses can ensure that all of their data is available from a centralized application. Additionally, cloud providers offer data analytics tools that can process big data quickly, thereby enabling businesses to pull relevant information and analyses in real time.

  • Increased computing power: Once an application moves to the cloud, it can access a large array of cloud infrastructure in support. Rather than being limited to the computing power of a single device, cloud computing platforms enable businesses to access a large array of networked devices to increase computation ability.

  • Scalability: Cloud platforms are designed to be scaled upwards or downwards as trends dictate. It is easy to make changes if a business needs extra bandwidth or storage one month, but then needs to decrease it the next.

  • Increased stability: Disaster recovery is of high importance for on-premises solutions, as a fire or heavy water damage can be catastrophic. However, redundancies and back ups are often built into cloud solutions. It is possible to back up data and applications across multiple geographic locations, while allowing for changes to be written in real time across all sites.
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