The vast majority of companies already know the advantages of migrating systems currently running in traditional data centers (whether their own or not) to public clouds. Elasticity, advanced security practices, updated software, and virtually unlimited performance are items that are on the tip of the tongue of every IT manager who advocates cloud migration. However, difficulties can arise when comparing costs and during the migration process.
When looking for a partner to calculate the costs of cloud workload or to plan and execute the M2C (move to cloud) project, the first reaction is to seek a company specialized in the cloud you intend to use. This is essential, but just as important is to know very well the applications that will be migrated.
In the case of costs, understanding the application is the first step in determining the best service to use. For example, simply copying a server that acts as a load balancer can be more expensive than balancing the application using a simple PaaS (Platform as a Service) model. Only someone who knows the application infrastructure can make this change feasible, as it is necessary to know the type of balancing accepted by the application and how to configure it. Knowing the workload at the source and having marketbenchmarks on the behavior of the application in the cloud or on premises is essential to correctly size the resources needed in the cloud. Replacing a server with two processors at the source with another of exactly the same size in the cloud may not represent a cost advantage, so correct sizing, without excess, will bring the advantage in terms of value. Remember that "fair sizing " is only possible because of elasticity, because in case of growth or momentary need, it is possible to increase resources, pay extra for them, and then return to normal. Still on the subject of costs, it is very important to assess whether all systems really need to be on 100% of the time. Development and testing environments are serious candidates for being turned off outside business hours, saving up to 40%. Even production environments can fall into this category. Does a treasury system need to be on when no one from the finance department is working?
For the migration project, there are many tools that speed up the process. Moving a virtual server to the IaaS (infrastructure as a service) model is no longer such a complex task, but it certainly does not bring all the possible benefits, as this model would bring almost the same advantages as a hardware upgrade. For example, migrating a database from a traditional server to a DBaaS (database as a service) can bring numerous gains, with new features, security, less administration effort, support, etc. To execute this change, you only need knowledge of the cloud service and, above all, of what is being migrated.
In short, M2C can be very advantageous for IT and for the people who use the applications, but to take full advantage of these benefits, it is important to think outside the box when putting together the final design. Look for a partner who understands the application infrastructure.
