Moving to the cloud: Workload migration techniques and approaches

The paper presents an important aspect of cloud computing technology, namely migrating enterprise level workloads to a cloud environment, without re-architecting or re-engineering the existing applications. How readily an application can be lifted and shifted onto a cloud platform depends on factors like nature of the application, the type of cloud etc. In this respect, the paper explores the methodology of migrations along with the challenges and issues that usually acts as a barrier for organizations trying to pursue this goal. An effort is also made to see how the cloud migration framework maps to the cloud Computing Reference Architecture model. Finally, a set of migration patterns which span the continuum from legacy IT environment to the cloud are included as a common framework for aligning the various migration approaches developed in support of using cloud as a delivery paradigm.