The beginning of the consumption of cloud IaaS services is often hampered by the issues of transferring the infrastructure or its individual parts to the cloud. To simplify the migration scheme, there is a large list of software and services with which you can transfer almost any workload to the cloud.
In order for you to be able to choose and plan the “move” to the cloud correctly, you need to decide on:
source server/virtual machine type
the amount of data that will be transferred
permissible downtime during load transfer
Based on this information, you can choose the most suitable tool for you. Let’s start by looking at the main types of cloud data migration.
P2V (Physical to Virtual)
This type of migration is the conversion of an existing physical server to a virtual one. The need for this arises primarily in enterprises, where the evolutionarily developed infrastructure, built on separate physical servers, is moving to a virtualization system.
P2C (Physical to Cloud)
Physical to Cloud is also a transformation of a physical server into a “cloud”, but with the goal of transferring data directly to cloud IaaS resources. Such a task may appear for companies that are faced with a choice – buy a server or stop investing in capital costs and start consuming resources from the cloud.
V2V (Virtual to Virtual)
Migration between different virtualization systems may be required in the event of a change in the corporate standard when choosing a virtualization system or consolidating an evolutionary enterprise infrastructure on different virtualization systems. Also, this task may arise when deciding to move to the cloud, if the underlying cloud virtualization system does not match the system underlying the customer’s infrastructure.
V2C (Virtual to Cloud)
The logical conclusion of this list is the migration of a load of virtual machines to the cloud. The size of the virtual machine is obviously very important for on-prem to cloud movement, and, accordingly, the method by which the data will be transferred. It should be noted that before starting any migration using virtual infrastructure tools, you must analyze your software. Perhaps it has built-in data transfer mechanisms, in this case, it will help you avoid unnecessary migration-related operations.
Benefits of Migrating to the Cloud
Let’s talk about the main advantages of migrating IT infrastructure to cloud services, in other words, why companies are moving to the cloud. Many companies are familiar with the benefits. Here are the main ones:
simple and efficient use of resources. They are allocated on-demand, in exactly the amount required at the current stage;
transparent cost of services. The organization pays only for actually used resources: computing, network, storage. It can plan costs based on business growth;
minimum time for IT infrastructure maintenance. Whereas previously a large staff of technical specialists was required, now the same scope of tasks is performed by 1–2 employees;
technical support 24/7. Cloud providers solve customer problems in real-time. You can count on highly qualified assistance from highly specialized engineers;
simple migration between providers. At any time, you can break the agreement and transfer data and applications to competitors if they offer more benefits;
service mobility. In the cloud, data and services are available from anywhere in the world for both the company and its customers. This eliminates the need for complex organizational arrangements when changing a physical address;
reducing the risks of service downtime. Cloud providers are interested in ensuring that client resources work without interruptions. To do this, they invest resources (money and expertise) in creating a reliable infrastructure, qualified engineers, make backups, and provide the data center with backup power supplies.
Regards,
Rachel Gomez
