Why moving your mess to the cloud just makes it an expensive mess.
Author:Sambath Kumar Natarajan(Connect)Version:1.0
The Lift and Shift Trap (Rehost)
"We will move to the cloud first, and optimize later." Narrator: They never optimized later.
The Economics
- On-Prem: You pay for Capacity (Peak load). You bought the server, running it at 10% or 100% costs the same (electricity).
- Cloud: You pay for Usage. If you take a server designed for Peak Capacity and run it 24/7 in the cloud, you are paying a premium for capacity you aren't using.
The "Cloud Native" Gap
Cloud savings only come from Elasticity (Turning things off). Legacy apps don't know how to turn off. They allow stateful connections, local file storage, and hardcoded IPs. To get savings, you must Refactor (rewrite code), not just move VMs.
Migration Strategy
| Factor | Weight | Score | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code Access | 5 | 1 | If you can't edit the code, you can't be cloud native. |
| Traffic Variance | 4 | 5 | If traffic is flat, stay on-prem. Cloud is for spikes. |
| OpEx Preference | 3 | 5 | Does CFO prefer monthly bills over CapEx depreciation? |
Interactive Decision: Should you Lift & Shift?
Decision Node: root