What is cloud migration? Learn more about benefits, services, and more

Cloud migration, also known as cloud server migration, is the process of moving some or all of your digital operations from traditional local servers to cloud servers. This is a data architecture version of office relocation. As with physical movement, attention to detail is essential. Forgetting something or realizing halfway through that your new space isn’t ready can have disastrous consequences.

However, just like moving to a newer, larger, and better-equipped office space, most growing businesses will eventually need to move to the cloud. If you want to move to a managed cloud server, there’s no reason not to. – It’s like moving into an office building, where the building manager is responsible for cleaning, maintenance, and even utilities. If you keep up with your rent, every little job will miraculously get done when you’re not looking for it.

Of course, cloud migration can also simply be moving from one cloud server to another, or from one cloud service provider to another. However, this kind of movement tends to end uneventfully. It’s a piece of cake compared to migrating your on-premises data infrastructure to a modern cloud system for the first time.

Cloud migration services typically refer to all the assistance needed to modernize and load self-hosted or legacy systems onto cloud servers.

Cloud migration services are important because few small and medium-sized businesses have the on-site expertise needed to perform a cloud migration without a hitch. Data and its usage are a big part of business. We can’t let it stop working indefinitely. A little borrowed expertise can prevent disaster.

Common cloud migration services include:

• Rehosting – Typically provided by Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) providers, rehosting involves recreating the exact hosting configuration on an external cloud server.
• Refactoring – Typically offered by Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers. Refactoring involves reusing much of your current framework and code, but modifying it as necessary to run on the provided platform.
• Revised – Also known as revision. Revision means extending and at least partially rewriting the codebase before refactoring or rehosting as described above.
• Rearchitect – In this sense, rearchitect means modernizing the data architecture and rewriting all code to be optimized for the PaaS provider’s platform. This takes a lot of effort and money, but it has the potential to revolutionize the way systems operate.
• Replacement – ​​Depending on the condition, age, and actual effectiveness of your legacy data infrastructure, you may want to retire it and replace it entirely with applications provided by third-party vendors for implementation in Software-as-a-Service. It may be time to make it a priority. (SaaS) solution.

Most of these processes do not require special cloud migration infrastructure, but very specific legacy systems may require special migration solutions. If so, Liquid Web would be happy to help.

Businesses aren’t looking for cloud migration services as a creative way to spend money. Clearly, this project is designed to deliver real, measurable benefits that constitute a solid business case. While the exact benefits will depend on your current systems and how you use them, most companies planning to move to the cloud can expect to realize the following benefits:

New servers usually have better performance than on-site servers, so everything should run faster and more reliably. Moving your servers to the cloud also reduces user latency, further improving the user experience.

Internal and/or external users must be able to access cloud-hosted services from internet connections around the world. New customers can be reached and field teams have full, secure access to your company’s services.

Cloud-hosted operations are typically less profitable than internally-hosted operations, even with all the performance upgrades. In today’s financial environment, there’s nothing wrong with spending extra money.

In most cases, cloud-hosted systems can support more users and higher bandwidth than aging on-premises servers. Scalability is often just a click of a button and requires only a slightly higher monthly fee (as opposed to buying and physically installing an entirely new server infrastructure), so you can quickly Adapting to changes in demand will no longer be a problem.

Do I need to know everything about cloud migration infrastructure and coding a new cloud-based server before I start? No, in fact, we can handle almost all the nitty-gritty details. But it requires planning. That plan should typically include concerns such as:

• Clear goals for the project – What performance is expected from the new system? When will it be tested? When will it go live?
• Security Strategy – Learn more about cloud and web application firewalls. You also need to know how to implement proper security at the edges of your systems.
• Plan for data copies and updates – You need to ensure that your cloud database is up to date during the switchover. After that, it’s important to keep good backups.
• Update your BI processes – In a perfect world, this would simply mean pointing your analytics to a new database address. In fact, you need to make sure everything still works.
• “Going Live” after party. You will have taken a big step. We should celebrate.

Of course, it’s not always that simple. Timing is one of the most difficult aspects of migration.

Sooner or later, most companies will move their internally hosted data to the cloud. But most of those who choose to wait will wish they had taken the plunge years earlier. It doesn’t have to be as complicated as you fear. Contact Liquid Web. One of our girlfriends at The Most Helpful Human InHosting® will be happy to answer your questions.

Interested in moving your business from an on-premises data closet to the cloud? Let’s chat — manage your hosted infrastructure with 100% uptime, redundancy, and robust security.