Steps to embracing the benefits of being cloud native

Acknowledging and being aware of the challenges in running legacy applications is the first step to application modernization. There is then an immediate need to determine the best cloud migration approach for your business, but more on that later. For now, we will refer to this current stage as crawl. 

Crawl 

There are thousands of companies running legacy applications that are still hosted on-premises. One of the biggest challenges is managing the outdated software and the associated cost of maintaining it. Your business applications being in the cloud increases efficiency, scalability, and flexibility by getting rid of time-consuming and clunky manual tasks through things like automation. The ability to introduce automation in the application development process allows for continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), and continuous deployment. This allows you to not only fail fast but recover even faster, giving increased savings in cost and time which positively affect a host of other variables. 

You should know that this stage still comes with its fair share of challenges when attempting to implement other IT solutions due to a lack of compatibility and flexibility with on-premises legacy applications. This lack of flexibility can inhibit the growth of your business and given the market’s constant evolution businesses and organizations need to be able to scale their applications to keep up with demand while reducing security vulnerabilities and operational disruptions, but moving to the cloud will help. 

Walk 

Once the company takes the step to start moving its infrastructure to the cloud, the process is known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This provides essential compute, storage and networking resources on demand, on a pay-as-you-go basis. These features offer the ability to point, click and get the server you want while addressing the challenges of on-premises head on. Now that you are “cloud ready” you can walk. 

This phase has its own learning curve as the company adapts to the cloud. Keep in mind that your legacy applications are still running at this point. Unexpected costs can arise and it’s possible you will still need to patch, secure, and back up your virtual machines. However, this is preferable to the crawl stage we’ve left behind. The applications of the walk stage will be far more scalable and cost-effective, and the costs driven by hardware will be greatly reduced. As you’re moving through the process of becoming cloud- native you’ll start gaining access to things like higher-quality business data and analytics and faster releases. 

Run

Cloud providers like IaaS are trying to make it easier for their customers to have less management of the infrastructure and provide services that manage it for them. This is known as Platform as a Service (PaaS), in which the cloud provider hosts, manages and maintains all the hardware and software included in the platform as serverless architecture. Furthermore, applications have now become serverless and more native to the cloud. This evolution from on-premises to cloud-native means that you are running fully in the cloud. 

By building your applications as serverless containers, microservices, and more, you now have achieved the run stage of modernizing your applications. Immediately you’ll see the benefits from this such as improved ROI and productivity, enhanced security, and higher efficiency. Another boon is compliance as the majority of cloud-native applications comply with HIPAA, GDPR and other blanket regulations. 

Being cloud-native means you will be able to focus on delivering business value while minimizing the time it takes to develop and deploy applications. This will make your organization more competitive and meet your customer needs. We can guide you on this journey and provide your organization with the expertise and services you need to make this transition possible regardless of where you currently are in the process. Check out how we’re constantly evolving and innovating our customers’ and partner’s technology and engineering.