Revise before migrating to the cloud – Leveraging the Cloud for Digital Transformation
Revise before migrating to the cloud
Another potential strategy is to modify, optimize, and enhance the existing applications and code base before migrating to the cloud in preparation for migrating to the cloud. Only then do you rehost or refactor the applications to the cloud. This may be a good strategy and provide business continuity and enhancement in the long run. The downside of this approach is the cost associated with changing and testing the code upfront. In addition, changing the code in the on-premises environment may not allow you to take advantage of all the features that creating the code in the cloud would offer. For example, you may want to create reports using AWS QuickSight. AWS QuickSight is a great tool for creating dashboards and reports. However, AWS QuickSight can only be used in a cloud environment and not in your on-premises environment because QuickSight is only supported within AWS.This method is suitable for you when you know that your applications are suboptimal and need to be revised. You take cloud migration as an opportunity to enhance and fix your applications. Using this approach, you will only need to test your application once. The drawback is that if things go south, it may be difficult to ascertain if the problems that cropped up are because of new bugs in the code or because you migrated to the cloud.
Repurchase in the cloud
Repurchase replaces your existing environment and is known as “drop and shop.” It happens when there is a decision to purchase an entirely new solution that is more cloud-native. You may also be looking for a new software licensing model such as per user or per transaction that allows you greater flexibility to match your business needs. So, instead of rebuilding your applications, it is to get rid of them but replace them with commercially available SaaS alternatives such as Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, or SAP. Depending on how deep and talented your talent pool is and their areas of expertise, this option may or may not be more expensive than rebuilding your application. Using this option, your software costs will likely be higher, but lower development and maintenance costs will be offset. If you decide to rebuild, you will not have to pay for CRM and commercial software licenses, but development cycles will likely be longer. You will have fewer defects, and higher maintenance may apply.The previous methods of migration implied that all development was done in-house. One difference with the repurchase approach is migrating from in-house systems to software built by professional vendors. As with the other approaches, this approach has advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that the learning curve and the development life cycle will be potentially shortened. Not as much development will be needed. However, a disadvantage is that the software will require additional licenses.
