The Ultimate Guide to Cloud Migration - A Whitepaper by RapidValue

The Ultimate Guide to
Cloud Migration & Adoption
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CLOUD
MIGRATION & ADOPTION
A Whitepaper by RapidValue Solutions
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©RapidValue Solutions

Cloud Migration & AdoptionIndex
07
09
01
Busting Myths Related to Cloud-First Strategy Adoption
BRAVE Framework for Cloud-First Digital Transformation
Introduction
24 Conclusion
25
25
26
References
Author
About RapidValue
10
19
23
12
16
Bootstrap: Develop Cloud-First Goals and Strategy Aligned with Business Goals
Valuate and Prioritize Application Migration Cloud
Execute the Cloud Migration Plan
Roles and Resources Required for Implementing Cloud Strategy
Assessment of Current State
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1. Introduction
CEOs across industries have realized that the “Future of Business is Digital” and they have to leverage
digital technologies to survive in this disruptive era. The top two questions which they have in their mind are:
To make an organization digital at the core, each and every aspect of business has to be assessed and
transformed: Customers, Products, Business Operation, Competition, Employees and Partners.
•• How to make my company DIGITAL?
•• How to leverage DIGITAL for improving customer experience and business process efficiency?
DIGITAL
ENTERPRISE
USER
ENGAGEMENT
OMNI-
CHANNEL
EXPERIENCE
CONNECTED
INNOVATION
INTELLIGENT INSIGHT
AGILITY
EFFICIENCY
OPERATION
CUSTOMER
PRODUCT
SERVICES
COREPROCESS
EMPLOYEE
PARTNER
BI-MODELIT
"OPTIMIZE
TRANSFORM"
The key challenge is that each business aspect requires different solution and at times different product or
technology. To achieve this organization will need to create a ‘Digital Architecture Platform’ encompassing
underlying IT applications which are based on principles of modularity, configurability, multi-channel
support, provisioning and consuming, data processing and analytics, security, scalability and fault tolerance.
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Cloud computing has emerged as the key foundation on which digital architecture platform and
transformation as a whole can be implemented.
“Cloud computing is a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled
capabilities are delivered as services using internet technologies.” - Gartner
“Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services, servers, storage, databases,
networking, software, analytics, and more over the Internet (“the cloud”). Companies
offering these computing services are called cloud providers and typically charge for cloud
computing services based on usage, similar to how you’re billed for water or electricity at
home.” – Microsoft Azure
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2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
3. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) refers to cloud computing services that supply an on-demand environment
for developing, testing, delivering, and managing software applications. PaaS is designed to make it easier
for developers to quickly create web or mobile apps, without worrying about setting up or managing the
underlying infrastructure of servers, storage, network, and databases needed for development.
Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is a method for delivering software applications over the Internet, on demand
and typically on a subscription basis. With SaaS, cloud providers host and manage the software application
and underlying infrastructure, and handle any maintenance, like software upgrades and security patching.
Users connect to the application over the Internet, usually with a web browser on their phone, tablet, or PC.
Cloud computing caters to three fundamental criteria for digitalizing business: Speed, Agility and Cost
Savings.
Most cloud computing services fall into three broad categories: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as
a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS).
1. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
This is one of the most basic categories of cloud computing services. With IaaS, you rent IT infrastructure
servers and virtual machines (VMs), storage, networks, operating systems from a cloud provider on a pay-as-
you-go basis.
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2. Private Cloud
3. Hybrid Cloud
A private cloud refers to cloud computing resources used exclusively by a single business or organization.
A private cloud can be physically located on the company’s on-site datacenter. Some companies also pay
third-party service providers to host their private cloud. A private cloud is one in which the services and
infrastructure are maintained on a private network.
A hybrid cloud combine public and private clouds, bound together by technology that allows data and
applications to be shared between them. By allowing data and applications to move between private and
public clouds, hybrid cloud gives businesses greater flexibility and more deployment options.
The leading cloud platform providers (Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform)
are innovating at breakneck speed and providing services across the whole spectrum: compute, networking,
storage, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Analytics, DevOps, Security, identity services, API
integration and much more. Simply put they cater to the need of all the roles in IT: operations, application
development and infrastructure.
