cloud migration

AWS Expands Hybrid Services, Aims to Meet All Hosting Environments

Until recently, organizations that wanted to host some data on-premises and the rest in the Cloud had few options that are truly seamless. Microsoft’s Azure has dominated the market for hybrid data management, but that’s changing. AWS now offers choices such as Outposts to make migrating to a AWS environment faster and smoother.

Although many businesses are looking to move all their data to the Cloud, there are reasons this isn’t always possible. Latency, security and regional data storage standards sometimes demand local hosting. To try to route around this, some companies have used Amazon’s Snowball Edge data migration hardware as a semi-permanent storage device.

Outposts, set to be available later this year, aims to provide a permanent environment to address these needs. Customers can choose to use their familiar VMWare environment, or use a native variant that offers the same operation as AWS Cloud services.

The trend toward seamless data migration and management moves forward, and the extra competition may yield even more options to come.

Cloud Migration: Your Options Are Heating Up

In 2019, there are plenty of reasons for organizations to start migrating their data from local servers to the Cloud. Less than a year from now, Microsoft will end support for any server running Windows 7. The federal government’s recent adoption of the “Cloud Smart” strategy provides better guidance to allow major agencies to finally move their data to a format with better efficiency and security.

This means that cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft’s Azure are pushing to meet the needs of even the most complicated migrations. Each has its own benefits, and the right one may depend on what you have now.

Cloud Migration Tools

When you decide to migrate, you need to choose a platform that will complete the migration and host your data. The most popular options offer many features in common, such as:

  • Standardized tools for provisioning and management

  • Seamless transition with little or no downtime

  • Options to migrate from one database environment to another

  • Geographic redundancy without the work of a DIY solution

From there, the individual benefits of each platform can vary significantly. Be sure to explore each one before making a choice.

AWS

Migrating using AWS is designed to be quick and simple. One of its major advantages is the number of native tools available. This means that you don’t need to install drivers or special plug-ins to begin. Amazon has cultivated a partnership with VMware and RackSpace to assist with migration from these popular source platforms.

GCP

At this point, the GCP environment for migration is notably a collaborative effort with a variety of migration partners. In its effort to catch up to Amazon and Microsoft, Google is acquiring third-party companies offering solutions that help them compete. This could mean that their services will expand more dramatically over time. It might also require additional work to set up certain environments.

Microsoft’s Azure

Azure aims to make migration easy to get up to speed, particularly if you want to keep some of your data local. With Azure, businesses can expect to see an environment similar to what they already have, which means less training needed to use the new tools.

If you are running Windows 7 at your local data center, you know it is time to migrate. Otherwise, you can look to the innovation and competition between these platforms as a reason to investigate your options and make the choice that works best for you.