A lift and shift strategy can quickly move the “needle” on your organization’s digital transformation process due to time constrains. This strategy can even provide a way to validate the benefits of moving your business applications to the public cloud. The number one benefit of using public cloud is cloud elasticity and only paying for what you use. It doesn’t matter which of the top three public cloud providers your company has selected, a lift and shift strategy can still be applied and provide value for cloud migrations.

Almost 70% of enterprise companies have transferred their infrastructure and software to the cloud. As such, it is little wonder those who have not yet moved to cloud wish to do the same. The last thing you would want for your company is to fall behind handling your own online infrastructure when it no longer makes sense.

Small and medium-sized businesses are always competing with the technology of their corporate counterparts. Large corporations are always seeking ways to accelerate speed-to-market and reduce costs. In the world of cloud services, cloud migration may be the biggest common enabler of SMBs and enterprises alike.

What is the right cloud migration strategy for your business?

Cloud migration is simply the process of moving applications from the current environment to the Cloud. Traditionally, companies have pursued a cloud migration strategy of moving on-premises VMs to the Cloud. However, recently, there is a rise in Cloud to Cloud migration among customers that want to avoid vendor lock-in and adopt a multi-cloud strategy.

Whether you are just testing the waters or well-versed in Cloud computing, Cloud migration is a core process in the global digital transformation that's been accelerated due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to IDC, “COVID-19 accelerated digitization as organizations were forced to innovate rapidly in response to a combination of regulations (e.g., working from home) and a rapidly changing business environment.” (Source: IDC Worldwide Whole Cloud Forecast, 2020-2024. Oct 2020, Doc #US46020420)

Like all major technology revolutions, the cloud brings with it the mysticism of new technology, the fear of the unknown, and the opportunity to master a whole new set of challenges. It can be awesome and scary at the same time - provisioning servers in minutes instead of months, automation that can replace whole teams, and whole new security attack vectors.

After the extensive review of the history of cloud computing over the last two decades, it is time to shift our gaze from the past into the future. In this post, we will examine and predict where the industry is heading in 2020 and beyond.