Every cloud has a silver lining. And in the case of the past two years, the silver-lining, at least for cloud solutions, is its growing popularity and accelerated application migration.

Cloud is what has allowed so many businesses to work outside the walls of their office during lockdown, as well as implement new, efficient, and digital ways of working. However, you’ll probably already know this from the reams of online content concerning accelerated mass workplace transformation. The conclusion usually being that adopting cloud is beneficial if businesses want to futureproof themselves.

Yet, what’s less focused on is just how important infrastructure is when migrating applications - which is what I’d like to shine a spotlight on.

In terms of the strategy behind the move to cloud, I think AWS says it well in their proposition of the 6 R’s (re-host, re-platform, re-architect, re-purchase, retire, and retain). The only R I’d add is to (w)rite a modern cloud application. So, for the basis of this article, I’ll be drawing on what each of these strategies means in terms of infrastructure, and why it’s important to consider when migrating applications to cloud.

Re-hosting, re-platforming, re-architecting

Businesses often do one of three things with their infrastructure when migrating to cloud. They either re-host it, which simply means lifting existing infrastructure and shifting onto cloud, with the expectation of ironing out issues later along the line. Some re-platform by making changes to their existing infrastructure before migrating to cloud but keeping the core architecture the same. Others decide to completely re-architect their applications to start afresh in cloud.

Each of these scenarios holds its own benefits and challenges – and the best option for a business will be based on their individual circumstances. However, all options can be supported by technologies aimed at alleviating potential pitfalls.

For example, hybrid cloud storage can enable businesses who are simply re-hosting their infrastructure to use the same on-premises capabilities in cloud. It means data can be transferred quickly and applications can run parallel on the cloud and on-premises. In turn, decreasing the risk of downtime.

Businesses using the re-platforming approach may similarly find storage-as-a-service a useful tool to have during their migration. Some are particularly good at providing high performance and low latency required for running demanding applications in cloud. They also offer performance tiers, which means businesses can scale up and down quickly depending on workloads. In addition, automation, AI, and ML are also tools to consider to provide scalable cloud infrastructure for larger applications.

If businesses need more drastic changes to their infrastructure, which is usually the case with those who choose to re-architect applications, some of the technologies available today may decrease the amount of work that needs to be done here. Cloud storage solutions, as we’ve already said, is one option. A concurrent versions system (CVS) can also enable businesses to add features, increase performance, and add scalability. In turn, this not only decreases the amount of manual re-architecting that needs to be done but also reduces risks, adds to the ability to recover from disasters, and offers business continuity through cross-region replication (CRR).

Re-purchasing, retiring, and retaining

As businesses migrate to cloud, they should audit their infrastructure. What is useful enough to re-purchase? What is now redundant and should be retired? And what is working well and should be retained?

Naturally with the movement away from office-based work, purchasing on-premises systems has fallen out of favor. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is becoming the popular replacement and many vendors are currently developing modern applications built on solid foundations. Here, it’s best to consider which option would best suit your business and its migration.

As you root through your on-premises applications, it’s likely you’ll find plenty that are no longer necessary for the migrating environment, which means they should be retired. During the retirement process, businesses will need to extract the data and archive it in low-cost storage – of which there are plenty of options. However, if businesses want to reduce costs even further, they can store the data from retired applications on object format.

On the other hand, there may be some on-premises applications that are just not at a suitable stage for retirement, and they need to stay put for the time being. For instance, you may decide an application will be useful after re-architecting, so keep it as is until you can make these changes before migrating. During this layover time, the best approach may be to have a public or hybrid cloud. Couple this with storage tiering, so that data that’s not being accessed frequently can be stored on inexpensive block storage rather than high-performance block storage, which decreases costs.

W(r)iting a modern cloud application

As the demand grows for applications to deliver rich, personalized digital experiences, more businesses are considering writing applications specifically for server-less and Kubernetes environments. The benefit of this is that it can provide speed, flexibility, and agility.

However, to reap these advantages businesses must consider how they can reduce complexity, manage costs, and make the most out of cloud. A good tool to help here is automation which can continually optimize and monitor your cloud infrastructure in almost any environment, whether that be on-premises, cloud, or Kubernetes service.

Application-aware data management services will be helpful here to ensure your business is building and using applications efficiently. Many solutions offer the capability to protect, recover, and move applications deployed on Kubernetes, and don’t require software to be installed, managed, or upgraded.

I think we’re at a stage in business where the migration to cloud is inevitable, but the success of businesses in doing this, is not guaranteed. As we’ve seen there are many approaches to take, and a lot to consider. Yet regardless of what approach is best for your individual business needs, there are most certainly tools that can be implemented to smooth out the challenges you’re likely to face.

So, my final words of wisdom are to make sure you set yourself up for success and not to underestimate the importance of infrastructure when migrating applications to cloud.