What Are the Best Cloud Migration Solutions of 2024?

The right cloud migration solution is a game changer. Moving applications and data to the cloud can transform business performance, with the best migration option easing this process. If you’d like to explore the most impressive solutions available, you’ve come to the right place. 

We’ll look at the very best cloud migration solutions for your business, including what they are and how they can benefit you. We'll also look at the challenges that can crop up when seeking to migrate business functions and processes to the cloud. 

What are cloud migration solutions?

Cloud migration is the process of moving an organization’s digital assets and data from physical servers to the cloud. Cloud migration solutions are the tools and services that help achieve this transfer. This allows businesses to outsource their computing resources to remote servers instead of maintaining them in-house, helping to improve operations and simplify management.

Cloud migration solutions also facilitate the transition between various different cloud-based systems, (such as switching from one provider to another), with the best options prioritizing security, speed of transfer, and continuity of service. As remote working continues to increase in popularity, migrating to the cloud has become an essential step for many businesses.  

Key benefits of cloud migration

Offering a wealth of benefits, let’s look at the key reasons why businesses should consider cloud migration. 

1. Cost savings

One of the main benefits of cloud migration is the level of financial savings. 

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A room stuffed full of IT equipment can be a big financial drain. It not only increases your physical footprint, but there are also costs involved with maintenance and any upgrades that may be needed for certain hardware. In an environment where square footage is expensive, anything you can do to reduce space is worth exploring. Fortunately, cloud migration rids you of all these cost concerns, needing no physical space to operate.. 

2. Flexibility boost

The trouble with physical infrastructure is that it’s often too inflexible. In business, adaptation is everything: you have to be able to scale up or down according to economic performance and demand, and you have to be quick.  

Using the cloud gives you this rapid response capability as well as easy access to data, no matter where you are in the world. You can choose the exact level of service needed, changing this requirement as and when necessary for improved efficiency 

3. Improved support

Nobody wants to think about a disaster happening, but the wise business person will often hope for the best and prepare for the worst. This is where cloud migration can help. 

A good cloud service provider will have the expertise and resources to see you through setbacks and crises. They also typically offer robust disaster recovery solutions, including data backups and automated recovery processes. This is often more cost-effective and reliable than maintaining a separate, on-premises recovery infrastructure.

4. Geographical reach

By migrating to the cloud, business processes and information won’t be tied to a particular country or region, completely eliminating any geographical limitations. This extends your reach to the global sphere for more effective operation across regions, while giving remote access to important data from anywhere. 

5. Improved integration 

When business operations are migrated to the cloud, it often results in smoother integration between different tools and systems. Cloud platforms are designed to support a wide range of applications and services, enabling seamless integration across different business functions. 

6. Improved operations

There are significant operational advantages that come from migrating your business systems to the cloud, too. For instance, cloud computing can facilitate a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) approach to software development. That helps shorten software development lifecycles and lower error rates.

7. Accelerated innovation

If you stick with legacy, on-premises solutions, your business will encounter barriers stopping you from benefiting from the most modern technological advances. 

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and similar tech in recent years can hardly be overstated. While these technologies are easily integrated into cloud-based systems, it’s much harder to benefit from them if you’re still tied to on-premises solutions. 

Common cloud migration challenges and solutions

So, we’ve looked at some of the benefits, but what about cloud migration challenges and solutions? There may be potential snags that crop up with this major reorganization of your business, so let’s take a deeper look at some.

1. Ensuring an effective transformation

When planning a cloud migration, especially for complex systems like SAP integration (Systems, Applications, and Products), consider all the elements you wish to migrate. An effective transformation requires careful planning and a clear understanding of which systems and applications should be integrated into the cloud. 

You may initially plan to migrate specific applications, but then move onto expanding your scope to include additional processes or systems. Hybrid migration platforms provide the flexibility needed for this kind of integration, making it easier to manage the transformation and adapt as needed 

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2. Security questions

To the untrained eye, migration to the cloud may seem risky, especially when sensitive or confidential business information is being transferred from one system to another. This couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Most cloud migration tools are designed with advanced security features, including data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and compliance with industry standards. Consequently, confidentiality and robust system defenses are of high priority. So, whichever tool you use, it’s worth checking which security measures are in place. 

