If you haven’t started with your legacy system data migration journey to the latest cloud platform(s) yet, it is time to begin it now. Do you know that close to 90% of the companies in the world are already on the cloud? Experts are of the opinion that more than 60% of workloads are currently running on cloud services which was only 45% back in the year 2018.
In terms of spending on cloud computing, the USA is the leader with $124.6 billion followed by China, the UK, Germany and Japan with $10.5 billion, $10 billion, $9.5 billion and $7.4 billion respectively. At the moment, Amazon Web Services is the leading cloud technology vendor which has a 32% share in the global market.
But the bigger question here is why are we stating these statistics?
It is just to stress upon the fact that data migration from your legacy / traditional systems to more advanced cloud computing platforms is not something that you can prevent. It is a technological advancement that you will have to welcome if you wish to keep your business relevant.
3 Baby Steps Towards Getting Cloud-Native
Following are a few basic steps that will help you embrace the cloud technology of modern times and give you a competitive advantage over your competitors and the much-needed agility in your functions:
1: Define Your Vision
Do you know what your cloud strategy is going to be? What are the needs of your customers? How are you going to deliver your products and services to your consumers with the help of the new cloud framework? You will have to ensure solid system performance and a robust end-user experience with the cloud technology that you are thinking about adopting. You have to have a vision with regards to what you aim to achieve through this change whether it is a single cloud or multi-cloud platform. The answers to these questions will be the building blocks of your entire legacy data migration strategy.
2: Understanding Of Existing Legacy
This step is all about comparisons. Understand what your legacy system does and how it functions. Profile all the applications that you are using and benchmark their performance right from their baseline to their pinnacle. You will have to monitor your legacy system to understand it better and create a technology stack that you will be investing in to create the cloud platform you want to use in the future. Get comprehensive snapshots of your existing systems at every step of the way throughout its various procedures and service flow. You should be able to draw useful parallels between your existing legacy system and the cloud technology you want to adopt.
3: Strategizing Your Migration
The final step is to define the migration strategy you are going to adopt. You will be deciding upon the various applications that you will retire and the ones that you are going to retain. You may decide to just lift and shift some applications from the legacy system to the brand new cloud environment. However, the downside to it is that the old code on which this application is based will not be able to fully take the advantage of the new cloud environment you have invested in. Therefore, this process is going to be the most critical one to complete. You will have to weigh in the advantages and disadvantages of both lifting and shifting applications and adopting new applications that are more cloud friendly.
What About Automation And Machine Learning?
How Artificial Intelligence Can Help You With Legacy Data Migration
It is very important to understand that artificial intelligence and automation have entered the picture and completely revolutionized migration from legacy systems as we know it. Enterprises have begun to automate almost every function in their businesses. For a successful cloud migration strategy, businesses are relying heavily on artificial intelligence-enabled automation. AI automates all your critical operations and assists in performance monitoring as well. You can also perform root cause analysis and several remediation procedures with AI. But before you begin investing in artificial intelligence-enabled technology to automate data migration, you will have to address several technical challenges and numerous organizational changes including the following:
- Rebuild and re-motivate your organization and its members to adopt more agile and automated processes
- Invest in building continuous integration of the new technology so that continuous delivery systems can be put in action which will ensure the smooth functioning of your business machinery
- The integration of your existing legacy applications and features with the brand new cloud-native components and cloud environment is also a critical step that you will have to perform
- Always make a room for system performance under real-life conditions so that any risks attached with missing migration deadlines can be mitigate
Final Thoughts
This was kind of a little pep talk to prepare you for your legacy data migration journey. Remember, there are several cloud applications that will be too complex to be operated just by the human element in your organization. AI and machine learning along with software intelligence are going to oversee the entire health of your cloud environment. They do not just assist in the migration process but also uphold your workflows and assist in corrective actions, troubleshooting and much more. At Linking Logics, we strive to deliver not just business solutions but opportunities for growth. Visit us for more information.
