Rehost (Lift and Shift)
The first migration strategy is the rehosting approach. At Align, we refer to it as the “lift and shift” method.
This migration strategy entails relocating your infrastructure from on-premises to the cloud or another on-premises data center with minimal or no modifications to the applications or workloads. In some cases, this strategy could even entail physically moving hardware from one location to another to be turned up at the new location.
By leveraging infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings from cloud providers, organizations can replicate their on-premises setup in the cloud, allowing applications to run in a cloud-hosted environment. The rehosting strategy is often seen as a quick and relatively straightforward way to migrate to the cloud.
Benefits at a glance:
- Little to no disruption to ongoing operations
- Can be completed under tight timelines
- Potential costs savings by retiring on-prem hardware and leveraging the cloud’s pay-as-you-go pricing model
- Requires less technical resources to complete migration
- Allows for future optimizations within the cloud environment
Align’s Take:
It’s important to note the rehosting strategy may not fully capitalize on the cloud’s native features and capabilities. This can potentially limit the optimization and scalability benefits the cloud can offer. And without refactoring or rearchitecting applications specifically for the cloud, organizations may miss opportunities to enhance performance and cost-effectiveness.
Replatform
Replatforming, also known as the “lift-tinker-and-shift” approach, involves transitioning applications to the cloud environment while introducing optimizations that leverage cloud provider services. This strategy entails making modest adjustments to the application code and architecture to take advantage of cloud-native features and capabilities.
Although more complex than a straightforward “lift and shift” migration, replatforming still allows organizations to maintain the core functionality and architecture of their existing applications. This mitigates the risks associated with extensive rearchitecting efforts. Businesses should note that this approach may still leave organizations tied to legacy architectures and potentially limit their ability to fully embrace cloud-native paradigms.
Benefits at a glance:
- Improved scalability
- Enhanced performance
- Cost optimization
- Minimizes extent of code modifications required
- Ability to incorporate cloud-native services into applications
- Offloads operational burdens
- Reduces infrastructure management overhead
Repurchase
The repurchasing strategy, as the name implies, means transitioning from on-premises applications to cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions. This approach involves abandoning the existing applications and adopting a commercially available, cloud-native SaaS alternative that provides equivalent functionality.
Repurchasing is particularly beneficial when a suitable SaaS offering exists that aligns with the organization’s requirements. It remains a viable option for organizations seeking to leverage modern, cloud-native solutions while also reducing IT overhead.
Benefits at a glance:
- Reduced maintenance and operational burdens associated with traditional on-premises software
- Automatic updates provided by SaaS solutions
- Scalability benefits inherent to cloud-based solutions
- Transfer of operational responsibilities to the SaaS vendor
- Reduced IT overhead and infrastructure management responsibilities
- Agility and cost-effectiveness of leveraging modern, cloud-native solutions
- Access to the latest features and innovations offered by leading SaaS providers