1. Public Cloud
Public clouds are owned and operated by third-party cloud service providers, who deliver their computing
resources like servers and storage over the Internet. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud. With
a public cloud, all hardware, software, and other supporting infrastructure is owned and managed by the
cloud provider. You access these services and manage your account using a web browser.
There are three different ways to deploy cloud computing resources: public cloud, private cloud, and
hybrid cloud.
Source: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/what-is-cloud-computing/
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The following table shows subset of services provided by AWS and Azure for each layer of digital platform.
For detailed service catalogues refer to:
•• Azure : https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/
•• AWS : https://aws.amazon.com/products/
DIGITAL PLATFORM LAYER
Infrastructure-Compute
Infrastructure-Storage
Services- Data Analytics
Infrastructure-Compute
Serverless, Micro Services
Services – Application Task
Security
Connectivity
Digital Channel- Devices
API Gateway
Digital Channel- Mobile
AWS SERVICES
EC2, Amazon EC2 Container Registry,
Amazon EC2 Container Service
Object: Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3),
RDBMS: Amazon Aurora , Amazon RDS
DW Amazon Redshift, Amazon Athena, Amazon
EMR, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon QuickSight
AWS Lambda
AWS Step Functions
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS
CloudHSM
Amazon VPC, Amazon Route 53
AWS IoT Platform, AWS Greengrass
Amazon API Gateway
AWS Mobile Hub
AZURE SERVICES
Azure Virtual Machine, Azure
Container Registry, Azure Container
Service (AKS)
Object : Azure Blob Storage
RDBMS: Azure SQL Database Azure
Database for MySQL Azure Database
for PostgreSQL
Azure SQL Datawarehouse, Azure
Data Lake Analytics, PowerBI ,Azure
HDInsight, Azure Stream Analytics
Azure Functions, Azure Service Fabric
Azure Logic Apps, Azure App Service
WebJobs
Azure Active Directory, Azure
KeyVault
Azure VNet, Azure DNS
Azure IoT Platform, Azure IoT SDK
Azure API Management
Azure Mobile Apps
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As the above table depicts, organizations no longer have to cobble together myriad products and
technologies for specific business use case , now thanks to cloud computing they have the option to avail all
these on cloud platform as pay-as-you go model over the internet. The cloud platform abstracts the services
at all layers making it easier and faster to develop new application or manage infrastructure.
Other benefits of cloud computing are:
Cloud-first is the new design strategy for existing and new applications, just like internet replaced the client-
server and client server replaced the mainframe based applications. Organizations no longer question the
benefits of the cloud computing. Conversations have changed from “Should we do it?” to “How should we
do it? “
Because of the benefits provided by cloud computing, it has become foundation of the digital business
initiatives. It has become imperative for the organizations to develop a cloud playbook optimized for digital
strategy.
•• Cloud computing has the potential to totally or partially eliminate the capital expense of
maintaining own data centers, buying and maintaining hardware and software.
•• Cloud computing increases the speed of application development and time to market as cloud
services are available through APIs.
•• Cloud-based services support the fundamental Agile methodology and DevOps for continuous
integration and delivery, thus ensuring faster software development, more frequent releases and
continuous feedback.
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2. Busting Myths Related to Cloud-First Strategy Adoption
Once you have decided on ‘How we should we go about adopting the cloud ‘, it is important to debunk the
top myths about cloud before you start on your transformation journey.
Cloud is less secure and regulatory compliant than in-premise data center
Cloud is only about cost savings and is always cheaper
Public cloud is the only true cloud
Security has always been one of the top concerns for the organization contemplating cloud adoption. The
flawed security comfort of ‘Touch and Feel of In-Premise Server Rack’ over ‘cloud’ server not visible to naked
eye is a missed opportunity. There is no factual evidence or empirical study which indicates that cloud
service provider gives less security than in-premise data center. The cloud platform provider has much more
incentive to provide highly secure infrastructure because of brand and internet visibility. Because of the
broad range of global customers they serve, their data centers and platform meet numerous stringent
certifications and regulations which an organization may not have. In fact organizations have the potential
to achieve more application and data security by leveraging cloud platform security features.
It is not always cheaper to run in the public cloud but is more often cost-efficient. Services paid per second/
minute/hour basis may sound economical, but some of the cost can add up. The key factor is matching your
workload to the right cloud service and price to performance level achievement will be way beyond when it
comes to the on-premise solutions.
