On Premise to Cloud Migration: The Benefits, Key Factors, and How To's
By Josh Hebb
Thinking of making an on premise to cloud migration?
You’re not alone and the statistics prove it. According to the Cisco Global Cloud Index, more than 90% of all companies have the infrastructure already in the cloud and the cloud infrastructure market is expected to hit nearly $500 billion by this year, up from $229 billion since 2019.
It’s clear that the future of infrastructure rests within the cloud, but as with anything new, there are crucial elements you need to think about when considering on premise to cloud migration.
Here I’ll break down the process and cover which elements to consider before embarking on your own on premise to cloud migration journey. Follow along as we cover:
- The benefits of an on premise to cloud migration
- Priorities to consider before migrating
- Significant tips and takeaways
What are the Benefits of an On Premise to Cloud Migration?
There’s an extensive range of reasons why a cloud migration makes sense. Some of these extras depend on your specific business, but here’s a look at what we’re seeing with our clients who have moved their businesses from on premise to cloud.
Agility
The number one reason to move to the cloud is, without a doubt, the agility it affords your organization.
This gives you the power to quickly spin up global resources as you need them, within a couple of minutes. You can experiment, innovate, and move quickly. Nearly everything is possible when working with a managed web infrastructure.
Cloud cost savings
Instead of investing in data centers and hardware, you can maintain flexibility with resources that can be scaled up or down depending on your business needs. A significant takeaway here is, an on premise to cloud migration will give you the opportunity to focus your spending on the things that add value to your business – no more distractions from managing infrastructure. Moving to the cloud will save you money.
Security
Moving to the cloud enables you to take advantage of economies of scale. Amazon invests an extraordinary amount of resources into cybersecurity, so take advantage of their investments and stay ahead of attacks. Amazon not only provides communication around ongoing issues but also offers peace of mind and the knowledge that your infrastructure is secure; assuming you follow their well-documented best practices, of course.
Monitoring and up-time
The first thing you’ll notice after an on premise to cloud migration is how much easier processes become. This is because it’s simple to set up monitoring around your infrastructure. Stay ahead of issues with notifications and set up your infrastructure to scale based on traffic.
What are the Key Factors to Consider Before an On Premise to Cloud Migration?
What if your infrastructure is mostly hosted on premise, how do you start migrating from on premise to the cloud?
Here are some high-priority items to consider before moving to the cloud.
Controlling costs
With the massive number of services being offered by cloud providers, it is easy to lose track of which services are enabled and utilized from a cost perspective. It’s important to set up proper tracking and user permissions to stay on top of your infrastructure in the cloud.
Learning curve
Like anything new, there’s a learning curve. Your background and experience level will influence the difficulty in ramp-up, but the good news is that there are some excellent managed IT services available.
Take your time
Proper migrations take proper preparation and planning. Stage your migration and start shifting non-essential infrastructure until you get your bearings with your hosting provider.
Infrastructure as code
Some cloud providers, like Amazon, can create and manage your infrastructure in code via template files. I always recommend taking this approach as it makes reproducing and managing the stack much simpler. Updates are version-controlled and monitored.
How to Plan a Successful On Premise to Cloud Migration
In my experience, to reiterate my point above, the success of your migration will depend on the amount of planning and preparation you and your team put in.
Start Small and Prioritize Critical Workloads
Moving to the cloud can be a complex process. It’s important to start with critical workloads and test your migration strategy before moving all your applications and data.
Conduct a Thorough Assessment of the Existing Infrastructure
A thorough assessment of your existing infrastructure is essential before moving to the cloud. This assessment will inform your migration plan and ensure that the migration process is smooth and efficient.
Invest in Training and Upskilling Your Team
Investing in training and upskilling your team is critical to ensure a successful cloud migration. Your team will need to have a deep understanding of cloud technologies, processes, and tools to be successful in the cloud.
Leverage Automation and Cloud Services to Streamline the Process
Cloud providers offer a variety of tools and services to streamline the migration process. Leveraging automation and cloud services can significantly reduce the time and effort required to complete the migration process.
CMS Migration Services
On premise to cloud migrations are investments that empower your development and engineering teams to move fast and innovate. It enables you to focus on delivering real business value and lets cloud providers handle the commonalities across organizations from an infrastructure perspective.
If you’re still uneasy about how or when to move forward, we can help. Learn more about our on premise to cloud CMS migration services.
FAQs
What is the difference between cloud migration and on premise?
The main difference between cloud migration and on-premise is the location of the infrastructure. Cloud migration involves moving applications, data, and resources from on-premise servers to cloud-based infrastructure, where the resources are managed and maintained by a cloud service provider.
What are the 4 phases of cloud migration?
The four phases of cloud migration typically include assessment and planning, application and data migration, testing and validation, and finally, optimization and ongoing management. These phases involve evaluating the current environment, identifying workloads for migration, executing the migration process, testing the migrated applications, and optimizing the cloud resources for efficient operation.
What is a key step in migrating an on premise application to the cloud?
A key step in migrating an on-premises application to the cloud is the assessment and planning phase. This involves evaluating the existing infrastructure, identifying the applications and data suitable for migration, and determining the migration strategy, such as whether to use a lift-and-shift approach or refactor the application for cloud-native architecture.
How do I move a premise database to the cloud?
To move an on-premises database to the cloud, you typically need to follow these steps:
- Assess the database for compatibility and performance requirements in the cloud environment.
- Create a backup of the on-premises database.
- Provision a suitable database service in the cloud.
- Migrate the database schema, data, and any associated components to the cloud database.
- Test and validate the migrated database to ensure it functions correctly in the cloud environment.
- Update the application or configurations to point to the new cloud database.
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