Listen to this articleWondering what is cloud migration? Well, that’s something you must be aware of if you are running a business. To get the answers to all your queries, read the complete blog with full potential!
Cloud Migration is the process that allows you to move digital business operations into the cloud. It can be considered a kind of physical movement. Where, it involves moving data, applications, and IT processes from one data center to another. Rather than packing up and moving physical goods. Cloud data migration demands a similar scale of preparation that one needs while moving from a smaller to a larger firm. But, it ends up being worth the effort that further offers greater flexibility and saves a considerable amount of money. Here, in this blog, we will discuss the benefits, and challenges, along with all the major data migration processes. So, stay tuned and avail the maximum benefit.
Still, storing your financial data on the local drive? Well, you’re an inch closer to risk your data. Thus, you must opt for data migration services and secure your company files without any hassle. If any query persists, give us a call on our cloud hosting helpline number +1(855)-738-0359
What Are The Different Types Of Clouds?
You might be thinking of how one Cloud type varies from another. Here, we have answered your query by discussing all the Cloud types one by one:
1: Public cloud
- The benefits that you may take up with a public cloud are innumerable. And, that’s why it is amongst one of the most common types of deployment. A third-party vendor known as a hosting service provider owns and runs the services over a stable internet connection. The services are also free, or you may avail by paying a specific amount depending on your business needs.
- Some examples of public clouds are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Oracle Cloud.
- Its advantages are inclusive of 24/7 uptime, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and simplified infrastructure management, etc.
2: Private cloud
- When it comes to a private cloud, the resources are owned by a single organization. That’s why it is highly preferred by governmental and financial industries. It allows them to have maximum control or customization.
- It is located in a data center on-site or is hosted by the cloud service provider in a remote location.
- The private Cloud providers include Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Oracle, IBM, and some familiar names from the public cloud provider space, including Google, AWS, and Microsoft.
3: Hybrid cloud
- It entails the elements of both the private and public cloud. Thus, it allows the resources to move between the two.
- If you are such an organization that needs a private cloud element but access to the public cloud and its associated benefits, then a Hybrid cloud will work the best for you.
- This Cloud type may take your real IT skills and might use the on-site hardware. It can help you save a good amount of money on the costly services of the public cloud.
4: Multi-Cloud
- It is amongst one of the most popular Cloud strategies that enterprises take up for their benefit.
- You might be wondering how it is different from a hybrid cloud. One uses multiple Cloud services like services from AWS and Azure with Multi-Cloud. Using multiple deployment models like using a public and private cloud is referred to as a hybrid cloud.
- You can use multiple services in a single environment with Multi-Cloud. It means you are allowed to use a mix of public and private clouds or a mix of public cloud providers to reduce the dependency on a single provider or enhance the benefits of more than one hosting provider.
How Does the Cloud Migration Process Work?
It’s obvious for any business to have a different set of needs. Thus they will have a slightly different data migration. Companies can take the assistance of QuickBooks hosting providers to set up their migration process. In general, the majority of cloud migration solutions include these basic steps:
1: ESTABLISH GOALS
Before you take up any service for your business, you need to ask a few questions yourself. What performance benefit does a company hope to see from that service? When will the legacy infrastructure deprecate? A business needs to establish goals to measure against. It further helps the firms to determine if the migration was successful or not.
2: CREATE A SECURITY STRATEGY
Depending on the small business cybersecurity statistics, Cloud requires a different approach as compared to on-premises security. Corporate assets are no longer behind a firewall when it comes to the cloud, and the network perimeter does not exist. Hence, you need to deploy a cloud firewall or a web application firewall.
3: COPY OVER DATA
At first, you need to select a Cloud Hosting provider and replicate the existing databases. You need to do this continuously throughout the migration process so that the cloud database remains updated.
4: MOVE BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
It involves refactoring or rewriting code. You can do it all together or in bits and pieces.
5: SWITCH PRODUCTION FROM ON-PREMISES TO CLOUD
At last, after you follow all these steps, the cloud goes live. Thus, the migration process is completed.
While approaching the end of these steps, some businesses turn off their on-premises infrastructure. Besides, others may keep their legacy systems in place as a backup or as part of a hybrid cloud deployment.
What Are The Various Cloud Migration Strategies?
Cloud migration follows three basic patterns, as mentioned below:
- Lift and shift
- Move and improve
- Rip and replace
Let us go ahead and try to understand the cons and pros of each of them:
1: Lift-and-Shift (Rehosting)
It will fit the best for businesses that are simple and don’t have much workload. If you are thinking about the advantages that the lift-and-shift approach offers? It’s faster and requires minimal refactoring. You can consider it be “the same thing, but on cloud servers.” Companies that opt for this strategy have to select an IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) provider. And thus, recreate their application architecture on that infrastructure.
2: Move-and-Improve (Replatforming)
If you make any modern update to your application, scaling it without changing the entire thing is defined as re-platforming. This approach might seem like a superior option at a glance, but it can result in migrations that can help you store all your technical debt and get none of the cloud-native benefits.
3: Rip-and-Replace (Refactoring)
Businesses that choose to refactor will reuse the already existing code and frameworks. But, these firms run their applications on a PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) provider’s platform. However, you need to invest your time and skills, but in the end, it pays out the maximum benefit.
Other cloud migration strategies
- Revise: It involves the strategy of partial rewriting or expanding the codebase. Further, you need to deploy by either re-hosting or refactoring.
- Rebuild: It signifies rewriting and re-architecting the application from scratch on the platform of a PaaS provider. It might turn out to be a labor-intensive process. However, it enables developers to avail the benefit of the modern features from PaaS vendors.
- Replace: If the businesses want to discard their old applications, then they can altogether. Further, switch to already-built SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications from some third-party vendors.
- cloud-to-cloud migration: It means that you move from one cloud to another. For example: from AWS to Azure.
- Reverse cloud migration: When you migrate from the Cloud to an on-site data center is called cloud repatriation, de-clouding, or unclouding.
How Are Cloud Migration Services Advantageous?
1: Reliability and Resiliency
The popular cloud service providers run a network of advanced features that come with cutting-edge technology. It ensures to serve you with all the features ranging from unparalleled data backup to disaster recovery. No matter where the people you want to provide Cloud access to are, it will surely pull them closer.
2: Security and Compliance
The majority of the big enterprises take up Cloud services, and that’s why the providers go out of their way to serve users with maximum security and compliance. It further includes staying on top of updates and trends. It also makes sure that your company data is safe in the cloud.
Additionally, storing your data on a cloud server rather than on your hard drive can prevent data from getting compromised if ever the device gets stolen or misplaced.
3: Less Maintenance and Simplification of IT
For a lot of you, it might be a tedious job to maintain computer hardware and software. Here, Cloud makes the job simple as you no longer need to worry about software updates or data backup. Your hosting service provider makes sure that the infrastructure is in place so that you can focus on maximizing your business profit.
4: Scalability
With cloud computing, you can scale your resources up or down depending on the current business needs. Thus, it will enable you to support larger workloads and more significant numbers of users conveniently. Compared to on-premise infrastructure, this demands companies to purchase and set up additional physical servers and networking equipment.
5: Cost
Companies that are planning to migrate their business to the cloud tend to save massive money. The cloud providers handle all the hassle related to maintenance and upgrades. Thus, rather than focusing on keeping things up and running, businesses must focus on the core areas. It includes either developing new products or improving existing ones.
6: Performance
When opting for Cloud-hosted QuickBooks, enables businesses to improve their performance and the overall user experience. Moreover, storing QuickBooks accountant data in the cloud rather than storing it in various on-premises servers reduces latency as your data will not have to travel as far to reach the users.
7: Flexibility
Whether you are an employee or customer, Cloud allows you to access the company data from anywhere. It makes it easier for businesses to expand into new territories. Hence, you can offer hosting services to international audiences, enabling the employees to work flexibly without any bar of location.
What Are The Major Cloud Migration Challenges?
1: Migrating Large Databases
To function in the Cloud, you even need to move the databases to a different platform altogether. But, moving a database is a tedious and complicated process, especially if you are dealing with data of larger size. Moreover, you may come across different cloud providers that offer physical data transfer methods. One such method is loading data onto a hardware appliance. Then, you need to ship the appliance to the cloud provider, for bigger databases. It takes up a lot of time to transfer the data via the Internet. Moreover, you can share your company data over the Internet. Regardless of the method that you choose, data migration is going to be a time-consuming process.
2: Data Integrity
Once you have transferred your data, you need to make sure that you protect QuickBooks from ransomware attacks. And thus, cause no damage to your data during the migration process.
3: Continued Operation
It’s essential for any business to keep its current systems operational and available throughout the migration. An overlap is required by the businesses between on-premises and cloud to ensure that they avail uninterrupted service; for instance, you must make a backup of your company data in the cloud before shutting an existing database. Hence, businesses need to move a bit at one time instead of all at once.
Cloud Migration Made Easy With Asquare Cloud Hosting
You might have come across various ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools to choose from. But, Asquare stands apart for all the below-mentioned reasons:
1: We Can Connect Anything: We take into account a wide range of source formats and data destinations. It comes with low latency, scalability, and accuracy.
2: We Update Your Data In Real-Time: Unlike several other batch-based ETL tools, we ensure to update your data regularly.
3: We Can Scale Large & Small: We support inputs ranging from low to high volume. Thus, you can begin integrating and streaming your data at the earliest time, and not in months.
4: We Are Security Experts: For us, client data is of utmost importance. We have supported cloud service providers that meet the strictest standards in the industry.
If you are ready to experience how we can help to make your migration process a breeze. Place a call on our cloud hosting helpline number +1(855)-738-0359
Oriana Zabell, a professional cloud engineer, has over three years of experience in desktop, online QuickBooks support and troubleshooting. She is currently working as a cloud hosting consultant with Asquare Cloud Hosting. She loves to read and write about the latest technologies such as cloud computing, AI, DaaS, small businesses, manufacturing. When not writing, she is either reading novels or is indulged in a debate with movie fanatics.