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Explaining Lift and Shift Migration: An Easy Legacy System Modernization Approach

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    Many organizations still depend on legacy systems for critical operations. In most cases, these applications perform business-critical workloads and replacing them entirely often isn’t viable.

    The problem, however, lies within the hardware. Aging hardware becomes very unreliable, difficult to maintain, and expensive to repair.

    What’s the best way forward? Replacing legacy hardware outright is costly, and re-architecting applications from scratch can disrupt operations.

    Thus, for many companies, the answer is the lift-and-shift migration strategy (also known as rehosting).

    This process enables businesses to move their business applications from on-premises hardware onto modern infrastructure, either on-premises or in the cloud – without rewriting the application code.

    What is Lift and Shift or Rehosting?

    Lift and shift involves migrating a legacy application or workload as it is, maintaining its embedded architecture while simply relocating it. No redesigning. No re-architecting. No extensive reworking.

    The lift and shift migration acts as a bridge to legacy application modernization:

    • With no changes to the application, OS or database
    • Only the underlying legacy hardware is being removed

    Imagine picking up an application, “lifting” it from on-premise servers, then “shifting” it into a modern hardware or cloud environment. This minimal-change method is a fast, simple and less labor-intensive approach to avoid expensive and risky application migration projects.

    The following illustration of Lift and Shift migration by Stromasys will give you more clarity about this process:

    Lift and Shift migration by Stromasys

     

    This approach, when guided by an expert team, is key to saving both time and costs for businesses. It is a guiding light that allows them access to advanced cloud resources without overhauling their entire IT ecosystem.

    When Should a Business Choose Lift and Shift?

    Not every system is appropriate for lift and shift. But how can you carefully assess whether lift and shift migration is right for you and whether this is the right time to go for lift and shift?

    Scenario #1: Legacy hardware risks are unavoidable, but you don’t want to sacrifice your mission-critical applications.

    Your legacy servers may be nearing failure, but rearchitecting your application isn’t possible yet, or they are so important for your business that you don’t want to replace or modify them. In such cases, the lift-and-shift approach can help you safely transition operations to modern hardware or the cloud while you prepare long-term plans.

    Scenario #2: On-premise data center costs are skyrocketing.

    Rising infrastructure and maintenance costs might be eating into your IT budget. Lift and shift, especially to the cloud (because of the usage-based model), can reduce these capital expenditures, allowing you to deploy your IT budget on other priority projects.

    Scenario #3: You have a limited timeframe.

    If your business is under pressure to exit an on-premise data center (e.g., due to undeniable legacy risks, cost-saving initiatives, etc.) quickly, lift and shift is ideally suited as it doesn’t involve any redesigning.

    Scenario #4: You are looking for a less-disruptive legacy migration alternative.

    A complete system overhaul is risky. Downtime and system failures can occur. Also, the process is time-consuming – user retraining can make this process even more lengthy. All of these factors can lead to business disruptions. So, if business continuity is non-negotiable, lift and shift is an ideal choice for you.

    Scenario #5: An interim step before full-scale modernization.

    Enterprises lacking budget and expertise may use lift and shift as a temporary step. In this situation, lift and shift buys time so that decision-makers can decide whether they really need a complete migration.

    Benefits of Lift and Shift Migration

    Why opt for lift and shift? Migration to modern hardware or cloud environments offers several advantages over sticking with legacy systems. These include:

    a. Provides a longer life cycle for business applications

    Every day, industries like banking, healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, and defence use legacy applications to execute critical workloads. Therefore, there is no need to replace them. In some cases, they are irreplaceable. Usually, it is the hardware that causes all the problems.

    Lift and shift eliminates hardware dependencies without shutting down vital applications. Running these legacy applications on a new, supported infrastructure ensures they remain operational for years to come.

    b. Minimizes downtime and boost cost savings

    Legacy hardware reliability declines over time. Spare parts become scarce. Skilled engineers are hard to find. Downtime skyrockets. According to Gartner, companies face 87 hours of network downtime yearly at an estimated cost of $42,000 per hour – totaling $3.6M annually.

