An Extensive Guide to the Cloud Migration Strategy Lift and Shift

Cloud migration is one of the most influential data management trends of the 21st century. There are many ways to accomplish it, and the cloud migration strategy lift and shift is a common solution. This strategy involves relocating an organization's digital assets, services, and applications from on-premise data centers to the cloud. What is lift and shift migration, how does it work, and what are the benefits and challenges for your business? This comprehensive guide answers these questions and more.

What Is Cloud Migration Strategy Lift and Shift?

Cloud migration is the process of moving digital operations into the cloud. It involves shifting data, applications, and IT processes from onsite servers to a cloud environment. This transition enables businesses to leverage the flexibility, scalability, and economic benefits of cloud computing. It also facilitates remote and hybrid work opportunities, which have become increasingly popular work arrangements since 2020.

What Is Lift and Shift Cloud Migration?

Lift and shift is also known as rehosting. In this cloud migration strategy, applications or data are moved from their existing environment to the cloud without major modifications. It's the digital equivalent of moving house, where you pack up everything as it is and unpack it in a new location. This approach allows businesses to quickly take advantage of cloud benefits while minimizing the need to redesign the system.

Compare this to the re-platforming or refactoring strategies, where engineers change or rebuild the application before migrating to the cloud. Lift and shift can save time and money because it doesn't require any in-depth reworking. This method may also be suitable for legacy applications that are difficult to modify or update.

What Is an Example of Lift and Shift?

Virtualization is one of the best lift and shift migration examples. It's an ideal framework to move existing workloads into an applications cloud environment without any changes or alterations. Implementing a virtual system simplifies the migration process by creating a layer of abstraction between the hardware and operating systems. This makes moving applications from one machine to another easier while preserving all existing configurations and settings.

Azure and the 365 Cloud PC are two virtualization offers provided by Microsoft. Azure is a cloud-computing platform. Meanwhile, the Cloud PC is a virtual version of Office that allows workers to pick up right where they left off in the office when they resume work at home.

What Are the Benefits of Lift and Shift Migration?

Lift and shift migration continues to rise in popularity thanks to the many advantages it offers businesses seeking cloud-based solutions. These are the key benefits you could use to sway stakeholders to support your organization's digital transformation.

Minimal Disturbance to Users

Lift and shift migration minimizes user disruption by keeping the existing applications and architecture as they are. Businesses can enjoy the convenience of a cloud-based system without significant changes or outages.

Cost-Effectiveness

Moving applications as-is allows businesses to avoid rearchitecting and retesting systems. This saves considerable time and resources. The approach can benefit smaller organizations or those with tight budgets.

Time Savings

The lift and shift method is a fast way to migrate existing applications to the cloud. Rehosting eliminates the need for manual deployments, complicated configurations, or extensive testing. Eliminating these steps makes it quick and easy for businesses to move their data.

Better Performance and Resilience

The cloud offers powerful resources and can improve the performance of an organization's applications. The scalability of the cloud facilitates quick expansion if demand increases or decreases. This ensures uninterrupted service and reliability for future operations.

What Are the Challenges in Cloud Migration Strategy Lift and Shift?

While lift and shift migration attracts many businesses, you might encounter a few issues. Here are the main challenges that your organization may face when rehosting.

Security Risks

Businesses must ensure the security of their applications in the cloud before, during, and after migration. Without proper security protocols, companies leave themselves vulnerable to malicious attacks or data theft. 

Compliance Obligations

Depending on the industry, organizations may need to follow regulations or compliance requirements when migrating data. Finance and healthcare are examples of highly regulated industries.

Cost and Performance Optimization

Lift and shift migration can be cost-effective, but more efficient approaches may exist. Data centers must constantly evolve to meet changing demands. Companies should regularly review their applications and systems to ensure they run optimally and scale with growth.

Compatibility Issues

Organizations may find that specific applications or components are incompatible with the cloud infrastructure. This could cause latency and other performance issues. IT teams must evaluate compatibility issues and ensure data and applications will work as intended once moved.

What Are the Best Practices To Ensure Migration Success?

There is no way to guarantee success, but our cloud migration specialists have completed successful data migrations for years. These are the recommendations we make to our clients and follow ourselves.

Treat Security as an Ongoing Issue

Organizations must review their existing security policies and update them as needed. They should also ensure that their cloud environment meets the highest security standards and is regularly tested. This may involve running routine vulnerability tests and updating playbooks.

Leverage Automation

Businesses should use automation tools to streamline migration processes. This helps them avoid manual errors or delays and ensures a smoother transition. IT teams can also use automation to assist with cleaning up redundant records and purging outdated data ahead of migration. Remember that moving data from the source to the target is just one of the many steps in the process.

Do Your Due Diligence

Do your research before adopting a lift and shift strategy, and familiarize yourself with the necessary regulations. Companies should also evaluate potential compatibility issues and develop contingency plans to respond accordingly.

How Do You Ensure Cloud Migration Strategy Lift and Shift Success?

The cloud migration strategy lift and shift is a straightforward approach that allows businesses to upgrade to the cloud faster and more efficiently. However, your business must partner with the right company to ensure success. The Cloudficient team has experience in large-scale migrations and can provide a smooth transition. We help companies move to the cloud and unlock the incredible benefits of doing so. Are you ready to get started? Contact us for a quote today.

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.