Cloud Migration & Application Modernization
What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration involves the transfer of your existing applications and data from an on-premise infrastructure or a cloud instance to another cloud environment.
There are different strategies used for cloud migration depending on the business objective and nature of the applications to be transferred.
Cloud migration paves the way to application modernization as cloud technology has the best compatibility with the latest technologies thus enabling organizations to create better applications.
What is Meant by Application Modernization?
Modernization refers to transforming your monolithic and legacy applications into more elastic, and agile applications that can pave the way to better business efficiency and productivity.
Modernization is all about transforming and optimizing cloud-based applications through the use of automation and other disruptive technologies. It also involves approaches like serverless architecture, digital decoupling, and re-platforming.
In a survey, 14 % of the enterprises preferred the rehosting approach of cloud migration which involves a lift and shift. The same survey also reveals that 46% of enterprises would prefer to start their journey to the cloud with cloud modernization. The main reason for this could be attributed to the fact that relocating the current infrastructure to the cloud does not hinder day-to-day operations.
A survey titled, The State of Application Modernization, reveals that 71 % of the respondents admitted at least every one out of four applications are undergoing modernization. 24 percent of the respondents also say that more than 50 percent of their applications are under modernization.
How Application Modernization Helps?
A modernization-based migration involves assessing what applications an organization currently has. It involves evaluating what they currently have, what should be updated, what should be kept, and what new services are to be incorporated.
When an organization migrates to the cloud from on-premise infrastructure, many of the legacy applications might not properly sync with the cloud environment and thus it might be difficult to execute some of these applications in the cloud.
Architecture, application, and infrastructure modernization are the roads to digital transformation. Modernization involves optimizing and transforming cloud-based applications by using AI, automation capabilities, containers, etc.
Modernization is relevant for companies that rely on conventional legacy systems to run their applications. It is very important on the part of companies to decide on the applications and the percentage of infrastructure that should be modernized and the approach they would take.
Legacy application modernizing might require entire the architecture of the project to be implemented in phases as it is a very extensive process. In the long run, modernization enhances the optimization of the cloud architecture and enhances overall performance and productivity.
Approaches to Application Modernization
1) Re-platforming
Modernization using application re-platforming involves applying minimal changes to the underlying code to ensure that the legacy applications work as expected in the cloud environment.
2) Refactoring
Refactoring involves splitting apart the applications and reconstructing it in the cloud-native architecture. The intensity of code change done by using a new programming language may require subsequent testing.
3) Service Decomposition
Another method of application modernization involves service decomposition, where applications are decomposed into microservices, which are reusable components, which are further exposed via the APIs. This is followed by using an orchestration layer like Kubernetes. Using a serverless approach can enable enterprises to run the code without the need to manage the infrastructure.
4) Digital Decoupling
It is a modern technique that is used for the modernization of very large legacy applications such as mainframe software. Digital decoupling enables organizations to build a new system while at the same time retaining the old system.
Both of the systems can run concurrently by synchronizing the data in old and new systems in real-time. By using cloud-native models and automation, organizations can modernize the applications in the new system individually.
Once the new system is fully done, organizations need not bother about the old system. Thus digital decoupling enables organizations to leverage both systems until the new system is fully accomplished.
This technique can ensure that day-to-day business operations will not get interrupted while carrying out application modernization
Conclusion
Application modernization involves upgrading the applications by retreading them to work cloud natively.
There are several approaches to application modernization like digital decoupling, containers, refactoring, and re-platforming. Modernizing the applications enables them to be used along with the latest disruptive technologies thus enabling organizations to deliver high-quality services.
Activelobby is a company that provides cloud services. Our migration services facilitate the transfer of workloads either based on on-premise storage or a cloud platform to another cloud platform. We have a cloud-native approach to application development that enables them to be deployed in any of the cloud models and thus better sync with the latest technologies available in the market.
