Typically migration initiatives into the cloud are implemented in phases or in stages. A structured and process-oriented approach to migration into a cloud has several advantages of capturing within itself the best practices of many migration projects.
After due study and practice, we share the Seven-Step Model of Migration into the Cloud as part of our efforts in understanding and leveraging the cloud computing service offerings in the enterprise context. In a succinct way,
The Following Figure captures the essence of the steps in the model of migration into the cloud,
while the above Figure captures the iterative process of the seven-step migration into the cloud.
Cloud migration assessments comprise assessments to understand the issues involved in the specific case of migration at the application level or the code, the design, the architecture, or usage levels. In addition, migration assessments are done for the tools being used, the test cases as well as configurations, functionalities, and NFRs of the enterprise application. This results in a meaningful formulation of a comprehensive migration strategy.
The first step of the iterative process of the seven-step model of migration is basically at the assessment level. Proof of concepts or prototypes for various approaches to the migration along with the leveraging of pricing parameters enables one to make appropriate assessments. These assessments are about the cost of migration as well as about the ROI that can be achieved in the case of production version.
The next process step is in isolating all systemic and environmental dependencies of the enterprise application components within the captive data center. This, in turn, yields a picture of the level of complexity of the migration.
After isolation is complete, one then goes about generating the mapping constructs between what shall possibly remain in the local captive data center and what goes onto the cloud. Perhaps a substantial part of the enterprise application needs to be rearchitected, redesigned, and reimplemented on the cloud.This gets in just about the functionality of the original enterprise application. Due to this migration, it is possible perhaps that some functionality is lost.
In the next process step we leverage the intrinsic features of the cloud computing service to augment our enterprise application in its own small ways.
Having done the augmentation, we validate and test the new form of the enterprise application with an extensive test suite that comprises testing the components of the enterprise application on the cloud as well. These test results could be positive or mixed. In the latter case, we iterate and optimize as appropriate.
After several such optimizing iterations, the migration is deemed successful.
Our best practices indicate that it is best to iterate through this Seven-Step Model process for optimizing and ensuring that the migration into the cloud is both robust and comprehensive.
The Figure bellow captures the typical components of the best practices accumulated in the practice of the Seven-Step Model of Migration into the Cloud.
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