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Is Your Cloud Migration Stuck in First Gear?

This blog explores two popular approaches to data migration: lift and shift and agile. Read ahead to learn in-depth about both approaches, and understand which aligns better with your digital transformation journey.

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Introduction

In today’s innovation economy, businesses are constantly seeking ways to reinvent and enhance their digital core.

One of the key drivers of innovation is the adoption of modern, flexible and task-appropriate tools that enable teams to unlock themselves from restrictive legacy processes and applications.

Modernizing your application infrastructure to leverage best-in-class tools and technologies has become a strategic imperative to survive and succeed in the new digital world.

However, with many different approaches available, selecting the right migration strategy which ensures minimal disruption, and no data loss can be a challenge. Two prominent methods – lift and shift and agile data migration – offer distinct advantages and considerations.
This blog delves into these two popular data migration approaches, helping you choose the best fit for your organization’s digital transformation journey.

What is lift and shift data migration?

Lift and shift, also known as rehosting, involves migrating existing applications and their associated data “as-is” to a new environment. It’s a straightforward approach that minimizes configuration adjustments.

Here’s how it works: Imagine picking up your entire application, data, and operating system – everything it needs to function – and placing it down in a new cloud environment. Source applications need to be taken down for maintenance while copy-paste is going on. That’s essentially lift and shift.

However, simply copying your applications to the new tool (lift and shift) won’t unlock the full potential of digital transformation. Rethinking your applications for the new environment is the key to unlock complete value.

Characteristics of lift and shift migration

Disruption

Teams can expect significant system outages during the transition because of increased management overhead, performance issues, and security risks.

Higher costs

Lift and shift can cause high maintenance and operational costs in the long-run because of lost productivity during migration downtime, and increased customer issues.

Increased manual effort

Existing applications might need time-taking configuration tweaks to function properly in the new environment.

Risky cutover

A large-scale cutover can overwhelm IT support teams, especially for organizations with 1000s of projects and multiple teams. The risk of disruption and change management further amplifies the challenge..

Migrating data ‘as-is’

Simply moving data from one application to another without optimizing for the new environment doesn’t guarantee scale, and can be a sunk cost in case of poor performance in the new application.

What is agile data migration?

Agile data migration is an iterative, step-by-step approach to transferring data from one system to another. It involves running both old and new systems in parallel and incrementally transferring data without the risk of downtime.

This approach can help reduce risks, productivity loss, and business continuity concerns. It also allows teams to use both systems until the switchover, and to migrate data at a pace that’s comfortable for the organization.

Characteristics of agile migration

Non-disruptive, zero downtime and no productivity loss during the transition.

Low long-term costs

Allows ongoing cost control, eliminates surprises and hefty upfront investments.

Full-proof compliance

Prioritizes ongoing security and compliance assessments, minimizing risks.

No data loss

High data fidelity preserving relationships, history, content richness and linkages.

Scales with the business

Incremental migration approach phased at a pace that teams are comfortable with, allowing continuous improvement and adaptation.

Faster time-to-value

Agile minimizes disruption, allowing faster integration and utilization of the new application’s functionalities – delivering business value early and often.

Agile vs. Lift and Shift Migration: Which is better?

There is no one-size-fits-all approach which works for every business need. However, a clear understanding of how each approach defines some of the most critical business objectives is important before choosing a data migration approach.

Let’s understand better:

Maximize your ROI of adopting new tool:

  • Lift and shift: Moves applications "as-is" with limited opportunities for improvements like data cleansing or enhanced governance.
  • Agile: Enables integration of modernization efforts within the migration process, leading to a more optimized application landscape in the long run.

Application Complexity:

  • Lift and shift: Works well for applications from same vendor.
  • Agile: Works well for cross-vendor applications with diverse data structures or part-transformation for same-vendor applications.

Team Size:

  • Lift and shift: Smaller teams with strong technical understanding of the existing application and target environment can manage the process.
  • Agile: Best suited for medium-large companies due to its non-disruptive, iterative approach. Allows room for risk mitigation, easily incorporates new functionalities.

Project Budget:

  • Lift and shift: Lower upfront costs, but higher long-term costs due to post-migration expenses, high operating costs, and can result in a sunk cost in case of no performance improvement after project completion.
  • Agile: Relatively high license costs, but costs are offset in the long run because of minimized rework or performance issues, stronger data infrastructure and overall reduced maintenance costs or after-the-fact tweaks.

Return on investment :

McKinsey research shows 10% higher revenue growth with agile practices.
  • Lift and shift: Simply moving an application "as-is" doesn’t unlock the complete value of the new environment. This can lead to a rigid data infrastructure which fails to scale with the business.
  • Agile: Agile data migration allows for continuous testing and feedback, ensuring optimal application performance in the new environment. The risk of business disruption is eliminated because of controlled migrations with smaller-scale deployments and planned downtime windows.

Agile vs. Lift and Shift Data Migration: Business Value Comparison

Note: This table summarizes key considerations for data migration approaches, based on internal assessments and project experience. The goal is to provide a clear comparison framework, not to dictate specific choices.

Aspect Lift and Shift Agile Data Migration Why Agile

Non-disruptive Migration
Potential outages
Zero Downtime (planned)
Agile allows for smaller, planned migrations minimizing disruption.

Application Support
Limited to simple
Handles complex well
Agile’s granular approach tackles intricate data structures and integrations smoothly.

Team Size
Good for smaller Teams
Best for medium size-enterprise-grade teams
Medium to large sized teams can benefit from Agile’s ability to minimize risk and disruption, allowing smoother transition and user management.

Compliance
Doesn’t evaluate existing security vulnerabilities
Ongoing security assessments, high data fidelity
Agile allows for incorporating compliance considerations with each data-set (data cleansing, encryption, access controls) during migration.

Return on Investment

Limited Value
Unlocks Complete Potential of New Environment
Agile minimizes rework, optimizes infrastructure, and delivers long-term cost savings for the business.

Conclusion

In today’s innovation-driven economy, the urgency to modernize with agility and minimal disruptions is paramount. An intelligent operating model that’s built for scale, not just for efficiency, largely dictates an enterprise’s ability to succeed.

By choosing OpsHub Migration Manager (OMM)’s agile data migration capabilities – you’re not just selecting a modernization tool; you’re making a strategic move towards a future of agility, innovation, and sustained growth in the digital realm.

Table of Contents

The Essential Guide to Application Data Migration

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Muskaan Pathak

Muskaan works as a Content and SEO Strategist at OpsHub. Her interests include devising content marketing strategies for SaaS enterprises, brand strategy and the convergence of product-first thinking with emerging tech and communication.

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