Cloud Computing: Steps before you Migrate

Runa Tripathy
Aug 29, 2017 · 3 min read
Cloud Computing: Demystify the web around the cloud

We live & thrive in a rapidly evolving world. The world where technology related advancements are at its zenith. In such a time, every business today is under extreme pressure to perform, grow, & get the maximum returns to sustain amidst the ever expanding competition.

With Cloud Computing making big promises on efficiency & cost-effectiveness, a lot of IT departments in today’s businesses are looking at Cloud computing as a means to achieve their end goals quickly. However, walking on the clouds has never been easier; not even for the Gods. So, it’s understandable that it would be a much messier route for us. So, between your decision to opt for Cloud services & your business actually being on the cloud there are a few decisions or steps that might drag you down.

Steps in your Cloud Journey:

Of course, you might encounter entirely different issues in your own journey, but these are more or less the factors that you need to iron out before your migration to the cloud.

  1. List out the Positives & Negatives of Migration: This step usually should be your first & the most important step you would want to take as you begin in your cloud journey. Do a SWAT kind of an analysis to see whether or not cloud makes sense for you. List down all the benefits you may seek to look if you migrate to the cloud & the possible risk factors that might pose your business with your migration.
  2. What kind of Cloud do you need: Now that you’ve decided to migrate to the cloud, you’ll have to choose a cloud computing model. In broad terms, there are three kinds that you would need to make your pick from.
  • IaaS — Infrastructure as a Service (AWS, Azure, Google Compute Engine, Locuz).
  • PaaS — Platform as a Service (examples: AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, Google App Engine).
  • SaaS — Software as a Service (examples: Google Apps, Salesforce).

3. Want to go Public, Private, or Hybrid?: Now that you have made your pick on the cloud model, the next thing to think about would be which type of cloud would you want to use? Just like in the cloud model, we also have here 3 choices to choose from,

  1. Public; where your resources are entirely hosted by a cloud provider like Amazon’s AWS. One of the cheaper options also.
  2. Private; where you create your own private cloud using a platform like OpenStack or VMware’s vCloud. Also one of the most secure & high in terms of cost.
  3. Hybrid; where your resources are spread over both private and public platforms. So, you ideally get the best of both the worlds.
  4. Assessing applications for a cloud migration: Now that the crucial yet comparatively easier tasks of cloud model & type have been addressed. The actual complexities will now begin to hit you, as you must assess your application for cloud migration-readiness. Here are some of the things that you’ll need to consider:
  • Application design complexity; how scalable is our application.
  • Integration complexity; what are your different integration points & whether or not they are compatible with the migration.
  • The host operating system; Your applications may only run on a specific OS (or OS release). If that’s not compatible with your cloud provider, then you have to look for a workable substitute OS, a different cloud provider, or simply give up the whole project.
  • The application database; you should make sure that the migration methods you use are highly reliable and come with the possibility of rolling back, just in case you run into any unexpected chaos. Most cloud providers offer their own migration services. Hence it’s very important to evaluate those services before you give the green lights.
  • Network; Most cloud environments don’t support multicasting, so if your application relies on multicast, then I would say think twice before you put a ring on it :)

With that, you are almost set to get started on your journey on the cloud. Wish you luck!

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on August 29, 2017.

Locuz Inc.

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Runa Tripathy

Written by

With a flair for writing and a passion for understanding the nuances of the Tech industry, I like to strip out the complexity of technology & make it simple.

Locuz Inc.

Over 300+ businesses around the world have trusted us in their journey to go Digital. For them and others, a Digital Infrastructure partner can help their resources converge and deliver transformation which is required to be successful in the new normal. We help them converge!

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