Migrating and modernizing your estate is about more than moving servers to the cloud. It’s about reimagining how technology supports your business goals and adopting a cloud-first mindset.
In practice, it typically includes:
- Clarifying business goals: Define what you want from cloud—such as increased agility, faster time to market, security and compliance, cost optimization, and AI innovation.
- Identifying key domains: Pinpoint the business areas and workloads where cloud can create the most value.
- Choosing the right migration path: Different applications need different approaches. Common strategies (the “six Rs”) include:
- Rehost: Move apps to the cloud as-is, often using virtual machines. For example, Azure VMware Solution (AVS) lets you rehost VMware workloads on Azure without costly re-architecture.
- Replatform: Make light platform or runtime optimizations while keeping core code largely unchanged.
- Refactor: Update internal code to use cloud-native capabilities like microservices, serverless, or cloud APIs.
- Rebuild: Redesign applications using modern frameworks and cloud-native technologies.
- Retire: Decommission obsolete or redundant apps to reduce overhead and simplify your IT landscape.
- Retain: Keep certain apps on premises when migration costs, complexity, regulations, or tight legacy integrations make cloud less suitable.
- Adopting a continuous cycle: Modernization is ongoing—assessment, planning, execution, and maintenance repeat as your needs evolve.
By following this structured approach, you can better use cloud-native features, integrate AI, and improve scalability, agility, security, and compliance across your application portfolio.