Big data refers to a huge volume of data that is still growing exponentially, for example, Facebook‘s data. Every day, Facebook receives and collects data on every user, in addition to growing the number of users. Every photo and video that is uploaded, is stored somewhere on Facebook’s servers. To put this into perspective, users are uploading 350 million new photos each day to Facebook.
When Facebook first started and they did not support such a huge number of users, Zuckerberg could manage the database locally using a few computers from home. However, as Facebook exploded and their data grew exponentially, they had to find an efficient system to store and manage this data.
There are a lot more examples like Facebook, who have a huge volume (and growing) of data that need a solution to manage it. The best option is to go to a cloud-based solution, managed by an expert in data storage.
Why You Should Move Big Data to the Cloud
While it may seem like a headache to migrate big data to the cloud, there are many benefits to consider. Cloud storage offers you disaster recovery. In order to cope with a disaster, your data needs to be backed up remotely, and clouds offer this feature. Moreover, Clouds are usually more secure than your own servers, as dedicated professionals are in charge of the security aspect.
Especially when it comes to big data, you want to be able to scale your storage capabilities quickly and in a cost-efficient way. Clouds offer almost unlimited scalability, and you can increase your storage capabilities on very short notice. It is also substantially cheaper to store your data in the cloud, as you do not need to deal with the extensive costs associated with managing, repairing and updating your own servers as well as renting the space in which to store the servers.
While choosing whether or not to migrate data to the cloud may be an easy choice, there are cloud migration strategies to consider when dealing with big data.
Cloud Migration Strategies for Big Data
There are three main types of cloud migration strategies: lift and shift, technical migration and application migration.
Lift and shift
Lift and shift is a strategy in which you move your application as it is to a different hosting environment. It keeps the operation system, database, and application properties. This strategy is easy to employ because the main change is the environment hosting your application rather than doing a change directly to the application.
The downside to using this strategy is that you are not necessarily using cloud resources in the most efficient way. Nevertheless, this is a good place to start for a business that is just starting to migrate from their own servers to the cloud.
Technical migration
A technical migration involves keeping your application properties but changing the operating system and the database in order to use the cloud benefits. This strategy is usually adopted in order to take advantage of certain features innate in the cloud such as scalability and automation.
Sometimes you have no choice but to use a technical migration. This happens when the cloud to which you are migrating, uses a different operating system. Conducting a technical migration will also prepare your IT department for application migration.
Application migration
This is the most technically complex migration to the cloud. There are three different methods for application migrations.
The first method is implementing a new system. Sometimes you want to build your application in a more efficient way, with more documentation rather than keeping an old legacy code that was invented for a different need. Implementing a new system will make you change the way this application is build to ensure the delivery of your strategic business needs.
Another approach is using system conversion, which involves upgrading your system to fit the new landscape in the cloud. Thus, as you move to a new upgrade system, you can use more automation. In turn, this will make your system more efficient and your technical teams can focus on other goals.
Landscape transformation is the most general application migration. It combines system conversion, which means upgrading your system and increasing automation, to changing the structure of your landscape.
Other Considerations When Migrating Big Data to the Cloud
Use an expert
It is imperative to use an expert when you are moving big data to the cloud. Preferably, a cloud migration architect. This is a technical professional who is responsible for the planning and execution of the migration to the cloud. Moving big data is a complex task, and the expert needs to understand your own architecture as well as the cloud capabilities and needs to determine in what way the data will be hosted by the cloud.
Choose the type of cloud strategy
Once you have decided to migrate to the cloud, you need to identify what cloud strategy you want to adopt. You can either use a single cloud or a multi-cloud. You should address the number of platforms you want to run, do your applications need to run in only one environment or in multiple?
Generally, it is a good idea to use a multi-cloud strategy because it prevents vendor lock-in, meaning you will have more flexibility to move to a different vendor if you need to. Additionally, it allows you to take advantage of the best features of each cloud. The disadvantage to this strategy is that it increases the complexity and can be slightly more expensive as you will have at least two vendors.
Conclusion
Your data is one of the most valuable assets and should be securely stored and managed. This can be an especially complex task when it comes to big data, due to the sheer volume with which you are dealing.
At some point, you will have no choice but to move your big data to the cloud. When that time comes, you can use any of the data migration strategies outlined above to meet your business needs.
