The Reality of “Lift and Shift”: Cloud Migration’s Costly Truth

As the digital landscape continues to evolve, cloud migration has emerged as a critical strategy for businesses to enhance operational efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. One approach that has gained traction is “lift and shift,” where software applications are migrated to the cloud with minimal modifications. However, the apparent simplicity of this approach can obscure potential pitfalls that lead to increased operational expenses.

Cloud Revolution: Evolving Hosting Landscape

In the domain of on-premises or data center hosted solutions, the management of tangible hardware, complex networking configurations, and the responsibility of backups and updates were inherent aspects. While these traditional hosting methods fulfilled their purpose, they frequently resulted in significant ongoing operational expenses. With the emergence of cloud technology, organisations began seeking remedies for this challenge, particularly concerning their distinct, bespoke — custom-built — software applications. It’s these unique, tailored solutions that cater to their precise needs and demands, setting them apart from off-the-shelf options. In this scenario, numerous entities adopted the “lift and shift” approach, aiming to lower operational expenditures.

“Lift and Shift” — A Mirage of Simplicity

The lift and shift migration strategy involves moving on-prem legacy applications to the cloud with minimal changes to the software itself. In essence, it’s a way to transplant the application and its associated data to a cloud environment. The allure of this approach lies in its relative simplicity — businesses can quickly migrate their systems without undergoing extensive code rewrites or architectural overhauls.

The Pitfalls of Blind Migration

While lift and shift might seem like an attractive shortcut, it comes with potential drawbacks, particularly when legacy software isn’t re-architected to be cloud-native. When applications are migrated without optimisation for the cloud environment, operational costs can spiral out of control. Why, you ask?

1. Inefficient Resource Utilisation: Lifted and shifted legacy applications might not fully utilise the cloud’s dynamic resource allocation capabilities, leading to over-provisioning or underutilisation of resources compared to the controlled environment of on-premises hosting.
2. Multiplied Instances, Multiplied Costs: Legacy applications — specifically, bespoke software applications — are often monolithic in nature, requiring multiple test instances for regression testing by seperate teams due to competing priorities. As the number of test instances increases, the required compute power also rises proportionally, resulting in elevated operational costs.
3. Lack of Scalability: While cloud environments offer elastic scalability, applications not designed to leverage this feature can lead to paying for unused resources during periods of low activity, increasing operational expenses.
4. Suboptimal Performance: Legacy applications, if not re-architected for the cloud, may encounter performance bottlenecks due to incompatible infrastructure, scalability limitations, and outdated optimisation techniques, leading to an unsatisfactory user experience compared to an on-premises environment. DevOps teams might endeavor to address this by scaling up, resulting in increased operational costs without a satisfactory resolution.
5. Data Transfer Costs: Incurring additional costs when moving data between on-premises systems and the cloud, especially with significant data transfer volumes, due to the lack of data optimisation during the lift and shift process.
6. Maintenance and Management: While cloud providers handle some infrastructure management aspects, ongoing maintenance and management of the applications in the cloud might require additional specialised human resources with additional cost.
7. License and Compliance Issues: Some applications might be tied to specific on-premises licenses or compliance requirements of their application platforms, creating complications and additional costs when adapting these applications to the cloud.
8. Security and Data Protection: The security measures commonly provided by cloud vendors might not seamlessly integrate with lift-and-shifted applications in the cloud. Utilising specialised security measures will entail extra operational expenses.
9. Vendor Lock-In: Lift and shift could lead to vendor lock-in, limiting flexibility and negotiating power with a specific cloud provider and potentially leading to higher costs over time.
10. Limited Resilience: Legacy applications that haven’t undergone re-architecting could lack robust resilience features, resulting in elevated downtime and operational interruptions, consequently incurring added expenses.
11. Missed Cost-Saving Opportunities: Failing to optimise for cloud-native cost-saving opportunities like pay-as-you-go models and reserved instances might result in missed potential savings.

A Path Towards Cost Optimisation

So, what’s the remedy? Organisations keen on maximising the benefits of cloud migration while minimising operational costs should seriously consider embracing the principles of cloud-native computing. This involves breaking down complex monolithic structures of their softwares into smaller, more manageable components.

The transition to cloud-native isn’t just a technical overhaul — it’s a shift in mindset. It’s about creating applications that are inherently designed to thrive in the cloud environment, leveraging its full potential to enhance operational savings:

• Auto-Scaling and Cost Optimisation: With cloud-native auto-scaling, applications dynamically adjust resources based on real-time demand. This optimisation prevents over-provisioning, which can lead to unnecessary expenses, and eliminates the risk of under-provisioning, which can affect application performance.
• Pay Only for Usage with Serverless Computing: Cloud-native also embraces serverless computing, where organisations pay only for the actual usage of resources, such as computing power and data storage. This “pay-as-you-go” model eliminates the need for maintaining idle infrastructure, further optimising costs.
• Containerisation and Portability: Cloud-native applications are typically containerised using technologies like Docker. Containers encapsulate each microservice and its dependencies, making them portable and consistent across different environments with minimal changes. This portability allows seamless migration between cloud providers, empowering businesses to choose the most cost-effective option.
• Continuous Delivery and Deployment: Cloud-native architectural style align naturally with continuous delivery and deployment practices. This automation streamlines the release process, shortening time-to-market and reducing manual intervention, thus saving valuable resources.
• Faster Development Cycles: Smaller, focused changes within microservices enable faster development cycles. Developers can work independently on different components, reducing dependencies and bottlenecks, and eliminating regression testings and multiple computing instances . This agility facilitates quicker releases and faster response to market demands, all while optimising costs.
• Resource Reclamation: Cloud-native computing environments enable better resource utilisation by automatically reclaiming unused or idle resources. This proactive approach ensures that resources are allocated only when needed, reducing waste and driving cost efficiency.
• Cloud Cost Management Tools: Leveraging specialised cloud cost management tools allows organisations to gain insights into spending patterns and identify opportunities for cost optimisation. These tools help track usage, allocate costs, and set budget thresholds, enabling proactive cost control.

Conclusion

While the lift and shift approach might seem like an attractive shortcut for cloud migration, it comes with potential pitfalls that can lead to increased operational costs for legacy software applications, especially those that are bespoke. Inefficient resource utilisation, multiplied instances, lack of scalability, suboptimal performance, data transfer costs, and other factors can accumulate expenses and diminish the benefits of cloud adoption.

To navigate the cloud migration journey effectively and achieve cost optimisation, organisations should seriously consider embracing cloud-native architecture style. By breaking down complex monolithic structures into smaller components and adopting managed services, automation, and cloud-native principles like auto-scaling, serverless computing, and containerisation, businesses can unlock a world of cost-saving opportunities.

Transforming legacy applications into cloud-native architecture is not without its challenges. The process requires careful planning, architectural redesign, and significant effort. However, embracing these challenges can yield substantial benefits in the long run.