Startups, SMEs and large corporations migrate applications to Microsoft Azure to achieve cost efficiency, scalability and higher performance. According to recent research, over 65% of organizations are already using cloud technology, because of its long-term benefits such as lower maintenance cost and improved resiliency.

Cloud computing can be considered as the fast food restaurant of IT services. Once applications are deployed, you can focus on innovation and expansion of your business instead of wastage of resources on maintenance and technical aspects of your business. However, it is a tricky and confusing job to migrate applications to the cloud firstly because of a vast number of cloud options available. Options regarding services such as software as a service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and implementation methods such as private, public, and hybrid.

We have compiled a list of steps that we believe every organization or startup must follow to migrate applications to the cloud like a professional but before we do that, let’s identify application migration challenges.

Application migration challenges

Although migration of applications to the cloud is beneficial in many ways, it could become a disastrous mistake if not done properly due to mis-identification of challenges associated with it. One of the first challenges related to cloud migration is the poorly documented applications. Often developers focus less on the proper documentation and consider it a waste of time but poorly documented applications require more cost and time resources in migration process since migration team needs to reverse engineer everything.

Secondly, the applications need to be designed for the flexibility with regards to scalability. Even though cloud platforms support a progressive increase in resources, if your application does not support scalability it may require modifications and cost more.

Migrate applications to the cloud

Following are some of the steps one need to follow to successfully in order to migrate applications to the cloud.

1.     Plan your migration strategy

Migration of applications to the cloud platform is a demanding task that requires extensive planning. One needs to keep in mind both the technical as well business aspects. The first step in the process should be a proper planning and designing of a cloud migration strategy. The approach can be used as a checklist to ensure the progress and eventual success of the process.

2.     Identification of applications for cloud migration

After creation of a migration plan, the first step is to identify the applications that you want to migrate to the cloud and then evaluate them to further ensure the feasibility of the migration process. The application architecture must be flexible for cloud deployment.

3.     Identification of required cloud architecture

The determination of the cloud platform is mostly made by analyses of all cloud service options available based on criteria such as long-term costs, user management, security and data portability. Evaluate services such as Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) and see what suits your business needs.

4.     Final phase: migration and testing

After creation of the migration strategy, identification of the applications and cloud architecture, the last step is to perform the migration. Your contracted, or in-house, migration team will carry out the migration and test the applications.  If everything is done properly, you will soon have your applications hosted on a cloud platform.

 

If you need any help with the cloud or if you are considering whether your company should migrate applications to Microsoft Azure, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 0845 098 3019 or email enquiries@novacloud.co.uk