Cloudflare: How Cloud Can Unlock Agility & Efficiency

Cloud migration has become a crucial strategy for businesses looking to modernise their IT infrastructure and enhance operational efficiency.

As organisations increasingly move away from on-premise legacy systems, they face both opportunities and challenges in transitioning to cloud-based solutions.

The shift to cloud computing offers numerous benefits, including improved scalability, cost-efficiency and performance.

However, the process of migrating large databases and critical applications to the cloud can be complex, requiring careful planning and execution to ensure data integrity and minimal disruption to business operations.

To find out more, we gained insight from John Engates, Field Chief Technology Officer at Cloudflare, about the key considerations and best practices for successful cloud migration.

What are some of the main benefits of migrating to the cloud compared to maintaining on-premise legacy infrastructure?

Migrating to the cloud, particularly with a connectivity cloud solution, offers businesses significant benefits over on-premise legacy systems

By unifying networking, security and performance, the solution delivers seamless, secure, low-latency connections for users, applications and devices. 

Scalability is a major advantage to migrating to the cloud, allowing companies to adjust resources quickly without investing in new servers during demand spikes. This flexibility is crucial for organisations with fluctuating workloads.

Another key advantage is cost efficiency. Maintaining physical infrastructure comes with high expenses and ongoing maintenance challenges.

With the cloud, these responsibilities are shifted to the provider, allowing businesses to redirect their budgets towards important elements like growth and innovation.

Migrating to the cloud also boosts performance. With global data centres, cloud providers minimise data travel distance to reach users.

The result is lower latency and a much smoother experience for both employees and customers.

Finally, flexibility empowers organisations in today’s hybrid working environment. Cloud services enable seamless access from anywhere, allowing companies to support remote work, scale into new markets and adapt quickly to emerging opportunities – all without the limitations of physical infrastructure.

What are the cloud migration strategies that businesses should adopt?

Getting cloud migration right comes down to having the right strategies in place.

Start by setting clear goals, whether it’s cutting costs, improving performance or increasing flexibility.

Defining these objectives upfront keeps the migration process focused and aligned with the organisation's needs.

Security and privacy must be top priorities. A data breach can have severe financial and reputational consequences.

Securing data in the cloud requires a different approach to on-premise systems, so businesses must adapt by implementing robust measures such as encryption and firewalls.

Collaboration with cloud providers is also important to clearly define shared security responsibilities, ensuring a secure and comprehensive protection strategy.

A phased migration approach is often the safest choice. Transferring data in stages allows teams to test systems, reduce the risk of disruptions and ensure a smoother transition.

This continuous monitoring during and after migration means that teams can identify and address any issues immediately. 

There are several strategy options available to companies, known as the 5R’s:

Rehost: lift-and-shift to the cloud
Refactor: modify code for better cloud compatibility
Revise: make partial code adjustments
Rebuild: completely redesign applications for the cloud 
Replace: switch to SaaS solutions

The choice depends on the organisation’s objectives, budget and long-term plans.

Engaging with migration experts and aligning strategies with compliance and business continuity ensures a successful and sustainable transition.

What are the differences between hybrid cloud and multi-cloud deployment models, and when might a business choose one over the other?

The key difference between hybrid cloud and multi-cloud deployment models is the different types of environments they combine.

A hybrid cloud integrates public and private clouds or on-premise data centres into a unified system, allowing businesses to keep sensitive data in private environments while leveraging public clouds for scalability and cost efficiency.

However, successful hybrid cloud deployment requires seamless integration, which can pose challenges in terms of compatibility and management. 

In contrast, a multi-cloud deployment involves using multiple public clouds from different providers.

It offers advantages like improved redundancy, cost savings and access to the unique features of each provider.

This approach is especially useful for businesses seeking to avoid vendor lock-in or enhance resilience through high availability. 

A hybrid cloud model is ideal for businesses that need to retain data on-premise or in a private cloud for security or regulatory reasons, while still benefiting from the flexibility of public clouds.

On the other hand, a multi-cloud strategy works well for organisations aiming to diversify their cloud ecosystem, address regional compliance requirements or leverage the strengths of various providers.

It’s important to note, however, that multi-cloud deployments often require sophisticated management tools to handle the added complexity effectively.

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