Organizations are no longer asking whether they should migrate to the cloud. Instead, the conversation now centers around what to move and how to move it. But building a best-fit environment for today’s applications requires facets of different infrastructure types, or, a hybrid approach.
The benefits of hybridization can be overshadowed by the complexity of the migration task. Deciding what to migrate and how to do it is a complicated process. Let’s take a look at a few things to consider before starting to migrate your applications and workloads to a hybrid infrastructure.
Considerations for hybrid cloud migration
Different applications and workloads will have different requirements, but ultimately, your goal is to optimize the infrastructure for the workload. Let’s look at some general examples of different types of applications and factors you should consider before migrating.
Cloud-native applications, dev/test/staging environments
Designed for scale or temporary usage, these types of applications are naturally suited for the public cloud, allowing you to take immediate advantage of automation and rapid-deployment features.
eCommerce/SaaS/Internet-based, revenue-generating applications
Parts of these applications may be suited for hosting, private cloud and public cloud.
You should consider the architecture to fully realize benefits from cost and operational efficiencies of cloud.
Data-driven applications
Analytics, business intelligence and data storage all require additional considerations around access, compliance and growth to determine whether hosting, private or public cloud is a fit.
Enterprise and general business
These systems are often designed around legacy architectures and may have redundancy or high availability requirements. Hosting or private cloud are typically the best options in this case, but vendor support may be required.
Hybrid infrastructure is a means to an end, and establishing goals for your cloud migration is the most important step.
For a more in-depth discussion of what to consider when moving to the cloud, learn why many companies are moving from public cloud to bare metal.
