Migrating legacy applications to the cloud is a crucial step in keeping your business modern and competitive. By leveraging cloud computing and storage, you can scale your operations and update your technology without losing any legacy data or systems. In this guide, we’ll show the way to approach legacy application migration to cloud platforms.
Migrating legacy applications to the cloud: what it is, and how it works
Legacy application migration to the cloud involves transferring digital assets, such as databases, IT systems, applications, and services, from on-premises servers or appliances to the cloud. It can also involve moving assets from one cloud server to another. The goal is to transition from outdated hardware or software solutions to cloud-based computing and storage.
There are many reasons why you might want to migrate legacy applications to the cloud.
Cloud migration ensures that your legacy systems and data remain accessible and relevant as technology advances. By migrating to the cloud, you can leverage the latest security features and comply with regulations, reducing the risk of data breaches. Transferring your data to fast cloud servers enhances performance, agility, and flexibility while avoiding bottlenecks.
Cloud migration can also save you time and money by avoiding the expenses associated with maintaining and repairing legacy systems.
How to migrate legacy applications to the cloud
Legacy applications can be easily migrated to the cloud, but it takes planning. Here are a few steps you should follow:
1. Conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to assess the benefits, risks, and potential obstacles associated with cloud migration. Continuously update the analysis as the project progresses to address new risks and opportunities.
2. Evaluate your existing IT environment, including capacity, network architecture, performance requirements, and resilience of both legacy and new systems. Consider the available staff and determine if any outsourcing is necessary. Regularly reassess the environment as the project evolves to accommodate changes.
3. Choose a migration strategy based on your goals, available resources, and the nature of your operation. Options include replacing the legacy system, re-platforming, rehosting, refactoring, rebuilding, rearchitecting, or extending. Consider factors such as speed, disruption to the business, backup plans, and responsible parties.
4. Perform a pilot migration in a simulated environment that closely resembles the actual conditions. Engage real end-users to gather feedback and identify any issues or oversights. This helps detect and address major bugs early in the project.
5. Once you’ve followed these steps, execute your migration strategy, leveraging a continuous development approach. Provide users access to the legacy system through integrations while introducing new functionality. Use automation to create integration points as needed, ensuring a seamless transition to the cloud.
6. Your journey doesn’t end there. Monitor and maintain your cloud resources regularly. Work closely with your cloud service providers to ensure security, updates, and optimal performance. Consider scaling up resources or incorporating additional applications into the cloud as needed.
Reducing the risk of migration
Bear in mind that every migration comes with unique challenges and risks. You can keep your risks as low as possible by:
- Optimizing the current and new versions of your legacy systems to avoid glitches and compatibility issues during migration.
- Adopting continuous integration and delivery practices to facilitate frequent and smaller updates.
- Creating a dependency map to visualize the structure of your applications and understand the interdependencies between components. This map helps ensure that the right dependencies are migrated in the correct clusters and at the appropriate time.
- Testing your migrated applications in batches and gradually expanding the migration as you verify proper functionality. Employ continuous testing throughout the process to catch any issues early on. Taking a measured and gradual approach helps mitigate risks and allows for effective troubleshooting.
Even with a well-planned migration, issues may arise. By addressing problems as they occur, you can prevent them from escalating and impacting the overall migration. The continuous approach enables you to tackle glitches promptly, minimizing their impact on the project throughout migration and adoption.
Migrating legacy applications to the cloud is easy, but it’s never risk-free. Make sure that you have the right software partner on your side as you tackle this important migration.