| |December 20199CIOReviewreduce noise, reap benefits, gain expertise and confidence before trying rest of the assets. 3.3 Re-platformingRe-platforming is all about re-imagination of the application code altogether and make it cloud native.This being the hardest option to implement, comes with the highest upfront cost and requires most planning for the future as well. It's prescribed for the companies which want their core competencies to be elastic, scalable, robust and future proof for cloud. Recent case studies speak of a major chunk of companies adopting containerization while re-platforming the application to get scalability readiness and associated benefits in future.3.4 Shift to SAAS Sometimes, even it makes more sense to move service to SaaS instead moving any on-premise service to cloud. Though cloud is a future and path to support digital transformation journey of an enterprise but as a custodian of enterprise data and proprietary one has to be cautious while selecting the path of cloud journey. 4. Cloud Migration Checklist· Determine your cloud strategyBefore leaping to cloud, it's important to understand what needs to be established. This may be persuaded by determining certain KPI's to determine a successful migration.Examples of certain KPI's can bea) Application Performance in terms of CPU/Memoryb) Page Load timesc) Availabilityd) Response times· Evaluate the right cloud vendorA key part of your data migration involved choosing a cloud provider that easily facilitate the migration process and certain factors to make this decision are a) Services offered by Vendorb) Experience from previous successful Migrationc) The kind of support the vendor is providing d) Impact of any data protection laws and compliances followed by the vendor and so on.· Evaluate migration components/applicationsNot every application makes sense to be in the cloud. Cost and security are major components to be considered while evaluating the options. As one evaluate which applications should be moved to the cloud, keep these questions in mind:a) Which applications can be moved as-is, and which will require a redesign?b) If a redesign is necessary, what is the level of complexity required?c) Does the cloud provider have any services that allow migration without reconfiguring workloads?d) What is the return on investment for each application you will be moving, and how long will it take to achieve it?e) For applications where moving to the cloud is deemed cost-effective and secure, which type of cloud environment is best -- public, private or hybrid?· Create a Migration PlanOnce the evaluation is done as which application and services need to be migrated, there are certain questions that one should also ask before making the migration planDetermine how you want to move each asset to the clouda) How to maintain data integrity and operational continuityb) Understand the dependenciesc) Determining order of migrating applications· Execute the Migration planFinally execute the migration plan by minutely managing the project plan to mitigate all business risks5. ConclusionThe increasing demand of computing resources is leading higher demand of cloud systems, making cloud computing one of the most discussed and adopted technologies.Most technologists have concentrated on the phenomenal changes like elasticity, scalability and savings and many other features that come with Cloud. But the purpose of this phenomenon lies not only with adoption but also in the development of the quality and efficiency of Cloud Solution, and this would involve a very clear organizational vision as well as a very deep down understanding of application behavior.One should also understand that it is very difficult to give predictions about the uncertain and fluid future of the environment surrounding Cloud computing ­ be it technology, its adoption, structure, industry, and regulatory regime, it is almost equivalent to outsourcing the IT with minimal ownership, so that companies can concentrate on their respective prime forteTherefore, it is imperative for organizations to perform a thorough evaluation and understanding of Risks, Threats, and Vulnerabilities in moving to the Cloud and then enjoying all the excellent benefits that are being offered by the cloud. (views are personal) Devashish Meher,Cloud Architect
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