Choosing your IT infrastructure is a key strategic decision. Although there is much talk about how data-driven decisions are key, we often forget the emotional aspect of decision making when it comes to IT.

The focus of this blog will be to cover some of the key dos and don'ts when it comes to your legacy infrastructure—is it time to move on and upgrade, or stay put with the IT environment that has served you well for years?

The race to cloud adoption

Companies are in a rat race to jump onto the cloud bandwagon. Several companies unknowingly (or knowingly) end up moving the bulk of their workload to the cloud and then realize they would have been better off using an on-premises solution. In this context, better would mean more long-term cost savings, ease of data management and data governance, and greater security and control. The fear of not being able to “digitally transform” oneself has created a mad rush to adopt cloud infrastructure.

Although we might do it subconsciously, emotions do drive our decisions. However, it's key that emotions do not cloud your judgment when the time comes to move away from legacy IT infrastructure and choose what is best for the organization. This is a decision that can make or break the IT strategy for your firm.

Before we jump into the nitty-gritty of cloud migration, it’s important to understand what legacy infrastructure is.

What is legacy infrastructure?

Legacy infrastructure is outdated or aging hardware (such as servers, storage, networking equipment) and software that form the IT infrastructure of a company. Although vendors do support the hardware in the form of upgrades or extensions, they are not very efficient. Organizations will have numerous complex combinations of both hardware and software leading to management complexities and cost increase. In addition, there may be disparate teams that work independently, thus adding to the complexity. These systems could potentially slow down business operations and cause data breaches since security is not stellar, causing a company to lag rather than move forward.

The reason why legacy infrastructure works for some is that the company has found a best-fit solution, and therefore can use the same age-old technologies. Moving away from what serves well is a difficult choice. Not making the right decision, however, could cause severe ramifications in the future.

Legacy software can become unreliable and lose support from vendors (also known as end-of-life) who may not issue any more product updates. One of the key examples in this space is the announcement of Microsoft in May 2021. The tech giant decided to retire Internet Explorer in 2022 after more than 25 years of operation. The decision was made because of two reasons—a reduction in the number of IE search engine users and their new product Microsoft Edge. In this example, IE is viewed as a legacy software in which the vendor has decided to stop support. Businesses that have older, legacy websites are being moved onto the newer browser.

How do I identify if it’s time to upgrade my legacy infrastructure?

There are several signs to look out for when deciding whether to upgrade legacy infrastructure. Some of the key points are noted below:

Security concerns: Ensuring that company data is safe and secure from hackers and other threats is critical. Data breaches in the last couple of years have grown tremendously, and the focus on cybersecurity is unavoidable. Some of the biggest data breaches in the last several years include—the 2013 Yahoo hack where over 3 billion user accounts were exposed, the 2019 Alibaba hack with 1.1 billion pieces of user data released, and the more recent July 2021 hack of LinkedIn, where the data of 700 million users of the site were reportedly advertised for sale on the dark web.
Reduced performance efficiency: Once a system is working well for an organization, it's very easy to get used to it. Even if it is slow or works poorly, the level of comfort with the system may prevent organizations from upgrading. Slow systems can hamper employee productivity, slow down the entire business, and cause a company to crumble if not managed well.
End-of-life support: IT infrastructure can become unreliable if the vendor stops providing support. In such situations, the vendors provide an alternative solution and time to their users to look for better options as well.
Compatibility issues: New technology and old technology rarely go together. Combining two disparate systems could cause more problems than offer solutions. Upgrading systems to the next phase is a better option rather than getting different pieces of the old and new infrastructure puzzle together.
Compliance issues: As several new data regulations—GDPR, HIPAA, SOX, CCPA, among several others—are brought into the security space, legacy infrastructure needs to ensure that they comply with them. All these regulations require strict compliance and adherence by all organizations. Legacy infrastructure could find it challenging to keep up with all the new regulations.
Maintenance challenges: Maintaining legacy infrastructure can also be an expensive affair since users would need experts who can manage the infrastructure. Finding the right expertise for older systems can be a challenge.

Businesses should not struggle to achieve a competitive advantage or inhibit growth when evaluating legacy infrastructure. Infrastructure should work for organization growth, not against it. Therefore, choosing the right type of infrastructure, addressing the company’s best interests, and looking for newer options is a step in the right direction. If you do decide to move to the cloud, let’s focus on how we can get there—through cloud migration.

Jumping on board the cloud bandwagon

What is cloud migration?

Cloud migration is defined as the transfer of a company’s digital operations from legacy systems to the cloud. It also includes the movement of data from one cloud type to another. Although the concept of migration remains the same, there is no actual physical movement of the operations; here, data, applications, and IT processes are moved or migrated into the cloud.

