Top Cloud Migration Strategy to Consider for 2025

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Technology is rapidly evolving, which means cloud migration is no longer an option but a necessity. Integrating cloud computing into the business infrastructure will help businesses stay competitive and give them a transformative edge. Cloud migration offers several benefits, such as agility, scalability, elevated performance, cost efficiency, and innovation opportunities to optimize operations.

A survey report from Gartner states that organizations adopting cloud technologies achieve up to 30% cost reductions compared to businesses with traditional infrastructure. Organizations that want to leverage advanced technologies consider cloud computing the backbone of modern business. Today, more than 94% of global businesses use cloud services in some way.

In this blog post, you will explore the top cloud migration strategy you must adopt in 2025 to stay ahead in the competitive market. This blog will help you understand how cloud migration can help your business optimize operations and elevate performance cost-effectively.

Introduction: What is Cloud Migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving the organization’s databases, IT resources, and applications from traditional on-premises infrastructure to a cloud environment (private, public, or hybrid). It not only improves security infrastructure but also cost-effectively enhances flexibility, agility, and scalability while streamlining operations.

It means having quick availability of a wide range of resources to elevate efficiency, making innovation simpler and easier than relying on a traditional physical on-premises infrastructure. This procedure can be carried out by moving directly to the cloud or re-architecting resources to a cloud platform. Another option is re-engineering the business infrastructure, which helps better align with cloud-native functionalities for seamless operations.

Did You Know?

• Predictions have been made that, by 2025, nearly 85% of businesses will adopt cloud-first strategies, highlighting the importance of cloud computing in modern business infrastructure.
• Based on current trends, the global cloud market is projected to reach $947 billion by 2026.

Cloud migration is not a simple technological shift but a strategic move for business continuity, enhancing performance, and maintaining competitiveness in today’s cutting-edge landscape. Legacy systems are monolithic architectures deeply embedded in business to run critical operations. With time, this legacy hardware fails to produce optimum results due to hardware failure and the inability to integrate with advanced technologies to meet growing market demands.

Operating legacy systems presents several challenges, such as unplanned downtime due to hardware failures, rising maintenance costs, scarcity of replacement parts, declining efficiency, poor security infrastructure, and more. By migrating legacy systems to a cloud environment, businesses can eliminate the need for hardware and cut down on their maintenance costs while preserving their legacy applications and improving performance.

Top Cloud Migration Strategy for 2025

Choosing the right cloud migration strategy is essential for a successful cloud journey. Every strategy has its benefits, and the selection of the right one depends on the specific circumstances of the business requirements. This transitional journey can become overwhelming without a clear cloud migration strategy plan.

Here is an effective legacy cloud migration strategy, also known as the 6R framework:

Rehosting (Lift and Shift)

The rehosting framework, also known as lift-and-shift migration, includes the legacy migration to cloud strategy with minimal or no changes. This migration approach is the best option for organizations looking to transform their business infrastructure quickly and with limited resources.

One of the significant benefits of rehosting or lift-and-shift migration on the cloud is that once the applications are moved to the cloud ecosystem, you can gradually optimize or personalize them according to the team’s requirements.

Replatforming (Lift-Tinker-and-Shift)

Replatforming is a step further from rehosting. It is a procedure of making minor changes in the cloud to leverage more cloud computing benefits. It can also be considered tinkering with applications to minimize costs and improve efficiency while preserving the core architecture intact. Replatforming is one of the best middle-ground options for businesses looking for options between rehosting and full redesigning. Some of the best tools used for shifting are the Amazon RDS for database management and leveraging AWS Elastic Beanstalk.

Repurchasing (Adopting SaaS Solution)

Repurchasing means completely moving to a new architecture, most probably to a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution. This cloud migration strategy is ideal for businesses that want to remodel their infrastructure as the current one cannot meet the growing demands, and the new model may offer more value.

Refactoring (Re-architecting for the Cloud)

Refactoring is a cloud migration strategy involving reimagining and rebuilding the application to completely leverage most of the cloud-native attributes. Though this approach requires a lot of effort and investment, the results can be astonishing. Enterprises that choose the refactoring option want to scale up their productivity, add more advanced characteristics, and elevate efficiency.

For example, businesses with monolithic architectures want to use serverless infrastructure or microservices to improve agility and integrate modern technologies into their operations, ensuring business continuity. This cloud migration strategy is one of the most highly valued approaches.

Retiring (Eliminating Obsolete Applications)

One of the most significant benefits of adopting cloud migration is the option to clean house, meaning during the initial or planning phase, organizations come across specific applications that are no longer required or necessary for their business operations. By eliminating those outdated or unused systems and applications, businesses can save costs, simplify their IT architecture, and focus on the resources that add value to their business. By doing so, organizations can strengthen their security posture and improve the performance of their operations.

Retaining (Revisit later)

Not all applications and workloads need to be migrated to the cloud urgently. Retaining some applications, either temporarily or permanently, can have certain benefits, especially legacy applications and recently upgraded assets that still contribute to the organization’s value. This cloud migration strategy enables businesses to optimize assets’ lifecycles and prioritize more urgent application migration first. As the cloud migration strategy evolves, these legacy applications and resources can be migrated when the time is appropriate.

Aligning Strategies with Businesses Objectives

Understanding these strategies will help the business align them with its objectives, ensuring smooth and efficient cloud migration.

• Short-Term Objectives: If the business’s objective is improved speed and cost reduction, then re-platforming or a lift-and-shift migration to a cloud strategy may be ideal.
• Long-Term Objectives: For businesses whose primary objective is to innovate, modernize, or have scalability as per growing market demands, refactoring is the best option for them.
• Complex Workloads: It is a hybrid approach for businesses seeking flexibility and personalized solutions.

Therefore, for a seamless and successful cloud migration, it is necessary to identify the right strategy that aligns with your business objectives.

What are the Benefits of Cloud Migration?

Here are some benefits of a well-executed cloud migration strategy:

• Scalability: Seamlessly adjusting resources to match the growing market demand.
• Flexibility: Quickly adapting to rapidly evolving business requirements.
• Robust Security Infrastructure: In-built advanced security measures to mitigate cyber threats and vulnerabilities.
• Minimized Costs: By eliminating the need for hardware and only paying for the services that are subscribed to, we reduce operational and maintenance costs.
• Innovation: After cloud migration, most resources previously engaged in managing legacy systems will be relieved. They can now focus on creating innovative solutions and driving value to the business.

Choosing the Right Cloud Migration Strategy with Stromasys

Choosing the right cloud migration strategy is essential. It directly influences your business goals, application landscape, and long-term vision. These applications may offer optimum results from lift-and-shift migration, while others may require a complete overhaul to reach their full potential.

Stromasys is a global leader in legacy modernization. It offers a legacy cloud migration strategy and solutions to transform business infrastructure to improve efficiency and performance at economical costs. They offer solutions to move legacy systems to the cloud ecosystem and offer strategies for seamless migration procedures that align with the business objectives. Organizations can choose from cloud service providers like Amazon AWS, Oracle Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. The Charon on the Cloud solution enables users to pay only for their subscribed services, thus reducing their infrastructure costs.

To know more about how Stromasys can help your business with legacy cloud migration strategy, get in touch with our experts.

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What Does the Future of Cloud Migration Look Like in 2025?

Cloud migration is going to continue to remain the significant key for business growth and innovation due to digital evolution. For a successful cloud migration journey, the business should have a strong strategy with the right tools and plan. A cloud migration strategy ensures a seamless transition of the business infrastructure and helps the business make more informed decisions, maximizing ROI and improving overall operational efficiency.