The key to optimum price performance ratio achievement is choosing the right cloud model for your
workload. To leverage the cloud service benefits ‘pure’ public cloud is not the only option. Depending on
your workload needs you can adopt a hybrid cloud or private cloud. All the leading cloud platform service
providers have solutions for all the three models - public, private and hybrid cloud.
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Cloud is only for non-mission critical applications
Virtualization = Cloud
Cloud usage is only configuration and simple
Typical to adoption of any new technologies, due to initial apprehensions cloud adoption was limited to
non-mission critical applications. With the advancement in cloud platform services and confidence from
successful adoption use cases more and more enterprises are moving their mission critical applications to
cloud. Business cases which were not viable before are now viable because of advancement and benefits
provided by cloud platform services. Cloud platform services now provide all the tenets required for mission
critical applications - availability, durability, scalability, performance for complex application architecture
serving global users.
The key underlying technology of cloud is virtualized server but that is not the only thing that a cloud platform
provides. Because of this reason moving from a virtualized in premise data center to a cloud platform is
not the same. Cloud adoption of PaaS and SaaS is much more than IaaS. Enterprises have discovered that
IaaS adoption which is an infrastructure approach similar to the in-premise virtualization does provide low
hanging cost benefits but real exponential benefits such as business value, agility , flexibility and savings are
achieved when cloud is adopted as PaaS and SaaS model.
On the other end of the myth spectrum is the perception that cloud platform usage is only configuration
and simple ‘pay as you go’. There is no doubt that cloud platform providers have made all the services
related to infrastructure, application or development tools easier to subscribe to and configuration driven,
but still it requires appropriate processes, roles and people with the right skills to execute and implement it
in the right way. Many enterprises start their cloud adoption journey but face issues mid-way because of the
unavailability of skills or processes.
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3. BRAVE Framework for Cloud-First Digital Transformation
Develop Cloud-
First Goals
Aligned with
Business Goals
Review business goals
and strategy.
Identify goals and
drivers for cloud
adoption aligned to
business goals and
strategy.
Cloud TCO analysis.
Security, regulation, risk,
compliance analysis
from cloud adoption
perspective.
Create business case
and RoI.
Create enterprise cloud-
first strategy.
Create cloud center of
excellence responsible
for driving the cloud
adoption and migration
in the organization.
Identify external
technology partners to
collaborate in this
transformation journey.
Staff roles on following
skillset : Chief Digital
Officer, enterprise
cloud architect, cloud
engineer, cloud native
software developer,
cloud DevOps.
Roles and
Resources
Required for
Implementing
Cloud
Develop assessment
criteria for current
organization state.
People, process,
technology for cloud
adoption.
Assess current
application portfolio.
Assess current process.
Assess current
organization structure
and roles.
Design future business
and technical
architecture backbone.
Assessment of
Organization
and Application
Portfolio for
migration to
Cloud
Define prioritization
and grouping criteria
for migration and
adoption.
Define criteria for IaaS,
PaaS, SaaS.
Define criteria for
private, hybrid, public
deployment.
Existing applications :
group and prioritize for
cloud migration based
on above criteria.
Calculate cloud TCO.
Analyze and select
cloud platform.
Create a change
management plan.
Build migration adop-
tion execution plan.
Valuate, Prior-
itize and Plan
Application
Cloud Migration
and Adoption
Create cloud
governance, risk
management, security,
SLA, KPI.
Establish agile
development
methodology.
Establish DevOps
process.
PoC migration.
KPI cloud migration.
Continuous
optimization.
Execute the
Cloud Migration
and Adoption
Plan
B R A V E
BOOTSTRAP ROLES_RESOURCES ASSESSMENT VALUATE EXECUTEB
Digital transformation based on cloud-first strategy is a marathon. Any transformation journey which is
disruptive and requires changing the core foundation of the organization can be very challenging. It is bound
to fail unless the journey is planned with specific goals in mind, right roles and resources allocated to it, ‘as-is’
to ‘to-be state’ is mapped and implementation engine is fine-tuned.
Based on the experience of implementing numerous transformation projects for our global clients,
RapidValue has formulated a BRAVE framework for cloud-first digital transformation.
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3.1 Bootstrap: Develop Cloud-First Goals and Strategy Aligned with
Business Goals
boot·strap : /' boot strap/
In computing, it means:
“A technique of loading a program into a computer by means of a few initial instructions which enable
the introduction of the rest of the program from an input device.”
