Cloud migration is a strategic process that moves applications, data, and workloads from on-premises systems to cloud environments. It’s an essential part of digital transformation, enabling organizations to leverage cloud technologies for enhanced performance, scalability, and efficiency.
A Deloitte study shows 90% of companies view cloud technology as crucial for growth and staying competitive. It also reveals that 88% of businesses see the cloud as key to boosting revenue and efficiency. Cloud investments increase agility (88%), create new processes (87%), and reduce risks (83%).
While cloud migration can be complex, the 7 Rs of cloud migration framework provides a structured way to guide the process. This blog will explore the 7 Rs model, detailing each step and providing insights into when and why to use each migration strategy.
Why Organizations Opt for Cloud Migration
Cloud migration is not just a buzzword. It has become a critical business strategy for many organizations. There are several key drivers for this shift. Here’s a quick look at what they are.
1. Cost Efficiency
Migrating to the cloud often results in significant cost savings for organizations. Cloud providers like AWS offer pay-as-you-go pricing models, eliminating the need for costly infrastructure investments and ongoing maintenance expenses.
Organizations can scale their resources based on actual demand, reducing wasted capacity and optimizing operational costs. In addition, cloud platforms provide tools for automating and streamlining processes, further enhancing cost efficiency.
2. Improved Collaboration and Accessibility
The cloud enables seamless collaboration across geographically dispersed teams. Cloud-based applications and services are accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, allowing employees to work together in real time regardless of their location.
This enhanced accessibility fosters teamwork, increases productivity, and allows organizations to adapt to a remote or hybrid workforce model with ease.
3. Enhanced Security and Compliance
Cloud providers invest heavily in security measures and compliance certifications to ensure data protection and regulatory compliance. Cloud platforms typically offer encryption, multi-factor authentication, and advanced threat detection features that help secure sensitive information.
By migrating to the cloud, organizations can leverage these security features without the need for maintaining complex on-premises security infrastructures.
4. Scalability and Flexibility
One of the key advantages of cloud migration is the ability to scale resources dynamically. Organizations can quickly scale their infrastructure up or down based on business needs, ensuring that they only pay for what they use.
This flexibility allows businesses to respond to changing market conditions, seasonal fluctuations, and growing customer demands without having to worry about capacity constraints.
5. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Cloud platforms provide robust disaster recovery (DR) solutions, ensuring that organizations can quickly recover from data loss, hardware failures, or other disruptions. Cloud-based DR solutions typically offer automatic backups, redundancy, and failover mechanisms that enhance business continuity.
By moving to the cloud, organizations can mitigate the risks associated with traditional on-premises infrastructures and ensure their critical data and services are always available.
Understanding the AWS 7 Rs Model
The AWS 7 Rs model is a comprehensive framework designed to help organizations plan their cloud migration based on their unique needs. Initially comprising 6 Rs, the model now includes Relocate, making it seven strategies: Rehost, Relocate, Replatform, Refactor, Repurchase, Retire, and Retain.
The addition of Relocate allows businesses to move virtual machines and underlying infrastructure directly to the cloud with minimal changes, providing a more seamless migration option. Each strategy offers different levels of transformation, from minimal modification to complete re-architecture, allowing businesses to select the best approach depending on their applications’ complexity and goals.
This model emphasizes flexibility, helping organizations efficiently decide how to approach migration based on their specific workloads, compliance needs, and operational priorities. Whether aiming for a fast, low-risk move or a complete cloud-native transformation, the 7 Rs model offers a guide to suit varying scenarios.
The 7 Rs of Cloud Migration in Detail
Let’s now take a more detailed look at each component of the 7 Rs.
1. Rehost (Lift and Shift)
Rehosting is often chosen for organizations seeking a quick, hassle-free migration. Applications are moved as-is to the cloud without architectural changes, offering immediate cloud benefits. This low-risk option serves as the foundation for future optimization or modernization efforts. Rehosting is ideal for legacy systems that perform well on-premises but need a scalable cloud environment.
2. Relocate (Hypervisor-Level Lift and Shift)
Relocation preserves the virtual machine (VM) architecture and infrastructure, offering a straightforward migration to the cloud. It’s particularly useful for tightly coupled applications where making structural changes isn’t feasible. Relocate provides all cloud benefits, like scalability and redundancy, while minimizing disruption to existing systems.
3. Replatform (Lift and Reshape)
Replatforming strikes a balance between rehosting and refactoring by introducing minor optimizations to better adapt the application to the cloud. Modifications such as switching to managed services or cloud-native tools can enhance performance and cost-effectiveness without a full re-architecture.
4. Refactor (Re-architect)
Refactoring is the most transformative option, requiring a significant overhaul of the application’s architecture to fully utilize cloud-native features. Applications may be broken into microservices, improving scalability, performance, and agility. This strategy is ideal for organizations seeking long-term innovation and efficiency gains, but it involves considerable time and resources.
5. Repurchase (Drop and Shop)
Repurchasing replaces existing applications with cloud-based alternatives, typically SaaS solutions. For example, organizations might switch from on-premise CRM systems to a cloud-based tool like Salesforce. This is an efficient way to adopt modern applications without managing underlying infrastructure.
6. Retire (Stop using)
Retirement identifies obsolete or unnecessary applications and decommissions them. This approach reduces complexity and costs, allowing organizations to focus on more critical systems.
7. Retain (Revisit)
Some applications may need to stay on-premises due to factors like compliance or technical constraints. Retaining such applications is often part of a hybrid cloud strategy, balancing between cloud and on-premises environments until future migration is viable.
When to Use Each Migration Model
Each of the 7 Rs offers a different approach to cloud migration based on the organization’s specific needs, resources, and technical considerations. Here are some scenarios where different migration strategies would be appropriate.
- Rehost is ideal for organizations looking for a fast migration with minimal changes to their existing infrastructure. This is often the first step for companies migrating large numbers of applications.
- Relocate works best when organizations want to move their entire virtual machine infrastructure to the cloud without rearchitecting applications.
- Replatform is used when minor modifications can enhance application performance in the cloud, offering a balance between speed and optimization.
- Refactor should be considered when an application needs significant modernization or when a business wants to leverage advanced cloud-native services.
- Repurchase is an option when it’s more cost-effective to move to a SaaS solution rather than maintaining or migrating an existing application.
- Retire is the best approach when certain applications are no longer needed, reducing costs and complexity.
- Retain is useful when applications need to stay on-premises for compliance reasons or when more time is needed for migration planning.
Make Cloud Migration Seamless with CrossAsyst
At CrossAsyst, we understand that every organization’s cloud journey is unique. Our team of cloud migration experts helps businesses navigate the complexities of cloud adoption, ensuring a smooth transition that aligns with your goals.
Whether you’re lifting and shifting your applications, refactoring for cloud-native environments, or repurchasing SaaS solutions, we provide tailored solutions to meet your needs.
Our comprehensive cloud migration services include:
- Cloud Readiness Assessments
- Cloud-Native Architecture Design
- End-to-End Cloud Migration Support
- Security and Compliance Integration
With CrossAsyst, you can confidently embark on your cloud journey, knowing that you have a trusted partner by your side. Book a meeting with our team today!
Reference: Deloitte