Moving Business Operations to Google Cloud Infrastructure
When it comes to migrating workloads from an on-premises environment to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), there are three common strategies to consider: Lift and Shift, Improve and Move, and Rip and Replace. Each strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice depends on business priorities, time constraints, and strategic goals for cloud adoption.
Lift and Shift (Rehost)
Lift and Shift is the fastest migration method, moving applications to the cloud without any code or architecture changes. This approach offers several benefits:
- Quick cloud readiness in days or weeks
- Minimal code risk and preservation of existing workflows
- Reduced hardware costs and minimal downtime
- Useful for meeting tight deadlines or quick data center exits
However, Lift and Shift migrations do not unlock the full potential of cloud-native value. The cost and performance often reflect legacy design, and workloads may miss out on cloud benefits like scalability, resilience, or managed services.
Improve and Move (Replatform)
Improve and Move migrations allow applications to use features of a cloud platform, such as scalability and high availability, while requiring only small modifications. This strategy provides improved performance, security, and scalability compared to Lift and Shift. It also reduces operational overhead and improves reliability by using some cloud-native features. However, it requires more time and development effort than Lift and Shift and still retains some legacy constraints.
Rip and Replace (Refactor/Rearchitect)
Rip and Replace migrations involve a complete redesign or rewrite of the application to be cloud-native, leveraging containers, microservices, serverless, and GCP-specific managed services. This strategy maximizes cloud benefits, including elasticity, scalability, and cost efficiency. It also enables better long-term maintainability and innovation. However, Rip and Replace migrations are the most time-consuming and costly, requiring deep architectural changes, skilled development teams, and significant resource investment.
Making the Right Choice
The choice between these strategies depends on business priorities. Lift and Shift offers speed and simplicity, while Improve and Move enables better cloud integration with moderate effort. Rip and Replace delivers maximal cloud advantages at the highest investment.
When migrating workloads to GCP, it is essential to establish identities, design resource organization, take inventory, catalog apps, choose what workloads to first migrate, define groups and roles for resource access, and educate engineers on Google Cloud. Additionally, it is crucial to design network topology and establish connectivity, optimize for performance and scalability, and calculate the total cost of ownership by comparing Google Cloud costs versus on-premises costs using the Google Cloud price calculator.
In summary, each migration strategy has its pros and cons, and the choice depends on business priorities around speed, cost, risk tolerance, and long-term strategic goals for cloud adoption. Lift and Shift offers speed and simplicity, Improve and Move enables better cloud integration with moderate effort, and Rip and Replace delivers maximal cloud advantages at the highest investment.
[1] Google Cloud, "Migrating to Google Cloud," accessed July 18, 2023, https://cloud.google.com/docs/migrate
[2] Google Cloud, "Strategies for Migrating Applications to Google Cloud," accessed July 18, 2023, https://cloud.google.com/architecture/application-modernization/strategies
[3] Google Cloud, "Lift and Shift Migration," accessed July 18, 2023, https://cloud.google.com/architecture/application-modernization/lift-and-shift
[4] Google Cloud, "Refactor Migration," accessed July 18, 2023, https://cloud.google.com/architecture/application-modernization/refactor
[5] Google Cloud, "Replatform Migration," accessed July 18, 2023, https://cloud.google.com/architecture/application-modernization/replatform
- In the process of selecting a strategy for migrating projects from an on-premises environment to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), it is crucial to leverage technology that enables provisioning of identities, resource organization, and network topology.
- When evaluating the potential benefits of Refactor/Rearchitect (Rip and Replace) migration, businesses should consider how this strategy could maximize cloud benefits, including elasticity, scalability, and cost efficiency for their projects.
