Migrating Applications to the Cloud

Conclusion

Cloud migration is inevitable. This does not mean that all on-premises IT resources will move to the public cloud. It does mean that a majority of on-premises resources will move to a cloud context of some kind, be it an on-premises private cloud, a public cloud infrastructure service, public PaaS or SaaS services, or some melding of the two, such as an on-premises public-private cloud.

Enterprise applications are no different. The functions that on-premises ERP, SCM, HR, CRM, and other systems provide will move—in whole or in part—to ERP, SCM, HR, CRM, and other systems in the cloud. Count on it. So it is that the impending migration of these systems and the applications they support to a cloud context comprises a once-in-a-generation opportunity for vendors of every stripe—and not just for established on-premises players, but also dozens of different cloud-only providers. Under normal circumstances, it is staggeringly difficult to convince a large organization to move off of its core enterprise applications stack onto a comparable stack that is provided by another vendor. The systems themselves are so complex and so thoroughly interpenetrated with business operations as to constitute contextually immovable objects.

But cloud migration is an exception; it is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformation—for customers and vendors alike.

Cloud Is a Model of Shared Opportunity—and Responsibility

Cloud’s cost advantages are impossible to ignore, as are its advantages ...