Migrating your App to the Cloud – A Basic Guide

Migrating an application to the cloud is a process of moving all the digital assets of that app to the cloud infrastructure. It involves moving every asset the app carries in the form of resources, workload, and data.

Having a cloud-based application for a cloud environment proves to be beneficial for any enterprise because the data storage is located on a remote server, and from there, the tasks are performed. While in general, mobile app development process the data by a smartphone.

Special Features of cloud-based apps

• All the app data is stored on the cloud.
• Only minimal device requirements are needed to run cloud applications.
• You get the privilege to work offline.
• The app data can be automatically synced with the cloud if you are working offline.
• Any person without any technical knowledge can use this cloud-based app from any internet-connected device.
• You can pick up and store the data on the cloud from where you left off on any device.

Different Types of cloud-based apps

1. Software as a Service (SaaS)
   Software as a service for cloud-based apps can be accessed through mobile or web platforms without installation and configuration. Moreover, you can use the software solutions with the help of an internet facility from any device. For example, Dropbox is one of the apps which is used by numerous people all over the world for personal use.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)
   In this type of cloud application, the platform as a service requires a cloud service provider to simplify the development process. While the platform as a service lends every solution, it needs development tools, database management tools, operating systems, and software, and hardware infrastructure to perform the tasks. Windows is one of the examples of this cloud model.
3. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
   This platform is also one of the unique cloud-based app models where the infrastructure as a service can manage the tasks of the network, storage, or service through other public or private cloud platforms. They have to access the app with the help of an API or admin panel. The IaaS infrastructure will manage your app while vendors such as AWS lend you servers, storage, or hardware.

Step-by-Step Cloud-based application development

Migrating your app to a proper cloud-based service module has to undergo several steps as developing a cloud application is different from developing a web or mobile application. First, choose a reliable service provider that offers you several features for developing cloud applications and then migrating them to the cloud. In that course, you also need to invest time and money and simplify the process of migrating your app to the cloud. Let’s check the steps of developing cloud-based applications.

1. Research and understand your application
   Before embarking on migrating process, understand and research your app. Consider the targeted audience and get a complete understanding of your app platform—plan on the data to be stored in apps and migrated to the cloud. Then, check the storage required and the security and compliance measures to start the process.
2. Hire a development team.
   Take help from an experienced and reputed cloud app developing and migrating team to execute your apps to the first migration phase. Before diving into the actual process, check all the technical specifications and estimate the budget to migrate the app. Then, create an app migration workflow, and share it with your team to start working on the steps.
3. Consider the features for migration success.
   Then further carefully consider the architecture and service model that you wish to opt for your app migration. Next, understand the parameter of measuring the cloud migration performance that checks the data movement to the cloud at peak response time. Eventually, also know the ratio between total request and error request to avoid potentially malicious and unusual user activity.
4. Consider and define a cloud environment. 
   When choosing a cloud environment, consult with experts who will analyze your requirement and select the right cloud model for you. Also, be mindful of your application’s scalability, requiring you to choose from either the hybrid model, public cloud, or private cloud. Then you can choose a proper cloud provider as per your cloud environment.
5. Choose a strategy for cloud migration.
   To get the right monetization model know the system’s components and understand the apps category. Then, choose any one of the six cloud migration strategies of refactoring, retaining, retirement, repurchase, etc. Thus, you can get the right dependency with the help of a mapping tool to get the best between the applications.
6. Automate Migration
   To launch and migrate a minimum viable app, then choose a cloud environment to automate the migration. With the automation tools, replace manual infrastructure management and get continuous integration and delivery.
7. Conduct pilot migration to Test your process carefully.
   To conduct a testing stage to find any errors in your application and check whether it is working correctly. Then, with the help of a full-cycle development, go for pilot migration to check up on the efficiency of the migration strategy.

Conclusion

While the process of migrating your app to the cloud is a challenging one but it is still one of the safest and cost-effective alternatives to develop your app. It is easier to integrate the databases from your business with your cloud app by getting features to recover and access data in an emergency. Furthermore, you get enormous benefits to launch your app on both iOS and Android platforms simultaneously, and it is less expensive. As a result, more and more companies are compelled to migrate their apps to the cloud and bring their apps to market faster. To get a competitive advantage and gain new opportunities, migrate your app to the cloud and find new ways to transform your organization into a fast, efficient, and effective one.