    The Lift and Shift solution solves all of these operational and financial challenges, eliminating your management headaches. In fact, if you are rehosting on the cloud, you can ensure higher availability and cost-efficient repairs compared to hunting outdated components.

    c. Creates a robust disaster recovery ecosystem

    When you opt for lift and shift cloud migration, you can implement better disaster recovery strategies. Having geographically distributed backups and failover instances minimizes disruption when disaster strikes.

    d. Provides stronger security features

    In modern infrastructure, security patches and firmware updates keep older systems safe. In addition, moving to the cloud adds built-in security layers, such as firewalls, access control lists (ACLs), and backups stored geographically.

    With these improvements, lift and shift addresses legacy hardware’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

    e. Aids enhanced system performance

    Modern cloud or physical hardware platforms bring faster processors, better memory architectures, and advanced tools. In turn, this boosts application performance significantly. Even if the emulation process introduces slight overhead, this is often offset by the speed gains from modern systems.

    Here’s a real-life example. MediSolution, a Canadian IT company, ran mission-critical applications on legacy Alpha hardware that was difficult to maintain. Through Stromasys’ lift and shift emulation, they were able to eliminate hardware challenges as well as improve the performance of their critical systems by 100%.

    Comparison of Lift-and-Shift with Other Modernization Approaches

    Feature Lift and Shift Re-Architecting Rebuilding
    Cost Lower initial cost Moderate High initial cost
    Migration Time Quick Moderate Time-intensive
    Code Modification Minimal to none Some Extensive changes
    Business Continuity High (minimal disruption to operations) Moderate (some downtime during migration or adjustment period) Low (significant downtime and testing required)
    User Training Minimal (existing systems remain largely unchanged) Moderate (new processes and workflows may require training) High (entirely new systems require extensive training)
    Performance Benefits Leverages new hardware, improved security Tailored for performance Maximum performance with custom design
    Complexity None Medium High

    A Real-World Use Case of Lift and Shift Legacy Migration

    EIS Wire & Cable, a US-based manufacturer, heavily relied on AlphaServer ES40 hardware. But replacement parts were scarce, and downtime risks rose. The company turned to the lift-and-shift approach using the Charon-AXP emulator to modernize its system.

    The process was completed in under 24 hours, transitioning operations seamlessly to a VMware environment. Post-migration, MRP processing times dropped from 15 minutes to less than a minute, allowing employees to focus on business-critical tasks.

    Lift and shift migration gave EIS Wire & Cable newfound confidence in their system’s reliability while freeing up their budget for legacy hardware maintenance.

    Choose Lift and Shift with Stromasys!

    Stromasys is a one-of-a-kind emulation solution provider that makes legacy modernization look simple. With over 7,000 successful installations, our list of happy customers is endless.

    Over the past two decades, Stromasys has been a leader in cross-platform emulation services. Based on the principle of lift and emulation, we have designed our very own engineered Charon emulator.

    Whether in the cloud or physically, it emulates SPARC, PA-RISC, VAX, PDP & AlphaServers. In other words, enterprises get the best of both worlds, keeping their legacy applications alive and removing outdated hardware at the same time.

    Your legacy application may be functional. Your hardware isn’t. Charon lets your team focus on what matters while leaving IT complexity behind. Join our list of happy customers and give your business the much-needed boost.

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    Frequently Asked Questions

    1. What is lift and shift cloud migration?

    Lift-and-shift cloud migration is the process of moving applications, workloads, or infrastructure to a new cloud platform. It involves minimal changes to the existing architecture. This method is quick and cost-effective for organizations and allows them to migrate without redesigning their systems.

    2. Which cloud service type is most suited to a lift and shift migration?

    Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is the most suited cloud service type for a lift-and-shift migration. The popular choices are AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle and more.

    3. What is lifting and shifting an on-premises virtual machine VM?

    Lifting and shifting an on-premises virtual machine (VM) means moving it to the cloud without making changes to its setup. The process involves copying or exporting the VM’s image and deploying it in the cloud.

    4. How long does it take for the lift and shift to be completed?

    The time for a lift-and-shift migration depends on factors like data size, infrastructure complexity, and network speed. Smaller migrations can take a few days. For larger organizations, where many approvals are required, it may require several weeks.