Customer interactions and expectations have evolved considerably in recent years, with an emphasis on personalization and immediate action on IT infrastructure. In any industry, to cope with this situation, the vendors, to meet the expectations of each customer, need to adopt and use technology to grow their business and thus become more efficient in delivering value.

In this context, to create an experience with a positive impact on customers, all businesses can use cloud technologies to increase efficiency and identify business opportunities and revenue streams, reduce risks and accelerate processes, all this making cloud a core element that brings safer operations.

Migrations can be simple moves of applications, a website, a database, storage, physical or virtual server, but they can also be very complex, for example, an entire data center. mindit.io migration services are aimed at people who model business processes, use technology, and always looking for the best financial solutions to ensure the business achieves the desired results.

What is cloud?

Cloud is the term that refers to off-site servers, often with a large data center. Businesses of every type, size, and industry can access this service via the internet instead of buying, owning, and maintaining the physical data centers and servers on location. Its main benefit is scalability. If a business grows rapidly, the company needs more storage space. So it can quickly get more resources via the cloud to use for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, disaster recovery, email, software development and testing, big data analytics, and customer-facing web application.

What is a cloud migration strategy?

A cloud migration strategy is an organization’s method of transferring data and applications from its on-premise infrastructure to the cloud hosting via the network. It’s a popular trend among businesses. The benefits of adopting such a strategy include scalability, increased effectiveness, business agility, faster implementation, mobility, and disaster recovery.

The 6 R’s of Cloud Migration Strategy

1.     Rehost

2.     Replatform

3.     Refactor/Re-architect

4.     Repurchase

5.     Retire

6.     Retain

Let's take a look at each of them:

1.     Rehost (‘’lift and shift’’)

As the name suggests, you need to take an existing stack and move it from your local hosting environment to the cloud. You can do this by making an exact copy of your current environment without making any significant changes, which will allow you to get the fastest ROI. Companies with a conservative culture or a long-term strategy for using advanced cloud features are also suitable for rehosting.

2.    Replatform (‘’lift , tinker, and shift’’)

Platform as a Service (PaaS) is when you customize and optimize your applications for the cloud. This is done by changing the core architecture of the application, but it’s still used just like a regular application. Customizations are made to enable better use of cloud-based tools.

3.     Refactor/Re-architect

Refactoring is the process of rebuilding your existing application to meet the current scope or from scratch. This can be necessary if you use cloud features not available in your current environments, such as auto-scaling or serverless computing. It’s generally the most expensive option, but it’s also the most future-proofed.‍

4.     Repurchase

Moving to anew cloud-native platform means moving your applications to a SaaS product. The challenge is losing familiarity with the existing code and training your team on the new platform. However, this may be the most cost-effective option if you are moving from a highly customized legacy landscape.

5.     Retire

After reviewing your portfolio to see if applications are ready for cloud migration, you may find that some of them should be shut down. This will save money and strengthen the business case to move other applications to the cloud.

6.     Retain

Some companies are not yet ready to outsource data for compliance reasons. Perhaps they have a system that is being updated, and they need to wait until it's finished? If this is the case, you should revisit cloud computing at a later date. It would be best if you only migrated what makes sense in your business.

Types of Cloud Solutions

Public Cloud: The computing infrastructure is located entirely at the supplier's premises. There is no need to invest in your own IT department; you can quickly add users or increase computing power, depending on your company's needs.

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                                                                                     Public cloud services market estimated at $623.3 billion by 2023

Advantages

-       Almost unlimited scalability

-       No maintenance is required

-      Cost-effectiveness

-       Pay-per-use model

Disadvantages

-       Challenges in data security and privacy

-       Reliability complaints‍

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Private Cloud: Only your company uses it, and it can be hosted either by the supplier or at the company's location, ensuring maximum security.

                                                                                     Private cloud services market estimated at $482 billion by 2022

Advantages

-       High scalability

-       Security optimization

-       Extended flexibility and reliability

-       Control in customization

Disadvantages

-       High costs

-       Needs IT expertise

Hybrid Cloud: It is a mix between public and private cloud, the company hosts essential applications and data on its servers, and the Cloud functor hosts the secondary ones.

                                                                                   Hybrid cloud services market estimated at $171.926 billion by 2025

Advantages

-       Optimal flexibility

-       Accessibility in use

-       Operational control

-       Cost-effectiveness            

Disadvantages

-       Can be more expensive compared to public cloud

-       IT infrastructure management is more complex‍

Cloud services you can opt for depending on your company's needs

SaaS (Software as a service) - The provider will host your company's applications, and your team members will be able to access the applications over the network. This eliminates the cost of maintaining your computing infrastructure. SaaS helps you work faster, using the latest technology and having access to automatic updates.

PaaS (Platform as a service) - You can access developer tools at any time, create and manage web or mobile applications, and the provider hosts the infrastructure and middleware. There's no need to invest in or maintain the underlying infrastructure.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) - You get access to online infrastructure services quickly. The infrastructure components are hosted by the provider: everything from computing, storage, or network infrastructure.

Why should you consider moving to the cloud and what are its benefits?

Why?

-       To save money, most often. Virtual servers eliminate the need to purchase and run physical ones, which is a substantial cost saving for businesses.

-       Acquisitions/divestitures often move to the cloud to create a unified infrastructure for an enterprise structure.

-       Centralized security and governance are more effective when the data center infrastructure is unified. Migrating to the cloud can help you achieve data center consolidation.

-       Cloud technology enables large-scale computing workloads and capacity expansions that are not supported by your legacy environment and technology or are too expensive or difficult with existing systems.

-       Innovation or a paradigm shift may be easier to achieve with a cloud solution that better fits the business's long-term vision.

Benefits?

-       Cost saving

-       Security

-       Flexibility

-       Mobility

-       Insight

-       Increased Collaboration

-       Quality Control

-       Disaster Recovery

-       Loss Prevention

-       Automatic Software Updates

-       Competitive Edge

-       Sustainability

According to Eurostat statistics, large companies use cloud computing much more than small and medium-sized companies, and the most significant growth is also seen in this sector. Thus, large companies use Cloud services at 56%, with an increase of21%, while small and medium-sized companies are at 23%, with an increase of6-12%.

At the end of Q4 of 2021, technical executives, managers, and practitioners of Cloud indicated that the most challenging part of using Cloud Computing within their organizations was about security and 90% of respondents from large enterprises indicated having already adopted Cloud.

mindit.io is up-to-date with the latest products and software and can recommend ways to improve and integrate Cloud solutions continuously. Having a great deal of expertise, we are an excellent resource for consulting on optimization.

If you want to benefit from the advantages of migrating to the Cloud, let's meet and make your business more secure.

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