Table of Contents:
Get Ready for Cloud Migration
It's time to take the plunge into our Cloud Migration Use Case! Before you get started, a few steps are necessary for proper preparation and configuration. Get ready – Cloud Migration is just around the corner!
Have you read our Introduction to Cloud Migration?
Before You Start
The Cloud Migration Use Case builds your inventory using data from other Use Cases, supplemented with additional data on the application component. We recommend completing the prerequisite Use Cases before making a data-driven decision about which applications to rationalize. These are:
It is important to note that cloud migration uses fields from each of these Use Cases. Data for the measurements and indicators discussed below may not be available if not all Use Cases have been applied.
However, Use Case Bundles serving different business aspects can have differing characteristics amongst the pre-configured components, such as fields or reports. As a result, you might meet some challenges when loading Use Case Bundles on top of each other, with some fields missing or reports/presentations not displaying correctly. Below is an example of the type of message that can be displayed:
See this document for more details.
Be aware that your organization will need a team member to modify Ardoq's configuration (metamodels, fields, broadcasts, and reports). Ardoq admins are typically responsible for this activity.
Data from the use cases listed above are leveraged and evaluated as part of Ardoq's Use Case for cloud migration.
By combining this existing application component data with data collected for, and assigned to, new fields such as Strategic Rating, Migration Strategy, and Metrics the Architect can take decisions and make recommendations about which applications are the most suitable for migration to a cloud environment.
Ultimately Cloud Migration decisions will be based on four factors:
Suitability (which is captured by the application’s strategic rating)
Structural Complexity (indication of connected infrastructure)
Migration Strategy
Cost
Once calculated the resultant values are presented in Cloud Migration dashboards, reports, and visualization to aid decision-making and strategy.
Changes to the Metamodel
Ardoqs's approach to Cloud Migration uses a number of fields in the standard metamodel and a number of new fields that must be created and populated or calculated.
The Application fields' Business Value, Technical Fit, and Migration Fields have an explicit connection to Business Capabilities and consider the capability's market differentiation.
These are combined with new fields Strategic Rating, Migration Strategy, and Metrics to drive the decision-making process for candidate selection.
Below you will find a list of the fields used for cloud migration, which Use Case they come from, and their type:
Field | Use Case | Existing / New |
Strategic Rating | Cloud Migration | New |
Business Value | Existing | |
Technical Fit | Existing | |
Migration Fields | Cloud Migration | New |
Metrics | Cloud Migration | New |
Total Realized Capabilities | Existing | |
Total Combined Infrastructure | Existing | |
Total Integrations | Existing | |
Market Differentiation | Existing | |
Total Cost | Existing |
Field descriptions
Field | Type | Description | Definition |
Recommended Migration Strategy | Calculated List | Field provides a recommendation based on Strategic Rating and Supplemental data (if necessary). | Calculated Recommendation (list) consistent with Amazon 6Rs: Rehost, Refactor, Replatform, Repurchase, Retain, and Retire. |
Migration Strategy | List | Architect validated field, based on insight and the recommended migration strategy. | Dropdown list with options consistent with Amazon 6Rs: Rehost, Refactor, Replatform, Repurchase, Retain, and Retire. |
SaaS Alternative | List | Survey questions to application owners of applications with a strategic rating of Migrate on whether or not there is a viable SaaS alternative. This will determine whether the recommendation is to rehost or repurchase. | Survey responses are Yes / No |
Performance Outages | List | Survey questions to application owners of hardware and applications owners to determine the number of outages of an application over a specified time. | Survey responses with value |
The following is the Gremlin Code that calculates a value for the field values to the target component Recommended Migration Strategy. The code checks the fields: Strategic Rating, if necessary, SaaS Alternative, and Business Capability: Market Differentiation.
g.V(ids).
project('id', 'name', 'value').
by(id).
by('name').
by(choose(has('strategic_rating','Eliminate'),constant('Retire'),
choose(has('strategic_rating','Invest'),constant('Refactor'),
choose(has('strategic_rating','Tolerate'),constant('Retain'),
choose(has('hosting_type','Cloud'),constant('Retain'),
choose(has('hosting_type','SaaS'),constant('Retain'),
choose(has('hosting_type','3rd Party'),constant('Retain'),
choose(and(has('strategic_rating','Migrate'),has('saa_s_alternative','Yes')),constant('Repurchase'),
choose(and(has('strategic_rating','Migrate'),has('saa_s_alternative','No')),constant('Rehost'),
constant('Validation Required')
))))))))) |
After identifying applications to Migrate, the Cloud Migration bundle will prepopulate a recommended migration strategy for architects to manually validate as a migration strategy property. The recommended migration strategy property is based on Amazon’s 6Rs.
Presentations & Dashboards
New charts, reports, dashboards, and presentations are used to aid and visualize the decision-making process for Cloud Migration. These can be seen in the following:
However, as for any Use Case, the value of these charts, reports, and dashboards is only as good as the completeness and quality of the relevant data.
The Cloud Migration Data Quality Dashboard provides information relating to the completeness of the application portfolio. It identifies gaps in data quality associated with the essential use cases required to facilitate Cloud Migration. Cloud Migration is difficult if you start with poor or incomplete application data. For details, please see the Cloud Migration Guide.
Once complete and you have good-quality data in Ardoq you can visualize the impact of cloud migration through the development of scenarios, especially as scenarios can be bolstered with target architectures.
Scenarios allow you to compare the as-is state of your application deployment and contrast that against a potential to-be state which is based on your migration strategy.
With a complete data set, you can start triaging cloud migration candidates to narrow down and prioritize potential opportunities.
The Use Case bundle provides an example prioritization criterion that combines the strategic rating with an application’s end-of-life date to focus on applications that need short-term contract renewal. Once your applications have been assigned a strategic rating and triaged you need to decide whether to develop a business case for migrating your applications.
For more information, please see the Cloud Migration Guide.
Reports
Within the cloud migration Use Case, several value reports surface different types of insights. Below you can see some examples of these reports, and you can decide which ones will be relevant to your business and your outcome:
There are two reports which are key to the cloud migration Use Case:
CM - SaaS Migration Opportunities Report is a curated report to surface your applications that are candidates for SaaS replacement. You can use this query to recreate this report in your instance:
g.V().
hasLabel('Application','Application Module').
filter(
has('migration_strategy', 'Repurchase')) |
CM - Cloud Migration Opportunities Report is a curated report to surface your applications that are candidates for cloud migration. You can use this query to recreate this report in your instance.
g.V().
hasLabel('Application').
or(
has('recommended_migration_strategy', 'Rehost'),
has('recommended_migration_strategy', 'Replatform'),
has('recommended_migration_strategy', 'Repurchase')
) |
Support
Whether you are a new or an experienced customer, our technical support team will be available to help you overcome any knowledge or technical hurdles throughout the migration process. In Ardoq, select 'Chat with us'.