To draw the parallel, the first phase is ‘bootstrapping’ the journey by reviewing business goals & strategy and
laying the foundation of cloud adoption strategy aligned to it. Cloud-first goals and strategy should not be
formulated in isolation but it should be tied to overall business strategy which then flows in formulating the
overall enterprise IT strategy and then specific to technology platform strategy of Cloud, Mobile, Big Data, IoT
etc.
Key activities in this phase:
-- Increase new customers and cross
sell / up sell to existing customers
-- Increase customer satisfaction
-- Create new product and services
-- New business models
-- Expand selling channels
• Define business vision and objectives with tangible, measurable goals & metrics which are key
criteria for analyzing the ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ business states. Here are some example for business
objectives :
- Revenue Growth
-- Increase process efficiency
-- Increase asset utilization
-- Increase employee productivity
-- Partner collaboration
- Cost Optimization and Efficiency
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- IoT based asset remote monitoring and predictive maintenance
- Big Data Analytics based customer segmentation , production/inventoryplanning based on
demand forecasting
- Adoption of Devops for increased agility in application development and
maintenance
- Digital channels of Web and Mobile for enhanced customers experience
- Integration with external system of partner for better collaboration
- Define cloud-first guidelines to achieve above solution. Each of the above should be explored
to be implemented by leveraging cloud computing models of IaaS, PaaS or SaaS.
• Form a core steering committee comprising of key stakeholders with defined timeline and
budget.
• Decide on the roles required and specific people who will be accountable for delivering the
associated responsibilities.
• Stakeholders then have to translate how digital technologies can help achieve above objectives.
Outputs:
• Enterprise business & IT vision : Key objectives (measurable, tangible, traceable),
key value drivers
• Core program structure: Steering committee and executive stakeholders
• Timeline and budget
• Cloud-firstvision:Keyobjectives(measurable,tangible,traceable),keyvaluedrivers
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The key responsibilities are:
Chief Digital Officer
• Drive the digital transformation across all divisions of the organization.
• Develop strategies to leverage digital initiatives to increase revenue by customer acquisition,
better customer experience and engagement.
• Develop digital strategies to reduce cost by business process optimization, digitalization or real
time key analytical insight which gives competitive edge.
• Identify digital technologies to implement the strategic initiatives.
• Develop internal capabilities or partner with third-party service provides.
• Build and manage both directly and indirectly the digital technology team that supports
enterprise wide initiatives.
• Lay down the ‘Cloud First IT Strategy’ mapped to organization business objectives and strategy.
3.2 Roles and Resources Required for Implementing Cloud Strategy
One of the outcomes of the previous phase is identification of required key roles and specific people who will
be implementing the digital strategic objectives identified in the cloud-first approach.
CDO is the person leading the digital transformation in an organization. They have to play the role of ‘Chief
Disruption Officer’ or ‘Transformer in Chief’ or ‘Chief Innovation Officer’. This role can be played by existing
Chief Information Officer or it can be different person reporting to CIO or CEO based on the organization
structure. Ultimately whatever may be the organization structure the CDO has to work closely with CEO,
CIO, business unit heads and CFO.
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Chief Cloud Officer/ Enterprise Cloud Architect
A Cloud Architect is primarily responsible for organization’s cloud computing approach. As a leader of cloud
operations and enterprise architecture, this role includes management of all aspects of IT cloud infrastructure
architecture and their lower level systems components. The key responsibilities are:
• Plan, organize, or structure cloud delivery models. Leading and owning activities related to the
design, development and maintenance of the cloud environment and Enterprise Architecture
(EA).
• Choose the right approach as per the cloud-first strategy aligning with business objectives: IaaS,
PaaS, Saas, Faas in a Private/Hybrid/Public Cloud.
• Develop and maintain a cloud adoption framework including cloud readiness assessment and
criteria for selecting cloud services.
• Plan and manage placement and migration of existing workloads to proper platforms.
• Partner with information security to ensure security requirements are met and persist in cloud
and data center deployments.
• Architect enterprise guidance that conveys best practices and common pitfalls for cloud and
data center system design, infrastructure integrations, application development practices and
application runtime principles.
• Advise CDOs, senior business and IT leaders on the most recent updates and developments in
cloud and data center technology and relevant legislations.
