11 Steps to Successfully Modernize Your Organization's Applications for the Cloud

1. Inventory Your Applications

Application modernization is a process, not an event. Many cloud-native apps have been developed for the cloud, but there are also legacy applications that need to be migrated to this new environment. It can be challenging to decide what cloud architecture will work best for your organization and how you should go about migrating all your existing data. We are sharing our most often cited 11 steps towards developing a cloud strategy where organizations can modernize their application and infrastructure operations by moving their applications from on-premises servers to hybrid cloud and public cloud architectures.

2. Determine Your Cloud Strategy

Once you know what applications you’re working with, it’s time to decide what cloud strategy would work best for your organization. Do you want to go all-in on the cloud? Or will a hybrid cloud model be more beneficial? This is an important step and needs careful consideration as the decisions made here can affect every process moving forward.

3. Identify Your Application’s Limitations

It is critically important to identify an application’s limitations and use that information when deciding on cloud architecture moving forward. For example: if your cloud-native app has limited functionality because of data locality, that will define the path to modernization and migration for you. This is where dependencies must be uncovered and documented, and some may be found the hard way. Be prepared to discover the “unknown unknowns” about your applications and set your strategy to deal with those limitations to be successful.