Posted on April 24th, 2025.

 

Migrating an organisation to the cloud can be filled with uncertainties and challenges. However, with a structured strategy and clear objectives, this journey can lead to significant progress and growth for the enterprise.

In this blog post, we will delve into the concept of the 7Rs of cloud migration, which provides a framework for making informed decisions and achieving sustainable progress. With a collaborative approach and careful consideration of each application and service, the transition to the cloud can bring about innovation and agility for the company, ultimately strengthening its competitive advantage. 

 

The 7Rs of Cloud Migration

The 7Rs in cloud migration form a framework that guides IT leaders through the complex decision-making process inherent in digital transformation. First among these strategies is Retire. As organisations evaluate their portfolio of applications, they may find certain applications that are no longer useful or cost-efficient for the business. Retiring these applications, therefore, is a practical and straightforward decision. For example, an outdated HR software system that has been replaced by more efficient, modern SaaS solutions can be retired. This helps to reduce cost and complexity by eliminating redundant systems.

The next R, Retain, is equally important. Occasionally, businesses encounter certain applications that are currently running efficiently and are integral to business operations but are not ready for migration. In such cases, retaining these applications in their current state may be the most prudent choice. For example, a custom-built on-premises reporting tool with no equivalent SaaS solution that meets the required security or compliance capabilities might be retained while planning for future cloud readiness.

Continuing with the essence of the 7R methodology, we reach Rehost. Commonly referred to as “lift-and-shift”, this strategy involves taking applications from the current infrastructure and moving them to the cloud with minimal changes. This approach, although straightforward, can provide immediate cost and performance benefits, making it attractive for migrating applications quickly. For example, a legacy payroll application hosted on its own server might be rehosted on cloud infrastructure to leverage improved performance without changing the core functionality.

In contrast, replatforming involves making some optimisations without changing the core architecture of the application. This could mean switching to a managed database service in the cloud to offload the database maintenance tasks, thus allowing your team to focus on development instead of administrative overheads. Opting for replatforming might be beneficial for businesses looking to improve specific components of their IT infrastructure without large-scale changes, meeting business needs effectively.

The strategy of Refactor introduces in-depth changes to harness the full potential of cloud-native features. This involves recoding parts of the application to leverage improved scalability, governance, and performance inherent to cloud environments. As an example, consider refactoring a monolithic application into a set of microservices designed for cloud infrastructures to gain agility and faster deployment cycles. It's often pursued when modernisation and scalability are top priorities for a business.

Further along the spectrum, Repurchase involves replacing existing applications with cloud-native SaaS options. A typical scenario is substituting legacy CRM software with a service like Salesforce for enhanced functionalities such as real-time analytics and mobile capabilities. Finally, with Relocate, organisations move applications currently hosted in a virtual environment to a different one without committing to more extensive transformation efforts. Moving a virtual machine from an on-premises data centre to a cloud provider’s infrastructure while keeping the software stack unchanged is a typical relocation.

These strategies collectively form the 7 Rs in cloud migration, a diverse and comprehensive framework tailored for IT leaders to align technology choices with business goals, ensuring informed decisions that extend beyond mere technical considerations. 

 

Strategizing Your Cloud Migration Journey

To effectively develop a cloud migration strategy, it’s fundamental to start by comprehensively evaluating your existing IT assets. This evaluation is not just about identifying what technologies your business currently uses; it's about understanding their role, strengths, weaknesses, and potential in relation to your business goals. Each application and infrastructure component should be assessed for its alignment with your broader strategic objectives, helping to identify opportunities for modernisation and areas where maintaining the status quo makes more sense.

As you assess these assets, keep in mind that some might be deeply integrated into your business operations, while others may be largely standalone. This will help you make informed decisions about which of the 7R strategies—Retire, Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Repurchase, or Relocate—is appropriate for each application or service, ensuring that your overall migration plan is both strategic and attainable.

Furthermore, defining your business goals is key, as they serve as a guiding star throughout the cloud migration processes. The goals need to be specific and actionable, whether they focus on achieving cost savings, enabling greater agility, enhancing performance, or facilitating business continuity. Aligning these goals with suitable 7R strategies ensures that each migration decision you make supports your broader objectives. For example, if business continuity is critical, you might prioritise Replatforming and Refactoring for applications critical to your operations, while less critical applications could be candidates for Rehosting or even Retirement. 

Creating a customised cloud migration strategy that minimises disruption and maximises outcomes requires meticulous planning and strong project management. Develop a step-by-step roadmap that outlines each stage of the migration process, considering potential risks and setting realistic timelines. Throughout this journey, communication is fundamental. Ensuring all stakeholders, from IT teams to business units, understand and support the plan can smooth the transition and mitigate resistance.

In addition, maintaining flexibility in your strategy is key to adapting to unforeseen challenges and evolving business needs. By taking an incremental approach, you can manage risks more effectively and gain buy-in by showing tangible results early on. Consistent evaluation and feedback mechanisms will also help you refine your approach, turning migration into a dynamic, responsive process. 

 

Navigating Cloud Migration Risks

Risks associated with data transfer can pose significant hurdles in migration projects. Data transfer encompasses not just the logistics of moving data from one environment to another but also ensuring that data integrity and accessibility are maintained throughout the transition. It's fundamental that businesses plan meticulously to prevent data loss, corruption, or downtime, each of which can have costly implications.

Further, security concerns during migration could be multi-layered, from ensuring data is encrypted during transfer to validating that the cloud provider complies with your organisation’s security and compliance requirements. Security concerns are heightened as data traverses new boundaries, often necessitating extra diligence and due diligence checks with the cloud vendor.

Meanwhile, another pervasive risk lies in cost management; without rigorous planning, projects can spiral over budget with hidden costs of unplanned cloud usage, unforeseen development requirements, or extended project timelines affecting bottom-line profitability. By strategically approaching these areas, organisations can lay a foundation for a migration that is both secure and economically sound.

Integrating the 7Rs framework into your migration roadmap isn’t merely a procedural exercise; it empowers decision-makers to systematically identify and mitigate these risks through precisely calibrated strategies. For example, by carefully selecting the Retire strategy, you proactively alleviate cloud migration risks related to obsolete data and application footprints that no longer serve strategic interests. Similarly, the decision to retain certain applications internally until security or compliance capabilities match your organisation’s requirements ensures your core systems remain shielded from potential vulnerabilities.

Furthermore, by deploying Rehost or Replatform strategies, you can migrate applications with a clear understanding of infrastructural requirements, encapsulating data transfer challenges within well-defined project scopes, avoiding disruption and ensuring operational continuity. Each step of the framework is aligned with a corresponding risk management focus, offering guidance that lessens the strain across the migration lifecycle.

As each application is mapped to a strategy, you can fortify your approach with risk assessments tailored to specific business use cases, turning potential pitfalls into pathways for innovation.

Related: How Resourcing Solutions Can Help You Scale Your Business

 

Looking for Expert Help?

Your success in the digital space doesn't just hinge on the technology you choose but also on how well it aligns with your ambitions and challenges. Opal Solutions Private Limited excels in this domain, ensuring your transition from legacy systems is as smooth as possible.

Our focus on Legacy Application Modernisation is designed to unshackle your business from inefficient and costly systems. These outdated applications often become burdensome, draining resources and slowing down productivity. By freeing your business from these constraints, we make sure that you benefit from a seamless transition to more robust, reliable, and scalable systems. Our agile approach is tailored to incrementally transform your application, all while integrating a self-documenting test suite to streamline the process. 

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By contacting us on +07918 092628 or [email protected], you can discover how our expertise in digital transformation can cater to your specific needs.