• Support reviews and negotiation of contracts for cloud and data center services.
• Support the review and management of cloud and data center vendors.
• Share best practices, lessons learned and constantly update the technical system architecture
requirements based on changing technologies, and knowledge related to recent, current and
upcoming vendor products and solutions.
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Cloud Native Software Developer
Cloud software developer looks at developing application in a cloud-native approach. Cloud-native
application development typically includes leveraging PaaS services provided by the cloud platform, using
Microservices-based architectures, using containers like Kubernetes and Docker and following software
development methodology of Agile and DevOps. The key responsibilities are:
• Work closely with a team of architects, engineers, and developers to create functional design
specifications, reference architectures, and develop business application for cloud platform.
• Design and develop state-of-the-art technical solutions on cloud platform that address
organization’s requirements for scalability, reliability, security, and performance.
• Work closely with Application Development, Process Governance and Information Security teams
to help formulate and implement a strategy for cloud including developing frameworks and
internal standards and governing policies and procedures.
• Develop cloud migration paths for existing on-premise IT systems infrastructure and data center.
• Evaluate proof-of-concepts for server, storage, network, and security technologies to support the
cloud infrastructure.
Cloud DevOps Engineer
Cloud DevOps Engineer will focus on designing and developing automation to support continuous
integration and delivery processes. The key responsibilities include:
• Maintaining and enhancing internal tooling to enhance CI/CD pipeline and full software
development lifecycle.
• Evaluate current development and operations procedures, recommend and implement tools
and practices to increase efficiency, reliability and repeatability.
• Operational review of cloud architecture with the goal of automating and improving the existing
and future environments.
Cloud Engineer
A cloud engineer will focus on moving existing on-premise application infrastructure to the cloud as well as
engineering new solutions with a cloud-first approach. The key responsibilities are:
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Other pre-requisite resources required are:
• Selection and partnership with third-party cloud strategy, migration and development
consulting companies to complement the internal skill.
• Long term licensing and subscription contracts with requisite software providers and cloud
platform providers.
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3.3 Assessment of Current State
3.3.1 Current Business Process and IT Application Portfolio Assessment
Before starting on ‘Cloud-First’ implementation strategy it is essential to get a better understanding of where
you are with respect to:
Discoverandidentifyon-premiseapplicationsandservers.Youcancollectinformationabouteveryapplication
on the following parameters:
• ‘Current’ business process and application portfolio
• ‘To-be’ business architecture and digital architecture
The key activities in this step are:
Output:
• Assess existing business processes.
• Identify challenges and gaps in business process to achieve the business vision and objectives.
• Identify challenges, constraints and gaps in IT in order to support business vision and objectives.
• Define the business model and business architecture which is a conceptual view of the business
broken down into key functions and processes.
• Business architecture diagram
• Current business and IT processes, applications, infrastructure
• Future state business processes and IT landscape
• Gap analysis report
Complexity
Interdependencies
Performance or Latency Sensitive
Architecture : Monolithic, SOA, Microservices
Presence or absence of sensitive transaction or data
Incremental benefit of moving it to cloud platform
Business Impact : Revenue, customer engagement, customer acquisition, process optimization, time-to-market
Business criticality
Lifecycle stage
Benefit of retiring legacy applications
Infrastructure requirements
Data storage requirements
Compliance requirements
Security requirements Internal and externalintegration requirements
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3.3.2 Enterprise Business and Digital Architecture
One of the critical elements of digitalization is to have a ‘Digital Architecture Platform’ encompassing
underlying IT applications. The key step of application portfolio analysis is to map the to-be business
architecture into a digital platform.
The key architecture principles of digital platform are:
•• Modular: Highly modular approach to ensure flexibility. E.g. Service Oriented Architecture
Components could be in the form of apps (i.e. user facing interfaces), internal services (e.g.
microservices, web services), external services (e.g. APIs), orchestration processes, platforms,
computing resources (e.g. virtual machines, IaaS in the cloud).
•• Configurability: Preference on configuration rather than new development. For instance, business
rule engines, process engines etc. are preferred to custom development.
•• Multi-channel support: Supports a wide variety of digital channels. E.g. mobile, social, web,
sensors.
