In the last few years, we have seen that the IT industry has been looking for new and better ways of working. There has been a rise in the cloud services and new ways of storing the data have evolved. Choosing a migration path is one of the most important decisions a business will make. The reason for this is because it greatly impacts project timelines, budgets, and risks. Businesses need to be sure that they’re making the right choice especially if they’re moving over hundreds or thousands of workloads. That is why the lift and shift method is considered an easy way to move the data from one source to another. There are various reasons for considering this method. Here, we’ll look at why you should consider a lift and shift cloud migration and how it can help.
Leverage our best practices in lift and shift migration
A lift and shift migration is the process of moving your existing application to the cloud as it is. This can be from a proprietary system to a public cloud or from a public cloud to another public cloud.
Why you need a lift and shift migration
Cloud migration can be a tough process if you don’t have the right tools at your disposal. Knowing what works and what is the best route to migrate your workloads is crucial for a successful migration. Migrating your server is a major undertaking and you want to make sure that everything works out without a hitch. One way to make sure that you are successful is to take the left and shift approach.
Many people think of a lift and shift migration as a quick, one and done solution when they can’t afford to go through with a full digital transformation. However, this type of migration is a missing step that most businesses don’t even know about and are not prepared for. It is sometimes also referred to as an in-place migration. Some organizations are opting for this approach instead of a traditional data center migration, due to the fact that it is less risky. It is a common approach when you’re trying to move an application that was created using an older technology onto a new platform. A lift and shift cloud migration is also helpful when you want to move an application that was deployed using a different operating system.
What is a lift and shift cloud migration?
Recently there has been a lot of buzz around the term lift and shift migration. But what does it really mean? Lift and shift is a type of migration where you move workloads from one platform to another. It follows the same architecture and structure that was previously set up, but on a new platform / environment. That is, the workload is moved over in a way that mimics the original architecture. Usually this migration is done to a new platform that is easier to use or has more functionality. As you can imagine, it has a lot to do with architecture.
This migration type is a simple and straightforward migration method. It doesn’t require a lot of changes to your source code or application, but it does require a lot of planning and attention to detail. It is meant to be a low-risk method of migrating systems and applications to the cloud. These migrations are often used to move systems from on-premise data centers to the cloud.
Niveus lift and shift case studies
- An Indian multinational pharmaceutical company, through the ‘lift and shift’ approach, was able to right size their VMs and improve their utilization with us.
- A leading private bank converted their VMs into lightweight containers by deploying applications hosted on a hybrid environment with lift and shift.
- A financial app service provider would be moving their workload to GCP with Lift and Shift migration
Things to consider before you start your migration
Determine why your business needs to move to the cloud: One of the most common reasons for a business to migrate to the cloud is the need for more storage. Another common reason is the need to update the software of the business. However, another very common reason is to be able to transfer the data from one cloud to another, for better scalability and security. Understanding why you are migrating is the first step to your migration journey
Manage location and security of data: Protecting the integrity of your data is crucial. You don’t want to be in a situation where you’re forced to toss out information that’s important to your business. You don’t want to lose customer information, for example. You also don’t want to be stuck with a slow application that doesn’t work properly. A lift-and-shift migration is a way to migrate to the cloud that doesn’t require you to change any code. It helps to shift your data and applications to the cloud without making any changes to the applications you’re moving. This is also called a batch process because it moves data and applications in batches.
Define in which ways the work culture of your business will change: Change can be scary. Most people especially don’t like change that they aren’t in control of. A lift and shift migration is where you do not completely rebuild the entire environment but you keep the same database structure. It is often used in database migration and can be a big help when you are migrating an application with minimal changes.
Align your move with your hardware life-cycle: Organizations often consider moving their workload to the public cloud because they want to reduce costs or increase flexibility and agility. With a lift and shift migration, businesses move their applications and workloads to the cloud without changing the code, or without a lot of code changes. This type of migration is often considered quick and easy, but you need to determine if it’s right for you.
Find the right cloud provider: Cloud migrations can be tricky because they involve a lot of moving parts. When your company decides to migrate to the cloud, there are a lot of decisions you’ll need to make about which cloud provider you want to work with. The cloud provider you choose will be responsible for hosting your data and applications. But choosing the right cloud provider can be difficult, without the right understanding of your requirements.
Determine the realistic costs and timelines: Having a realistic view of the costs on cloud and the appropriate timelines, will help you avoid unpleasant surprises. A lift and shift migration is a more cost-effective option for companies who want cloud cost optimization on their operations running on the cloud. It is often preferred over a greenfield deployment. Since it is a cheaper option, it is also a good choice for small businesses that don’t have the capital to invest in a greenfield deployment.
Overall, a lift and shift cloud migration is a cost-efficient and time-saving solution to migrate your data to the cloud. As we’ve seen, lift-and-shift migrations can be a great way to migrate your entire workload, or a subset of it, to the cloud, without having to write custom code to do so. If you’re still not sure whether or not a lift-and-shift migration is right for you, please contact us for a demo. We’d love to show you how lift-and-shift migrations can work for your business today.