For instance, OpenLegacy Hub goes to great lengths to optimize security, using APIs and microservices created around the legacy systems themselves, to ensure data safety.  

3. Being locked-in

Finally, some cloud migration tools may ask you to sign up for the long term, keeping you tied to the same provider for longer than you want. This can limit your flexibility to switch providers or integrate different services that better suit various aspects of your business.

However, it’s usually more beneficial to mix and match services from different providers according to your business needs. So, make sure you check a provider’s stance on transferring to other providers should the need arise. That way, you have the freedom to transition without significant disruption or cost. 

You might find that a hybrid option (combining on-premises infrastructure with cloud services from multiple providers), can offer greater flexibility and help mitigate the risks associated with being locked-in.

4. Managing continuity of service

Your on-premises systems and applications are key to business operations—it’s why you still have them. Migrating to the cloud helps you future proof these applications, but what about the present?

Migrations are typically long and comprehensive projects. It’s a significant challenge, therefore, to manage the continuity of service your applications provide, during the migration process. That’s why some organizations turn to a strangler pattern approach, and is also why it’s vital to choose the right cloud migration solution for you.

The best end-to-end cloud migration solutions

Time now to look at some of the best cloud migration solution services out there, so you can start planning your business transformation. Before committing to a cloud migration services and solutions partner, it’s important to research what’s available so that you find one that suits your particular needs. 

1. OpenLegacy: The ultimate legacy system modernization platform

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to modernizing business systems and applications. Regardless of your chosen modernization strategy, OpenLegacy’s Hybrid Integration platform is a key part of the puzzle, especially for businesses with complex core systems. It allows for gradual and safe migration of legacy systems into cloud-based services, delivering a more organic developmental approach. 

While the migration takes place, OpenLegacy Hub will support the business by using AI capabilities to streamline integration and reduce manual processing. This means that more business capacity is reserved to keep innovation at a high level. 

An intuitive dashboard design keeps you well and truly in the driving seat. It offers up-to-date awareness on how your integration and migration landscape is developing, so that you can identify what’s working and what could do with enhancement. 

Once you’ve selected the level of migration you wish to deploy, a smooth transition will then take place. This will include AI-assisted Legacy System Discovery and Mapping. This takes the hard work out of identifying what bits of your business could do with migration. The result is a manifestation of the legacy element in the format of your choice (eg REST, JSON, etc).

AI is further leveraged to give pointers to future areas of development. It can highlight where modules can combine, so that you can create hybrid APIs that use the best of your modern and legacy systems. 

This safe and gradual approach to migration and modernization yields a range of important benefits:

• Accelerate and de-risk migration: With OpenLegacy, you can speed up digital transformation while also minimizing risks. Migration without OpenLegacy has a high risk of data and business logic loss. With OpenLegacy, risk is much lower, due to full co-existence and safe transition. 
• Ensure business continuity: When migrating to the cloud, it can be hard to manage the continuity of service provided by the applications being migrated. With OpenLegacy, it’s easier to keep operations running smoothly. What’s more, you can also seamlessly create cloud-native, futureproof services. 
• Reduce dependency on legacy skills: Sometimes, cloud migration requires significant expertise in the legacy systems being migrated. Often, businesses don’t have this expertise at hand. With OpenLegacy, you can modernize without needing it. 
• Leverage legacy investments: Your business may have invested significant resources into your existing legacy platforms. OpenLegacy can help you to maximize the value from that investment during transition to cloud-based services. 

2. AppDynamics

Among solutions for cloud migration, this is a tool aimed at delivering seamless migrations by concentrating on real-time performance. It also takes care of resource deployment and keeps teams aligned with KPI metrics. This all contributes to maintaining business performance throughout the migration. 