•• Provisioning and consuming: It should be capable of consuming services as well as providing
the services. The split between provision and consumption is based on the needs of the systems
being developed. For example using SaaS application for a particular business process or
providing services which can be consumed by partner or customer.
•• Multiple data formats: Provides a variety of data storage regimes which can be structured or
unstructured data.
•• Security, Scalability and Fault Tolerance: The digital architecture must be able scalable and highly
secure.
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The diagram below depicts reference digital platform architecture for a digital enterprise:
Infrastructure: Provides secure computing and storage instances on demand.
Services: Supports the implementation of the business application task services. Examples include business
rule engines. It also provides a platform for retrieval and analysis of, potentially large, data sets.
Composition: Includes the services from the service layer to form higher level business functionality. It also
brings together analytics to provide information insight.
API Gateways: Provides the API to outside world (typically as a REST like interface) so that external
communication can occur with partners.
Digital Channels: Platform features to rapidly develop and deploy for variety of channels: mobile, web,
sensors etc.
Digital Platform is the technical base on which all the digital initiatives of an enterprise will be built upon.
It is because of this reason it is very important to get this foundation right otherwise the whole edifice will
crumble down. Every application needs to be analyzed how it can be mapped to the to-be digital platform.
This will be a critical input for the next step of cloud migration planning of that specific application.
Digital Channels
Composition
Services
Infrastructure
API gateways
Web UisApps
External
Platforms
External
Devices
External
UIs/Apps
External
Processes
External
Data
Devices
Business Service Automation
Customer / Partner
Application Task Services
Computing & Storage
Security & Connectivity
Data Analytics
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3.4 Valuate and Prioritize Application Migration Cloud.
Thenextstepinthecloudmigrationjourneyistodevelopthedecisioncriteriatodeterminewhichapplications
can and cannot be readily moved to a cloud environment. You need to decide which cloud platform and
migration techniques offer the chance to optimize the application’s contribution to stated and implied
business and IT goals, finalized in the previous step.
A detailed cost-benefit analysis across the following parameters will help you select the right strategy:
• On-going cloud service costs
• Application re-design and development costs
• Application maintenance and support professional services costs
• Training and talent management costs
• Capex to Opex savings
• Infrastructure load scalability savings
• Staff optimization savings
Build
Retain
Retire
ReHost
Lift & Shift
Replace
ReBuild
RefactorAssessment
of New and
Existing
Applications
Enterprise
Technical
Architecture
Re-Design
Application/
Infrastructure
Architecture
Prioritize Applications
and Determine Cloud
Adoption or Migration
Path
Identify
SaaS
Product
Design
Design
Develop
Develop
Develop
Manual Install
Automate
Validate Go Live
Migrating Toll
Manual Config
Integrate
Integrate
Integrate
Plan
Migration
to new
System
Execute
Migration to
new System
Enterprise
Business
Architecture
Analyze
Gaps
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One of the biggest decisions one needs to take in the cloud migration process is selecting the right type of
cloud platform for the business from IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.
Once you have selected the cloud-ready applications, determine the best migration strategy from the four
options given below :
This strategy is also, referred to as lift and shift and it involves migrating an application to cloud while making
changes in the technology stack or application itself. It involves moving in-premise physical servers and VMs
as-is to the cloud platform. By shifting current server environment straight to IaaS, you reap the benefits of
cost savings, security, scalability and increased reliability.
Let’s delve deeper into these four options.
1. Rehost (IaaS: Lift and Shift)
2. Rebuild ( PaaS, FaaS)
3. Refactor (PaaS, FaaS)
4. Replace (SaaS)
Rehost (IaaS: Lift and Shift)
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This is also, referred to as cloud native or app modernization or legacy modernization. Applications are re-
built by leveraging services provided by cloud platform (PaaS model). It’s built on microservices architecture
leveraging scalability, load balancing, security and DevOps. For example: Modernizing a C or Fortran logistic
management system, using Angular , Java EE and other latest digital technologies.
This strategy is also, known as cloud optimization. In this, current applications are deployed as-is, with some
minor application code or configuration changes. It makes use of on-cloud platform’s new infrastructure
services such as containers, database, servers, scalability etc.
Rebuild (PaaS, FaaS)
Refactor (PaaS, FaaS)
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“Replace” refers to discarding an existing application (or set of applications) and use commercial software
delivered as a service on cloud to deliver the required business requirements. In this, a complete turnkey
application solution is not built but may be configured and integrated in it. The users access SaaS via web
browser or a mobile device in this.
