A cloud-first application modernization strategy can open up a range of benefits for a business, including cost savings, agility in scaling, reduced downtime, security features and more. Leaders who have heard the phrase “lift and shift” may believe that implementing a cloud-first initiative is a simple matter of a few days’ work—but nothing could be further from the truth.
Engaging in careful planning and groundwork is the only way to realize the full benefits of the cloud—and avoid unpleasant surprises for leaders and end users. Below, members of Forbes Technology Council detail some of the essential considerations and steps that should precede the implementation of a cloud-first strategy.
1. Thoroughly Review The Current Application State
Successful cloud-first application modernization demands a thorough assessment of the current state of your applications. Approaching the effort with eyes wide open mitigates the risk of wasted resources and rework when issues are discovered late in the process. Keen planning and a thorough understanding of the current state can drive data-informed decisions that align with business goals and provide a smoother transition to the cloud. – Kim Bozzella, Protiviti
2. Assess The Business Value And Impact Of Each Application
Understanding the business value and impact of each application helps you prioritize those that can deliver the most significant benefits when modernized and moved to the cloud. Applications that are critical to business operations, drive significant revenue or enhance the customer experience should be given higher priority. – Erum Manzoor, Citigroup
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3. Evaluate Each Application’s Historical Landscape
The first step in a cloud-first application modernization strategy is evaluating each application’s historical landscape, including technologies, integrations and access flows. This assessment is crucial for deciding whether to migrate, rearchitect or replace applications with cloud services, ensuring a smooth transition and a well-documented strategy for moving from the current to the desired state. – Rajat Sharma, CWS
4. Optimize Your Current Architecture
Start by assessing and optimizing your current architecture. This ensures cloud compatibility and scalability and addresses security concerns. Implement a cloud-native data integration approach for seamless data flow across services. This strategy enhances efficiency, maintains data integrity and supports consistent governance. – Karan Jain, NayaOne
5. Gain Visibility Into Cost Through FinOps
Start with a solid FinOps capability that will give you visibility into the cost of remediating and/or lifting and shifting applications to the cloud. This foundation will help you frame your modernization and migration strategies based on a sound understanding of current and changing cloud economics. – Leonard Lee, neXt Curve
6. Implement Robust Data Governance And Security Frameworks
One essential step in a cloud-first application modernization strategy is implementing robust data governance and security frameworks. This ensures that big data and AI applications operate securely and comply with regulations. Effective data governance enhances data quality, reliability and privacy, enabling organizations to leverage AI effectively while protecting sensitive data. – Rohit Garg, Meta
7. Selectively Modularize And Move Features
Architectural modernization is key. Instead of lengthy full-system migrations, selectively modularizing domains and moving features to cloud-native architectures speeds development while maintaining business as usual. Architectural observability helps with incremental problem-solving by pinpointing technical debt hotspots and drift issues while addressing scalability and reliability concerns. – Moti Rafalin, vFunction Inc.
8. Take A Cloud-Native Approach
Taking a cloud-native data integration and management approach is key. This ensures seamless and efficient data flow across various cloud services and on premises. By leveraging modern data integration tools and practices, organizations can achieve real-time data synchronization, maintain data integrity and ensure consistent data governance. – Suri Nuthalapati, Cloudera
9. Understand What Shouldn’t Be Moved To The Cloud
An essential step in a cloud-first application strategy is to inventory all your business processes with the understanding that not everything is appropriate for a move to the cloud. Applications that are location-dependent or focused on security or regulatory requirements should not be moved to the cloud. – Kevin Beasley, VAI
10. Leverage Containerization
Containerization packages applications and dependencies into isolated units, ensuring portability across different environments, scalability and seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines. This promotes agility and faster times to market, enabling quick responses to changing business needs and technological advancements. – Ben Gebremeskel, TeckPath
11. Seek To Leverage New Business Models And Tech Innovations
Having worked on cloud application modernization over the past 15 years, I strongly believe the best choice in the current world is to look for a clean redevelopment that can leverage new business models and the latest tech innovations, such as generative AI and no-code applications. Too much has changed in business models and technology for us to drive while looking into the rearview mirror of legacy. – Ashok Balasubramanian, Open Weaver Inc.
12. Think About The Impact On End Users
One essential consideration is end-user impact. A running joke in application development is that users will complain about an interface being the wrong shade of blue. If you have too many banal interfaces or workflow changes, pushback from the end users and fellow executives can quickly derail the whole project. – Kevin Korte, Univention
13. Consider Data Gravity
An important but often-overlooked step in modernizing applications for the cloud is considering data gravity. This means understanding how your data attracts other services. Managing data gravity well helps your apps run faster, reduces delays and makes data handling more efficient. – Margarita Simonova, ILoveMyQA
14. Align Stakeholders Under A Clear Plan
It is important to initially discover, plan and validate business cases. The various roles within an organization—engineering managers, who are focused on talent; enterprise architects, who are focused on architecture and security; and finance teams, who are focused on total cost of ownership and ROI—must align under a clear plan. That ensures all critical factors are covered, aligning the modernization effort with business goals for robust outcomes. – Igor Epshteyn, Coherent Solutions
15. Balance Costs And Flexibility
You’ll need to balance controlling your costs with maintaining flexibility. A cloud-first application has many benefits, but it’s important to weigh the positives and negatives. Processes will change, and you may be at the mercy of a cloud computing company. You also have to prepare the team to move in that direction, which may mean reassessing and moving some roles around. – WaiJe Coler, InfoTracer
16. Implement Cloud Observability
One essential step in a cloud-first application modernization strategy is implementing cloud observability. This should include real-time monitoring, tracing and logging of applications across distributed environments. It’s crucial for optimizing resource usage and maintaining uptime. This proactive visibility enhances reliability, scalability and agility, driving overall business success. – Jabin Geevarghese George, Tata Consultancy Services
17. Quantify Savings Opportunities And Monitor Value Realization
To maximize the impact of cloud-first initiatives, an organization must approach cloud modernization from the dual perspectives of business and IT drivers. To optimize cloud value, it is essential to quantify savings opportunities and establish value realization governance. From an architectural perspective, it is essential to define a solution roadmap that ensures cloud-native technology options. – Igor Kiselev, Accenture
18. Make Sure You Have Access To The Needed Skills
Making sure that you have the right knowledge—whether in-house or through partners—is critical for the transition to a cloud-first strategy. Our team prioritizes training for existing staff to support learning and professional growth and build skills within our team. Forging solid partnerships with experts in cloud-first applications helps complete the knowledge needed for modernization. – Anne Kottmeier, Chemonics International
19. Look To Modernize Business Capabilities And Processes
Cloud-first application modernization is actually very much related to overall business strategy. Do you just modernize technology, or do you also use the process as a business transformation driver? This can be an opportunity to modernize your business capabilities and, often, completely change your processes to move toward digitally native user and customer experiences. – Luboslava Uram, Solvd Group
20. Be Mindful Of The Information You Reveal
Consider the security implications of adopting a cloud-first application strategy. Organizations often reveal too much about their use of cloud services, including exploitable information in domain name system records. An important practice is to maintain good DNS hygiene by removing obsolete DNS records when decommissioning cloud application vendors, which can prevent subdomain takeover attacks. – Ed Gibbs, WhoisXML API
