The cloud migration strategy of the company’s is to move data and applications from on-premises to cloud infrastructure. Because on-premises infrastructure isn't suitable for all workloads, it is vital to test the most effective method for prioritizing and migrating apps before going live. This necessitates a methodical, well-documented proven methodology. According to Gartner, by 2024, more than 45%of IT spending on IT hosting will have migrated to the cloud, including private cloud, application software, and business process outsourcing.

The COVID-19 outbreak, according to McKinsey, is one of the factors driving this ambitious goal. It prompted the need to increase the pace of enterprise digitization. The $1 trillion in economic value that cloud adoption may uncover is a bigger inducement. Some businesses, on the other hand, are escaping rather than collecting their share of the value, with inefficiencies in cloud migration orchestration causing additional costs and delays. Most firms see migration expenses as the main hurdle to cloud adoption, and an estimated $100 billion in wasted migration spend is projected over the next three years.

Migrating to the cloud provides businesses an opportunity to not only increase their flexibility, cut costs, and focus on their core capabilities, but also to completely transform their operations. The following are just a few business benefits of moving to the cloud:

• Pay-as-you-go resource purchases and consumption, added flexibility in spending costs towards IT infrastructure
• Enabling quick innovation without the cost and complexities of hardware purchase and infrastructure maintenance
• Faster time-to-market

While migrating to the cloud may be on the agenda of any organization, the persistent questions remain, “Does the cloud have all the resources to sustain your needs?” the most important decision in any cloud migration strategy is whether or not to use the cloud. To be successful, you must perform extensive research, develop, and implement a complete organization and technical strategy that matches overall business objectives. In these scenarios migration factory approach is very helpful to start the cloud migration journey for any organization.

Migration Factory 

The cloud migration factory is a mechanism used for performing large-scale cloud migrations. A migration factory is an organizational structure and a set of processes designed for migrating enterprise applications. It helps you build a scaled team with the right skills and understanding of your organization, as well as set clearly defined goals that are closely measured throughout the program's life cycle.

The migration factory strategy takes an end-to-end approach to each application migration project, including:

• Developing a business case for transferring a specific application using the 5-R methodology (Re-host, Re-factor, Re-platform, Retain, and Replace)
• Evaluating the existing application and infrastructure estate
• Build up a migration approach

This set of strategic tasks assists in determining your application's migration path, describing migration execution, and establishing post-migration operations rules. All of this makes migration simpler and more effective.

Well-designed migration factory can help with several common cloud migration challenges such as:

• Inability to reap the full benefits of the cloud due to a lack of unified vision and cloud adoption plan across the enterprise
• Embarking on the cloud journey without first comprehending the complexities of the existing environment
• Increased complexity because of fragmented ownership across multiple business units.
• Slower migration due to poor technology selection
• Unclear delivery and operational model for workload migration to the cloud

Cloud Migration factory model can help organizations derive several benefits:

• Speed: With a well-developed operational model and automation, Enterprises can enjoy smooth and fast transition in cloud.
• Reduce costs: Having established and efficient processes makes the migration process easier and customers who employ migration factories can save a significant amount in cloud migration.
• Reduced risk: Determining the risk tolerance of the workloads to be moved ahead of time reduces overall downtime and/or unplanned downtime during the transfer, allowing you to get back to software development sooner
• Quality: Migrations that are well-defined and automated are more consistent and error-free.
• Single platform for larger cloud-native strategies: The expertise, best practices, and standards you gain during the migration process will better prepare your team to take on more complex and demanding cloud initiatives in the future

Migrating to the cloud may appear to be an overwhelming task, but with the right planning, it can be quite rewarding. To learn more, please visit Migrate Your Data to the Cloud in a Flash.