Pros and Cons of Cloud Migration

80% of lookouts for any service lead to on-demand, pay-as-you-go, or X-as-a-service.

The present we revel in is where everything comes to us with a click. Cab::Careem, Food::Zomato, Groceries::Instashop, Fuel::Cafu, Cloud Computing::Azure. Making things easier for the end consumer and the companies do the heavy lifting for them.

This new format, where a company is specialized in delivering a specific service and grows to achieve economies of scale and pass on its efficiencies in the form of low cost, better performance and higher reliability than customers had means to achieve themselves.

The most game-changing in the last decade has been the providers: like Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, providing infrastructure needs with just a click.

Cloud Migration as a Service offers three options SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS

Technology giants, television networks, banks, food manufacturers, governments, and many more have become avid users of cloud computing services to develop, deploy, and host applications. A growing list of enterprises and startups are migrating to the cloud.

A report on Intricately recently reported the top Azure and AWS customers and their monthly billings:

1. Netflix: $19 million
2. Twitch: $15 million
3. LinkedIn: $13 million
4. Facebook: $11 million
5. Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia) — $4 million
6. Verizon (Flickr and Yahoo) — $3 million
7. Baidu — $3 million

What is Driving the Move to the Cloud?

Security:

An issue that topped the concern list for the longest time has evolved into a No. 1 reason for 37% of the organizations for moving to the Cloud. (As seen on the Deloitte report)

Cloud IT service is highly secure, they heavily invest in resources and technology, along with skilled experts and engineers to ensure the same.

Connectivity & Accessibility:

Cloud users could be anywhere, they remain connected and have access at any time. Files can be accessed at any time, from anywhere, using any device. Zero risk of files being stored on a computer.

Reduced Risk of Data Loss:

Reduced risk of losing data by backing up data offsite, along with the decreased potential for viruses, hackers, and other cybersecurity problems. Ensuring higher security and reducing risk for the Cloud users.

Faster Deployment and Scalable:

Cloud-based services can be deployed in an hour whereas implementing own IT infrastructure could take anywhere from weeks to months.

The cloud allows you to scale up and down easily, providing elasticity based on the demand.

When an application exhibits large volumes of traffic, service will remain unaffected as it will scale up automatically.

Attractive financial model

Cloud offers a predictable, service-oriented model for IT resource consumption, you pay a recurring monthly subscription fee based on the usage.

A substantially low upfront cost for capital investment and remaining free of the costs associated with continued ownership. Importantly, continuous reductions in the cost of computing and storage, have increased the benefits of economies of scale and made investments in large public clouds attractive.

Potential Risks of Cloud Migration

While risks are specific to the business and its environment, some general risks to consider when moving to the cloud.

1. If the technology used is proprietary, you may not be able to deploy it to the cloud.
2. Limited Control & Flexibility – Cloud infrastructure is owned, managed, and monitored by the service provider, with limited control over the customer. Cloud users might feel they have reduced control over the function and execution within a cloud-hosted infrastructure. They have full control over their applications, their data, and the services provided but might not have a similar level of control over the backend infrastructure. To maintain control and flexibility, consider using a cloud provider partner to help with the implementation and support of cloud services. Fully understand your responsibilities and the responsibilities of the cloud vendor in the shared responsibility model.
3. Vendor Lock-in – A perceived disadvantage of cloud computing. Smooth switching between cloud services isn’t fully evolved which makes it difficult for organizations to move from one vendor to another. Varied services between vendor platforms could be a reason, along with the possibility of additional costs and configuration complexities. This makes it extremely important to ensure the cloud architecture is designed with best practices in mind. Cloud services provide users the opportunity to increase availability and performance and reduce bottlenecks. Also, to avoid vendor lock-in, you can consider employing a multi-cloud strategy, it might add development and operational complexity to the deployment but vendor lock-in doesn’t have to be a deal breaker.

Proof of Concept

It’s advised to build a small POC before migrating the workload to the cloud. POC prived clarity and a greater understanding of the challenges that might be faced.

If you are considering Cloud, you can get a FREE POC right here.