If I move to the cloud, what about my legacy?

The process of moving to the cloud needs a clear and concise plan. It cannot be a rush job with applications being ripped out of their infrastructure.

It is extremely important for businesses to ensure that the vendors can meet their IT strategy in the future as well. Will the legacy infrastructure provider offer upgrades in the future that will allow improved functionality and possible cloud migration support, or do they never plan to move to the cloud?

Cloud migration does not mean the end of legacy software. What it means, rather, is focusing on identifying the applications and software that can be moved to the cloud. An IT strategy rests on understanding what parts of the company will benefit from being in the cloud and parts that would perform better with legacy.

The 6Rs of cloud migration

There are several ways for an enterprise to begin its cloud journey. Some of the key types of migration, also known as the 6Rs are:

Rehost or lift and shift: Rehosting is one of the fastest types of cloud migration. In this type of software, applications are “lifted” from legacy infrastructure, and “shifted” to the cloud. This method has the lowest upfront costs.
Replatform or lift and optimize: This is an extension of rehosting. Here, OS and APIs are optimized during lifting and shifting. There are minimal alterations to the code base, which are aimed at enhancing the cloud benefits and reshaping the source environment.
Repurchase or shifting to SaaS or drop and shop: This type of migration is dependent on the application, and therefore runs on a case-by-case basis. When companies opt for SaaS, they identify workloads and applications outsourced to SaaS vendors that specialize in these applications. A good example of applications that can be shifted to SaaS is moving CRM applications to Salesforce.
Refactoring: Refactoring is also known as rearchitecting. Under this type, legacy applications are entirely redesigned to be supported in a cloud environment. Applications are replicated and migrated to the cloud. Refactoring is a low-risk option since companies can still use the legacy application until the replication and movement to the cloud are done. Although refactoring is the most expensive option, it's most suited for future usage.
Retain or hybrid model: In this type, a firm identifies only specific applications that need to move to the cloud. Firms can choose to retain other workloads on IT infrastructure. This could happen for a variety of reasons, such as the company may not be ready to move to the cloud, or there can be security reasons, governmental rules and regulations, and several others.
Retire: This involves identifying and shutting down the applications that do not have any impact on efficiency and productivity. Parts of IT infrastructure are archived as per importance, and later replaced by other services or software.

I've decided to move onto the cloud, what next?

G2’s buyer’s guide offers a deep dive into the cloud migration software market. When moving to the cloud it is important to understand the process and identify some of the top cloud migration vendors in the space. Buyers of cloud migration software can also read real, authentic reviews of several cloud migration software users that can help them make the right software choice for their business.

G2 Grid® for Cloud Migration Software

Planning your cloud migration journey

To begin the cloud migration process, the first step would be to create a plan of action. This plan of action will help assess the present IT infrastructure and understand the implications the migration would mean for the firm.

At this stage, goals and objectives are identified, and methods to achieve them are created. These methods will ideally focus on identifying which workloads and applications need to be moved to the cloud, and which ones need to remain on legacy infrastructure. This is also the time to identify the best-fit cloud platform, whether public, private, or hybrid.

The plan of action should also take into account data security. The IT infrastructure is vulnerable during the migration process, and there are strong possibilities of a data breach, causing immense harm to the organization.

Renewed interest in cloud migration software

On G2.com, the Cloud Migration software category traffic observed a drop in March and April 2021. The drop can be attributed to these months being the fiscal year-end for many firms, so companies would be refocusing their IT budget, making plans for the new year, and hence, the actual spending of the budget is reduced drastically.

What is interesting to note is that we observed good growth starting May 2021, comparable to last year, which indicates a renewed interest in cloud migration software. As companies get access to their new budgets, firms can choose and assess whether to stay on legacy or move to the cloud.

Final thoughts

Whether you choose to upgrade your legacy infrastructure or move to the cloud, the decision needs to align with maintaining the firm’s competitive advantage as well as achieving its goals. Undergoing a deep-dive assessment into the IT infrastructure and understanding all the possibilities and outcomes is the most important step when making any IT decision since all future outcomes would depend on this.

Moving forward from legacy is hard especially when the solution has worked well for many years. However, the benefit of making an informed choice and moving toward cloud migration will not only save time and cost but put your organization forward in the era of digital transformation.

Preethica Furtado

Preethica is a Market Research Manager and Senior Market Research Analyst at G2 focused on the data and cloud management space. Prior to joining G2, Preethica spent three years in market research for enterprise systems, cloud forecasting, and workstations. She has written research reports for both the semiconductor and telecommunication industries. Her interest in technology led her to combine that with building a challenging career. She enjoys reading, writing blogs and poems, and traveling in her free time.