Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud Migration Opportunities to Be Aware of in 2019

We've reached the stage in cloud's evolution that companies have experience in migrating core enterprise applications such as AS/400-based ERP systems to the cloud.
Bill Kleyman
February 07, 2019

I’ve now been a part of a lot of DevOps projects. I’ve seen entire DevOps practices migrated into the cloud and entire legacy ball of mud applications transformed from monolith to microservices. However, it’s the fringe projects that I’ve found to be really interesting. These include deep integration around data ingestion, IoT development, and massive mainframe and ERP systems.

Over the past year, I’ve seen several customers and industries explore and even begin to move some of their legacy environments into the cloud. For example, migrating a part or your entire SAP ecosystem onto Google Cloud Platform, or, moving your entire Oracle ecosystem into the cloud. Finally, working with massive IBM AS/400 architectures and moving (or refactoring) those components into the cloud.

There are several reasons as to why so many organizations have hesitated in moving or modernizing these systems. Reasons include:

  • Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Let’s be honest, not a lot of people have done this. And, it can be scary to move your entire business engine into the cloud. There aren’t a lot of use-cases, and moving these platforms can be really risky. Many organizations simply can’t afford this multi-million-dollar experiment.
  • Complexity. Some AS/400 systems have been in place for years; even decades. Know what? They work. The same goes for massive ERP systems. Many organizations are ingrained in working with their SAP solution, but only on premise.
  • Cost and Investment. Some enterprises have invested millions, and even tens of millions of dollars into their ERP and mainframe systems. They have put in years of development, investment in infrastructure, contracts, personnel, and so much more. You’d need to show some real ROI to even consider moving these systems to the cloud.

Now for some good news. Organizations are realizing that to disrupt a digital-driven market, they must themselves be disrupted. This means breaking traditional deployment paradigms and looking at ways to migrate mainframes and even ERP systems into the cloud. Or, looking ways powerful hybrid solutions can help.

Read the rest of this article at InformationWeek.

Tags:

News
Cloud Infrastructure