Replace (SaaS)
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3.5 Execute the Cloud Migration Plan
After going through the steps of ‘Why, what and how’ for the Cloud Migration and Adoption, a detailed
program and project plan should be in place which should track tasks, durations, costs and risks. The
important steps are:
• Execute a PoC migration by identifying a business process which is most amenable for cloud
migration based on current orgranization maturity and objectives. This will help in mitigating
risk by validating critical pieces of your proposed architecture.
• Set up the organization, processes, procedures, and tools that will be used to manage and monitor
the environment and migration.
• Select external thrid-party cloud stratey and development service provider to leverage their
expericne and skills.
• Create the cloud environment: Provision, install and test the storage, compute, network, identity,
firewall, and other cloud platform resources required for the migrated application.
• Implement integrations between cloud applications and other dependent applications or
resources.
• Depending on your application portfolio and buinsess objective plan an iterative or parallel
migration process.
• Have more micro level plan for data migration, security, regulatory compliance.
• Analyse and select application and database migration tool provided by cloud platform providers
or third party tool. This will help in automation of migration.
• Preriodic review of the project based on Cloud KPI identified earlier.
• Optimize the whole migration governance and process based on each migration experience.
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Conclusion
Gartner predicts that by 2020, 24% of the total addressable IT market will be cloud. Cloud computing is in
its second decade. Several organizations from startups to global corporations, from government agencies
to non-profit, are embracing cloud for all the benefits provided by it.
Cloud migration helps you achieve great scalability which means that you can easily upscale (or downscale)
your IT requirements as and when required. Moving to the cloud also, helps you to reduce operational costs
while improving IT processes. Because data is in the cloud, processes have become more efficient and
convenient thereby, there has been a significant increase in the in-built security capabilities. Integration
with other services facilitates the connecting of systems together in a seamless and cost-effective manner.
Migration to the cloud allows organizations to provide collaboration and communication tools, software,
apps and access to documents and databases from anywhere. This makes it easier for employees to work
and collaborate remotely. Needless to say, if enterprises and companies strive to move their products and
services into the cloud, they are able to reap significant benefits for themselves. Applications and business
cases which were not a fit for the cloud two years ago may be ideal candidate today due to rapid innovation
and improvement in cloud services.
To survive in this digital disruptive era it is essential for organization to start building a cloud strategy now.
Like any other transformation it is difficult and will take time and iteration, so
Be BRAVE and jumpstart your cloud migration journey today!
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About Author
References
• https://www.rackspace.com/en-us/library/cloud-computing-myths
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/oracle/2013/06/11/the-top-10-myths-about-cloud-
computing/#3248c8344f03
• https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/transformer-in-chief-
the-new-chief-digital-officer
• https://www.globalknowledge.com/blog/2017/09/17/the-evolution-of-cloud-job-roles-and-
training/
• https://www.omg.org/cloud/deliverables/migrating-applications-to-public-cloud-services-
roadmap-for-success.htm
This whitepaper is written by
Avinash Thakur
Global Practice Head- Digital Business Consulting,
RapidValue Solutions
If you’d like to know more about Cloud Solutions, please reach out to us at
contactus@rapidvaluesolutions.com. We’d be happy to hear from you.
25

Disclaimer:
This document contains information that is confidential and proprietary to RapidValue Solutions Inc. No part of it may be used,
circulated, quoted, or reproduced for distribution outside RapidValue. If you are not the intended recipient of this report, you are
hereby notified that the use, circulation, quoting, or reproducing of this report is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.
A global leader in digital transformation for enterprise providing end-to-end
mobility, omni-channel, IoT and cloud solutions. Armed with a large team of
experts in consulting, UX design, application development, integration and
testing, along with experience delivering projects worldwide, in mobility and
cloud, we offer a wide range of services across industry verticals. We deliver
services to the world’s top brands, fortune 1000 companies, Multinational
companies and emerging startups. We have offices in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Germany and India.
www.rapidvaluesolutions.com
+1 877.643.1850
www.rapidvaluesolutions.com/blog
contactus@rapidvaluesolutions.com
26
©RapidValue Solutions February, 2019

The Ultimate Guide to Cloud Migration - A Whitepaper by RapidValue

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