Digital transformation requires a technology-based approach, utilizing Big Data, Cloud, IoT, and Predictive Analytics. This shift away from traditional IT assets and enterprise data centers to modern Cloud platforms, running Linux OS and Big Data workloads, calls for a substantial refresh. The old siloed monitoring tools in traditional data centers are being replaced with a more unified monitoring system for fluid, changing workloads in the digital era. A cloud-native application is specifically designed for cloud computing architecture ie. hosted and run in the cloud, and leverages the benefits of cloud software delivery. All cloud-native applications exist on a spectrum. This blog post outlines the key questions to ask when deciding to refactor or platform an application to move to the cloud.
Ready to shift your relatively fresh applications to the Cloud?
The rise of cloud computing has enabled businesses to enjoy greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness in their IT operations. However, not all applications are created equal when it comes to leveraging the benefits of the cloud. It’s essential to know if your application is truly cloud native before moving to the cloud.
Here are a few key considerations to help you assess if your application is cloud native:
- Microservices Architecture: A cloud native application is built on a microservices architecture, meaning that it is divided into smaller, independent services that can be deployed, managed, and scaled independently.
- Containers: Cloud native applications are typically packaged in containers, which are lightweight, portable, and can run anywhere, making it easier to deploy and scale applications.
- Automation: Cloud native applications rely heavily on automation, including continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, to speed up development and reduce manual intervention.
- Resilience: Cloud native applications are designed to be highly available and resilient, meaning that they can handle failures and recover quickly without significant downtime.
- Scalability: Cloud native applications are designed to scale up or down as needed, automatically or manually, without disrupting the user experience.
- Observability: Cloud native applications provide real-time monitoring and logging, allowing teams to detect and respond to issues quickly.
- Security: Cloud native applications are designed to be secure from the ground up, with security integrated into every layer of the application stack.
Addressing the Legacy Application Estate
Organizations deploy antiquated software that hasn’t been updated beyond running in virtual machines. These applications were not built from the ground up to be modular or containerized. How does one assess how cloud native an application is?
- How is the application packaged for container deployment? What does the process look like from a CI/CD pipeline standpoint?
- How is application scaling achieved? Is this done manually or do you have infrastructure as code(IaC) that performs this?
- How are the applications’s management and Day 2 updates carried out?
- What logs and metrics are gathered, stored and how are they analyzed?
- How is the application secured? Are there compliance regimes the application needs to conform with?
- How are application dependencies managed?
- How is the robustness of the application evaluated and verified?
- How are the networking aspects of the application managed, such as service discovery, load balancing, and ingress?
- How are the requirements for persistent data storage satisfied?
- What connections does the application make to other cloud/hyperscaler resources and services?
For a more detailed post on Cloud Native architecture, please read
Why Digital Platforms Need A Software Defined Datacenter..(2/7)
Conclusion
In conclusion, moving your application to the cloud is a significant step, and it’s essential to know if it is cloud native before making the move. By assessing the above key considerations, you can determine if your application is ready for the cloud and can take full advantage of the benefits it offers.
At AWS, for large migrations, we recommend several common strategies – rehosting, re-platforming, relocating, and retiring. Refactoring, which involves updating the application during migration, is not ideal for big migrations as it’s the most complicated strategy and can be difficult to manage for many applications. A better approach is to first rehost, relocate, or re-platform the application, and then modernize it once the migration is done.
Featued image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay