How companies move their infrastructure to the cloud and avoid mistakes
Migration to the cloud is closely related to the movement of data, settings, applications, operating systems to the virtual data center of the cloud provider. It seems that this is difficult and unreliable, but more and more companies trust the services of IaaS technology. For example, over the next three years, 50% of Indian organizations plan to move infrastructure to the cloud.
The market is “going up” - according to the forecast of the analytical agency Gartner, in 2017 the IaaS segment will grow by 36.8% and reach the level of $ 34.6 billion. Therefore, in today's article we will talk about what companies pay attention to in order to migrate infrastructure to the cloud environment and avoid potential risks.
/ Flickr / goldswordfish / CC
')
Due to the amount of IT infrastructure and the billions of dollars spent every day on equipment, software and support services, it is impossible to make the transition from an on-premise to cloud deployment model overnight.
When migrating, IT departments of companies have to decide how to maintain access to data sources — most migration scenarios include transferring information using backup tools and disaster recovery systems.
Most of the mistakes that await the leadership of companies on this path are inherent in any large IT project. The lack of a migration plan and application dependency scheme is one of the most popular. This also includes the initiation of migration without preliminary tests, the opinion that all providers are the same and miscalculations in security policies.
In more detail about these types of risks and how to avoid them, we will tell further.
Large companies and small startups make the transition to the cloud - 52% of the small business segment turned to cloud infrastructure. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), every small company that uses cloud technology saves a lot of money. Organizations also have the ability to manage infrastructure from a single console, which simplifies communication and speeds up the delivery of services to consumers.
There are cases that demonstrate the successful migration of IT infrastructure to the cloud of an IaaS provider. At the same time, some companies use the cloud as a secondary springboard, where the “secondary” services are stored, while others completely outsource the infrastructure and place business critical systems there.
An example of a gradual migration to the cloud is the phased transformation of the Netflix infrastructure. We wrote about it here . The company transferred services to the cloud for several years, revising the concept of service provision.
In Netflix, they transferred to the cloud the payment infrastructure and services of providing accounts, the Big Data platform, video broadcasting services, the customer data management system, etc.
Russian companies are also moving to the cloud. Delivery Club is a food delivery service with a fully virtualized system. In the case of the Delivery Club, the cloud simplified management, support and ensured reliability.
Migrated to the provider cloud and automobile holding "Terra-auto". The company has placed in a virtual environment a telecommunications component, postal services and traffic filtering tools.
One of the reasons why these companies moved to the cloud was simplified scaling. Cloud infrastructure allows, if necessary, to increase (decrease) the amount of server resources. This approach is important when creating projects in which the load changes seasonally or constantly increases.
Organizations can move VMs from one physical machine to another. It also improves reliability: even if one of the servers fails, the VM continues to work on the other. All this eliminates most of the errors in setting up the infrastructure.
For successful migration, you need to: develop a plan, build a cloud infrastructure, test it, transfer data and start a service.
However, I would like to note that moving to the cloud is an individual process for each organization; therefore, some technical issues are solved based on the needs of the company.
Step 1. Before starting the migration, you need to make an inventory of the IT environment in order to build the current picture of the infrastructure. This will make it clear which applications are suitable for moving to the cloud. To do this, categorize applications one by one based on attributes. When creating the catalog, two approaches are used : “top-down”, which allows you to understand where applications will benefit the business, and “bottom-up”, which focuses on technical capabilities.
The top-down approach follows the paradigm of business transformation in order to realize the maximum potential, therefore it is based on an assessment of the technical and safety aspects of each application:
After analysis, these indicators form an account that reflects the difficulty of transferring an application to the cloud. The top-down approach will also include an assessment of financial benefits: TCO, seasonal jumps in user activity, necessary levels of scalability, resiliency.
At the same time, a bottom-up approach can be applied. As already noted, it focuses on technical requirements, so indicators for evaluation are in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB):
After completing this assessment, the IT team makes a list of priorities, that is, determines which applications benefit most from migration to the cloud. Experts recommend starting the transition to the cloud environment with simple projects, gradually increasing the complexity.
In addition, at the very beginning, you need to decide which cloud model is best suited for the project: public, private or hybrid cloud. According to statistics , in recent years, hybrid clouds are gaining popularity in the corporate environment.
Step 2. This is the stage of choosing a cloud provider with testing the capabilities of the cloud platform. Assess the reliability of the provider's site and check it for compliance with the requirements of the company. The reliability of the cloud platform depends on the equipment used, so you should pay attention to the relevance of hardware, its class and check for redundancy (there should not be a single point of failure).
Also, most commercial data centers claim that their infrastructure complies with the Tier III reliability standard. However, this is not always the case. Checking the service provider is simple: request certificates confirmed by the Uptime Institute. UTI certificates for Russian data centers are on the organization’s website .
After you have decided on the provider, you should test the cloud platform and test migration without fail. For example, we, at IT-GRAD, at the request of a client, provide free VMware vCloud access for two weeks. This will allow you to ensure that all services are working correctly.
Step 3. When migrating your IT infrastructure to the cloud, you should choose the migration path: a gradual or complete transition.
Gradual migration is suitable for large companies with extensive infrastructure. This transition takes place over several months or even years (for example, the case of Netflix, which we talked about above). In this case, a phased migration plan is drawn up indicating critical services and priorities.
With full migration, the company's infrastructure is transferred in a few days. There is no need to make a roadmap here, but it’s still worth writing a work plan.
Thus, the choice of migration method depends on the size of the organization and the complexity of the infrastructure. Small and medium businesses will benefit from full migration. Large companies should pay attention to partial migration. It is important to remember that transferring complex environments to the cloud may require processing applications in order to maintain or improve performance and security.
In addition to the method of migration, it is also necessary to determine the transfer time. To do this, you need to understand when critical services are used poorly and to schedule migration at this point.
Step 4. Next, you can proceed to the migration, adhering to the chosen strategy. After that, it remains to check and test services. If there are no errors, the services are output in production.
/ Flickr / Peter Stevens / CC
Choosing how to migrate to the cloud depends on the specific situation, for example, the company's current infrastructure and capabilities. This could be the transfer of a physical IT infrastructure to a virtual environment, the transfer of a local virtual infrastructure to the cloud, the transition from one provider to another, etc. Below we consider possible migration options in more detail. Some of them are performed using VMware tools.
Import-Export VM
If the company already has a virtual infrastructure based on VMware, then its virtual environment allows you to "throw" several VMs at once.
All virtual machine parameters are “packaged” into OVF / OVA files. They are then used to export to the VMware vSphere virtualization platform and others. Transferring applications to the cloud also allows VMware vCloud Connector. How to work with this tool we wrote in our blog .
Service Level Migration
The provider creates a backup service. This service is synchronized with the local client service. An example is the migration of Active Directory. The cloud provider deploys the necessary number of VMs, after which the database is replicated to the cloud along with the controllers.
"Hot" and "cold" cloning
With "hot" cloning, the transfer of a working node is performed. The original server stops only at the time of the switch. The vCenter Converter utility automatically detects disks, partitions and network interfaces, RAM and processors. Based on this data, a new virtual machine is created on the ESXi host.
VMware vCenter Converter can also perform cold cloning. This type of cloning is recommended for migrating Active Directory and mail servers. The machine stops, a hard disk image is created and the conversion is performed to the VM.
Installation from scratch
The provider creates a VM, and the operating system and the necessary software rolls onto it. Then there is a switch of clients.
When migrating to the cloud, companies sometimes do not pay attention to some details. Let's look at the most popular mistakes that organizations make when moving to cloud infrastructure.
“All providers are the same”
This is a dangerous assumption. Although each cloud provider offers virtual machines and several types of storages to work, they are distinguished by subtleties, payment models and quality of service. This includes the willingness of the provider to work out in case of unforeseen situations, as well as the quality of user support.
For example, we at IT-GRAD offer several sites for data placement. The client can create multiple virtual data centers and adjust the performance and security parameters for each. We also offer various payment models, including Pay-As-You-Go.
Another error, which is a peculiar consequence, is the rejection of native cloud services and the use of our own virtual machine instances. This error is easy to make, because it seems that it will avoid binding to the vendor. However, it leads to the fact that companies reinvent the wheel, ignoring one of the main advantages of the clouds: high-quality services that can be created and used without additional settings.
No application dependency diagram
When migrating to the cloud, pay attention to the application dependency scheme. How they are related to each other and infrastructure in general. Present this scheme as a dependency map. If it turns out that several applications are accessing the same database, you need to work out a mechanism for the combined movement to the cloud. Otherwise, the application will fail.
For example, as they say at Hunterdon Medical Center, they made this mistake during the first migration of systems to the cloud. The staff did not conduct a deep analysis of the applications. The specialists transferred the mail system to the G Suite, but did not consider what the users needed from the old system, and did not analyze how it would behave in the new environment.
No migration plan
Before the migration, answer the following questions: what will you transfer to the cloud, in what order, when and for how much? Make a transfer plan.
Experts from the technology company DoubleHorn also advise to draw up a plan to resort to the help of third parties and consulting firms. They will help you find and apply best practices and avoid costly mistakes.
Forgot about security policies
Transferring infrastructure to the cloud often leads to incomplete security policies that are not consistent with new standards. All organizations have security requirements for user authorization, application setup, and system monitoring. These policies often do not change, but they must be strengthened when working with the cloud. Loren Hudziak of Google notes that organizations need to pay attention to security on all fronts in order to get all the benefits of cloud infrastructure.
Run without testing
Before migrating to the cloud, you need to choose a reliable and trusted hosting provider. About the subtleties of choice and what to look for, we told in one of our materials . Having chosen a cloud provider, request a test access to the cloud platform. Do the tests.
According to cloud providers, many organizations migrating to the cloud do not have an established recovery plan in the event of a disaster. And many of those who have it have never tested it.
When King County in Washington migrated a backup system to the cloud, they tested how data is transferred to the cloud. Everything worked well. However, they did not test their recovery. According to Temujin Baker, the head of application architecture, they did not take into account the specifics of working with the cloud when the service takes time to receive data.
Therefore, attention to detail and evaluation of results are important components of the migration process to the cloud. If you follow the established recommendations and act according to plan, the final result will be expected.
PS A few more materials on the topic from our blog:
The market is “going up” - according to the forecast of the analytical agency Gartner, in 2017 the IaaS segment will grow by 36.8% and reach the level of $ 34.6 billion. Therefore, in today's article we will talk about what companies pay attention to in order to migrate infrastructure to the cloud environment and avoid potential risks.
/ Flickr / goldswordfish / CC
')
What can go wrong
Due to the amount of IT infrastructure and the billions of dollars spent every day on equipment, software and support services, it is impossible to make the transition from an on-premise to cloud deployment model overnight.
When migrating, IT departments of companies have to decide how to maintain access to data sources — most migration scenarios include transferring information using backup tools and disaster recovery systems.
Most of the mistakes that await the leadership of companies on this path are inherent in any large IT project. The lack of a migration plan and application dependency scheme is one of the most popular. This also includes the initiation of migration without preliminary tests, the opinion that all providers are the same and miscalculations in security policies.
In more detail about these types of risks and how to avoid them, we will tell further.
Who has already dealt with it
Large companies and small startups make the transition to the cloud - 52% of the small business segment turned to cloud infrastructure. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), every small company that uses cloud technology saves a lot of money. Organizations also have the ability to manage infrastructure from a single console, which simplifies communication and speeds up the delivery of services to consumers.
There are cases that demonstrate the successful migration of IT infrastructure to the cloud of an IaaS provider. At the same time, some companies use the cloud as a secondary springboard, where the “secondary” services are stored, while others completely outsource the infrastructure and place business critical systems there.
An example of a gradual migration to the cloud is the phased transformation of the Netflix infrastructure. We wrote about it here . The company transferred services to the cloud for several years, revising the concept of service provision.
In Netflix, they transferred to the cloud the payment infrastructure and services of providing accounts, the Big Data platform, video broadcasting services, the customer data management system, etc.
Russian companies are also moving to the cloud. Delivery Club is a food delivery service with a fully virtualized system. In the case of the Delivery Club, the cloud simplified management, support and ensured reliability.
Migrated to the provider cloud and automobile holding "Terra-auto". The company has placed in a virtual environment a telecommunications component, postal services and traffic filtering tools.
One of the reasons why these companies moved to the cloud was simplified scaling. Cloud infrastructure allows, if necessary, to increase (decrease) the amount of server resources. This approach is important when creating projects in which the load changes seasonally or constantly increases.