AppDynamics gives insights via pre- and post- migration business metrics, so the benefits of migration can be instantly appreciated. It monitors user experience too, for optimized application performance and ease of use. This is especially important when a business is venturing into migration for the first time. 

3. Azure Migrate

This service from Microsoft aims to simplify cloud migration as much as possible. It offers a range of options to cover the gamut of requirements. These include a business wishing to migrate one aspect of their operations, such as payroll, and a business that wants an entire enterprise migration, moving just about everything into the cloud. 

Results are monitored continuously, so you can see the success of the migration as it happens. This also enables real-time tweaking as and when required. Getting up-to-date feedback keeps expenditure focused on where you need it to go to ensure best results. 

You can also leverage Azure’s hybrid capabilities and achieve a seamless transition while modernizing legacy systems with OpenLegacy. OpenLegacy is a Microsoft Azure partner, and our rapid integration capabilities can be coupled with Azure's PaaS and DevOps offerings. That means you can not only modernize but also continuously improve and innovate on legacy systems.

4. Cloudfuze

This is a cloud application migration solution that includes multi-cloud management and built-in collaboration tools. It’s aimed at larger teams who are working on a migration project across different time zones, enabling interaction and collective performance in complex environments. 

5. Google Cloud Migration Tools

This is a collection of different tools for different migration needs. The range includes the following:

• Google Cloud Migration Center. A unified platform for businesses to use whether they are migrating from legacy on-premises hardware or from other cloud-based services. 
• Migrate to Virtual Machines. This allows the migration of physical servers to VMs, providing service continuity while the migration takes place. 
• Database Migration Service. Specializes in transferring databases to the cloud. 
• BigQuery Migration Service. This takes care of data warehouse migration matters.

OpenLegacy is also a Google Cloud partner. By leveraging OpenLegacy and the Google Cloud Platform in tandem, you can unleash innovation, maximize effectiveness, and seamlessly connect traditional systems with cutting-edge solutions.

6. AWS Application Migration Service

This cloud migration solution accommodates transfers to the AWS cloud. The conversion of source servers is automated, so transition is smooth and streamlined. The AWS Application Migration Service describes itself as an economical way to migrate processes from various infrastructure sources. 

One of the key advantages here is that it gives simplified and relatively fast access across AWS regions and accounts. While it does this, it takes care of pertinent resilience and compliance issues. 

You can also benefit from AWS’s flexible infrastructure when choosing OpenLegacy as your migration and modernization solution. OpenLegacy is a recognized AWS partner and has achieved the Migration and Modernization Software Competency.  

7. IBM Turbonic

IBM Turbonic starts by analyzing existing processes and assessing resource demands. It then uses these insights to inform the ensuing cloud migration strategy. This seeks to keep the migration on-target and relevant to the business needs. It also cuts down on needless expenditure. 

It offers a collection of guided workflows, dealing with a range of different scenarios, assisting businesses to see the process through with relative ease. 

8. N-iX

This cloud migration tool uses a body of 400 high-expertise cloud migration specialists to provide high levels of customization for individual business needs. This outfit works collaboratively with a business to set in place a strategy that will cater to a particular set of requirements. 

While not necessarily the most economical way forward, if your business has a uniquely complex profile, it might be worth looking at N-iX. 

Reduce risk, ensure continuity and increase agility with gradual cloud migration via OpenLegacy 

So, there you have it. A substantial line up of cloud migration tools to transfer your business into the future. Of them all, OpenLegacy Hub can be an essential piece of your migration, regardless of your modernization strategy. 

It allows for safe and gradual migration, so you can take things at a pace that suits you and your business. All while ensuring business continuity and reducing the risk of data or business logic loss.  

Using well-thought out AI innovations, OpenLegacy Hub ensures that migration is efficient and on-target. Throughout the process you remain extensively informed and completely in charge. 

By giving you the support and continuity you need during migration, OpenLegacy Hub will get your business smoothly and seamlessly into the cloud, where it belongs.