The 6 Rs of Cloud Migration

Plenty of organizations these days are choosing to use the cloud for handling their regular operations as it can help them save money and boost their productivity. It can be challenging work for many businesses to maintain extensive physical hardware along with networking tools on site as it is both labor and resource intensive. This requires regular maintenance and upgrades, which can only add to the expenses of the business owners. By moving your company’s applications and data to the cloud, you can not only improve collaborative efforts with the rest of your team but make better use of your resources. The decision to migrate to a cloud environment can also help you to carry out disaster risk management effortlessly. Since you are not going to use applications, servers, systems, and data connected to the office environment, anything happening to them will affect your data.  

How the 6Rs help you define your Cloud Migration Strategy 

When you are looking to migrate your currently existing data and applications to Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, you will come across the concept of 6Rs considered essential for AWS cloud migration. The 6Rs define the Cloud Migration Strategy, which means they determine the process through which the applications, data, and computing infrastructure are migrated to the cloud. A proper Cloud Migration Strategy is essential as it can help your company make decisions on the best way in which you can use your resources for moving to the cloud. With the help of the 6Rs, you can do just that. The 6Rs enable you to shift your data and applications from a physical data center or server to a cloud server in a planned and structured manner  

The 6Rs of Migration  

It is important to note that developing a unique cloud migration strategy would require you to analyze the requirements of your business and the level of resources you can devote to the process. You will also have to think about the data and application you need to migrate and the methods you are going to use for it. Depending on the stage of migration your business is in, and your specific business needs, you might or might not need all the Rs outlined here. 

Rehost 

Rehosting is a common method used for the cloud migration process and is referred to as “lift and shift.” This method allows you to move your data and applications to the cloud with the least effort. Rehosting can help you move your existing virtual and physical servers to a solution based on IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) system. This method allows you to move your data and applications directly onto the cloud, just as they are. Rehosting can also require you to rearchitect your infrastructure in the future to accommodate cloud-based operations. 

Replatform 

You may have been using a highly structured legacy system that can make it difficult to migrate to a cloud environment. In such cases, the applications are not changed but emulated using a virtual machine to make these legacy applications compatible with the advanced cloud platform. The process of replatforming is referred to as “lifting and reshaping” and while it involves a higher cost, it is still the best migration approach for companies that have trouble accommodating their old IT systems within a modern cloud environment.  

Repurchase 

Repurchasing involves getting rid of old software systems and buying cloud-based systems for the new infrastructure. You can transfer your license from the physical server to the AWS platform or get brand-new SaaS (Software as a Service) applications. This method can help in increasing the overall speed of migration. 

Refactor and Re-architect 

Refactoring and re-architecting is a process wherein applications are changed to add new features or enhance their scalability. Through this method of refactoring and re-architecting, it is possible to improve their agility and overall productivity. Nevertheless, it is imperative to note that refactoring and re-architecting involves the costliest method of migrating to the cloud. Therefore, it is often combined with other methods to achieve the optimum desirable output. 

Retire 

First, you need to decide on the data and applications you need to move to the cloud environment. While you do that, you will also have to think about what you need to get rid of or retire. There will be things you do not need to move to the cloud environment. You may not even be using them anymore. Retiring such things in advance will help you streamline your cloud migration efforts.  

Retain 

You may need to retain some elements and aspects of your company’s computing infrastructure the way they are and not move them to the cloud. This can be because you still want to have some on-premise systems in use, to move only critical applications to cloud, or to lower the cost of cloud migration.  

Conclusion 

Deciding on the right method of migration is imperative to have the best user experience with cloud computing. You can start with a simple approach to see which method works best for you. From that point, you can use new data to inform your decision-making in cloud migration.