Organizations can move VMs from one physical machine to another. It also improves reliability: even if one of the servers fails, the VM continues to work on the other. All this eliminates most of the errors in setting up the infrastructure.
Some more practical cases.
How to migrate
For successful migration, you need to: develop a plan, build a cloud infrastructure, test it, transfer data and start a service.
However, I would like to note that moving to the cloud is an individual process for each organization; therefore, some technical issues are solved based on the needs of the company.
Step 1. Before starting the migration, you need to make an inventory of the IT environment in order to build the current picture of the infrastructure. This will make it clear which applications are suitable for moving to the cloud. To do this, categorize applications one by one based on attributes. When creating the catalog, two approaches are used : “top-down”, which allows you to understand where applications will benefit the business, and “bottom-up”, which focuses on technical capabilities.
The top-down approach follows the paradigm of business transformation in order to realize the maximum potential, therefore it is based on an assessment of the technical and safety aspects of each application:
- Data categorization, security requirements;
- Interface complexity, authentication, data structure, latency requirements;
- Work requirements (SLA), integration, monitoring.
After analysis, these indicators form an account that reflects the difficulty of transferring an application to the cloud. The top-down approach will also include an assessment of financial benefits: TCO, seasonal jumps in user activity, necessary levels of scalability, resiliency.
At the same time, a bottom-up approach can be applied. As already noted, it focuses on technical requirements, so indicators for evaluation are in the Configuration Management Database (CMDB):
- Memory, number of processors, disk space occupied by the operating system;
- Network interface cards;
- IPv6;
- Domain Support;
- Availability of third-party components and application packages.
After completing this assessment, the IT team makes a list of priorities, that is, determines which applications benefit most from migration to the cloud. Experts recommend starting the transition to the cloud environment with simple projects, gradually increasing the complexity.
In addition, at the very beginning, you need to decide which cloud model is best suited for the project: public, private or hybrid cloud. According to statistics , in recent years, hybrid clouds are gaining popularity in the corporate environment.
Step 2. This is the stage of choosing a cloud provider with testing the capabilities of the cloud platform. Assess the reliability of the provider's site and check it for compliance with the requirements of the company. The reliability of the cloud platform depends on the equipment used, so you should pay attention to the relevance of hardware, its class and check for redundancy (there should not be a single point of failure).
Also, most commercial data centers claim that their infrastructure complies with the Tier III reliability standard. However, this is not always the case. Checking the service provider is simple: request certificates confirmed by the Uptime Institute. UTI certificates for Russian data centers are on the organization’s website .
After you have decided on the provider, you should test the cloud platform and test migration without fail. For example, we, at IT-GRAD, at the request of a client, provide free VMware vCloud access for two weeks. This will allow you to ensure that all services are working correctly.
Step 3. When migrating your IT infrastructure to the cloud, you should choose the migration path: a gradual or complete transition.
Gradual migration is suitable for large companies with extensive infrastructure. This transition takes place over several months or even years (for example, the case of Netflix, which we talked about above). In this case, a phased migration plan is drawn up indicating critical services and priorities.
With full migration, the company's infrastructure is transferred in a few days. There is no need to make a roadmap here, but it’s still worth writing a work plan.
Thus, the choice of migration method depends on the size of the organization and the complexity of the infrastructure. Small and medium businesses will benefit from full migration. Large companies should pay attention to partial migration. It is important to remember that transferring complex environments to the cloud may require processing applications in order to maintain or improve performance and security.
In addition to the method of migration, it is also necessary to determine the transfer time. To do this, you need to understand when critical services are used poorly and to schedule migration at this point.
Step 4. Next, you can proceed to the migration, adhering to the chosen strategy. After that, it remains to check and test services. If there are no errors, the services are output in production.
/ Flickr / Peter Stevens / CC
Migration tools and methods
Choosing how to migrate to the cloud depends on the specific situation, for example, the company's current infrastructure and capabilities. This could be the transfer of a physical IT infrastructure to a virtual environment, the transfer of a local virtual infrastructure to the cloud, the transition from one provider to another, etc. Below we consider possible migration options in more detail. Some of them are performed using VMware tools.
Import-Export VM
If the company already has a virtual infrastructure based on VMware, then its virtual environment allows you to "throw" several VMs at once.
All virtual machine parameters are “packaged” into OVF / OVA files. They are then used to export to the VMware vSphere virtualization platform and others. Transferring applications to the cloud also allows VMware vCloud Connector. How to work with this tool we wrote in our blog .
Service Level Migration
The provider creates a backup service. This service is synchronized with the local client service. An example is the migration of Active Directory. The cloud provider deploys the necessary number of VMs, after which the database is replicated to the cloud along with the controllers.
"Hot" and "cold" cloning
With "hot" cloning, the transfer of a working node is performed. The original server stops only at the time of the switch. The vCenter Converter utility automatically detects disks, partitions and network interfaces, RAM and processors. Based on this data, a new virtual machine is created on the ESXi host.
VMware vCenter Converter can also perform cold cloning. This type of cloning is recommended for migrating Active Directory and mail servers. The machine stops, a hard disk image is created and the conversion is performed to the VM.
Installation from scratch
The provider creates a VM, and the operating system and the necessary software rolls onto it. Then there is a switch of clients.
Risks during migration and how to avoid them
When migrating to the cloud, companies sometimes do not pay attention to some details. Let's look at the most popular mistakes that organizations make when moving to cloud infrastructure.
“All providers are the same”
This is a dangerous assumption. Although each cloud provider offers virtual machines and several types of storages to work, they are distinguished by subtleties, payment models and quality of service. This includes the willingness of the provider to work out in case of unforeseen situations, as well as the quality of user support.
For example, we at IT-GRAD offer several sites for data placement. The client can create multiple virtual data centers and adjust the performance and security parameters for each. We also offer various payment models, including Pay-As-You-Go.
Another error, which is a peculiar consequence, is the rejection of native cloud services and the use of our own virtual machine instances. This error is easy to make, because it seems that it will avoid binding to the vendor. However, it leads to the fact that companies reinvent the wheel, ignoring one of the main advantages of the clouds: high-quality services that can be created and used without additional settings.
No application dependency diagram
When migrating to the cloud, pay attention to the application dependency scheme. How they are related to each other and infrastructure in general. Present this scheme as a dependency map. If it turns out that several applications are accessing the same database, you need to work out a mechanism for the combined movement to the cloud. Otherwise, the application will fail.
For example, as they say at Hunterdon Medical Center, they made this mistake during the first migration of systems to the cloud. The staff did not conduct a deep analysis of the applications. The specialists transferred the mail system to the G Suite, but did not consider what the users needed from the old system, and did not analyze how it would behave in the new environment.
No migration plan
Before the migration, answer the following questions: what will you transfer to the cloud, in what order, when and for how much? Make a transfer plan.
Experts from the technology company DoubleHorn also advise to draw up a plan to resort to the help of third parties and consulting firms. They will help you find and apply best practices and avoid costly mistakes.
Forgot about security policies
Transferring infrastructure to the cloud often leads to incomplete security policies that are not consistent with new standards. All organizations have security requirements for user authorization, application setup, and system monitoring. These policies often do not change, but they must be strengthened when working with the cloud. Loren Hudziak of Google notes that organizations need to pay attention to security on all fronts in order to get all the benefits of cloud infrastructure.
Run without testing
Before migrating to the cloud, you need to choose a reliable and trusted hosting provider. About the subtleties of choice and what to look for, we told in one of our materials . Having chosen a cloud provider, request a test access to the cloud platform. Do the tests.
“If the client, by deploying the infrastructure, decides to install applications that do not support the cloud architecture and sharpened only for on-premise installation, failure is guaranteed,” said Ekaterina Yudina, project manager, content engineer of IT-GRAD. “To avoid this situation, the service provider offers the possibility of free and advanced testing.”
According to cloud providers, many organizations migrating to the cloud do not have an established recovery plan in the event of a disaster. And many of those who have it have never tested it.
When King County in Washington migrated a backup system to the cloud, they tested how data is transferred to the cloud. Everything worked well. However, they did not test their recovery. According to Temujin Baker, the head of application architecture, they did not take into account the specifics of working with the cloud when the service takes time to receive data.
Therefore, attention to detail and evaluation of results are important components of the migration process to the cloud. If you follow the established recommendations and act according to plan, the final result will be expected.
PS A few more materials on the topic from our blog:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/337834/
All Articles