Cloud Migration Security (Part 1)： Gartner's 5R Security Migration Model

The difference in cloud adoption rates between Chinese and European-American enterprises is significant, and domestic users still have doubts

From the perspective of cloud platform popularity, by the end of 2018, the cloud adoption rate of enterprises in China was about 43.9%, an increase of 8.9% compared to 2017. Compared with the cloud adoption rate of 85% in the United States and 70% in the European Union, there is still a half gap. But it also indicates that there is still great potential for development in the Chinese cloud computing market.

For industry professionals, internet companies, and the security circle, cloud computing may not be unfamiliar, but for most people, the cloud is still a foreign concept. Now everything is stable, why would one want to leave the comfort zone to try something unknown? This is the thinking of most small and medium-sized enterprises at present.

Figure 1: Cloud Platform Usage by Enterprises in China in 2018 (Source: 'China Enterprise Cloud Adoption Index (2018)')

At its root, it is mainly due to the fact that cloud computing providers currently lack or have insufficiently comprehensive user migration to cloud and application integration use cases, and are unable to help enterprises migrate to the cloud quickly and switch seamlessly. This is also a pain point in the global cloud computing market. No matter how beautiful the future of the cloud is described by cloud providers, the various problems accompanying migration are all at a loss, and this situation is not something that most enterprises would take the risk of (even AWS and Azure are facing this problem as well).

Figure 2: AWS Compatibility with Traditional Systems

(Source: 'AWS Cloud Security Report (2019)', Cybersecurity Insiders)

On the other hand, the private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud markets are chaotic now, mainly due to the fact that no cloud can provide all the services and tools needed by enterprises (mainly integrating enterprise applications with good compatibility). This forces enterprises to adopt multi-cloud deployment, increasing system complexity and making management increasingly difficult.

At the same time, enterprises also have to face new problems with new technologies and environments. For example, a lack of employees with cloud operations and management experience, cloud security, cloud compliance, and cloud data privacy issues. This is also one of the reasons why enterprises (especially small and medium-sized enterprises) are reluctant to take this step.

Figure 3: Barriers Faced by Enterprises in Cloud Adoption

(Source: 'AWS Cloud Security Report (2019)', Cybersecurity Insiders)

The AWS migration method, although not perfect, is currently well-received by users in Europe and the United States

AWS has not completely solved this problem, but it is currently the best cloud service provider in this regard. Amazon has been building its own cloud ecosystem, from attracting customers, offering discounts to customers, customer benefits, to retaining customers, keeping them in their own Shangri-La. This requires various preferential policies, complete supporting facilities, and meeting customer needs at all times, which is not the focus of this article. In the future, I will analyze Amazon's financial market strategy if there is an opportunity. Below is a set of strategies for users to migrate to the cloud that AWS currently offers - the 6R migration strategy.

AWS utilizes cloud computing services to create an effective, automated, and scalable dynamic computing environment. However, migrating to the cloud is a challenging task for customers. Regardless of the considerations of the company, whether it is to reduce costs, improve resource utilization, benefit from new infrastructure capabilities, or for other benefits, a deep understanding of this model may help the organization's application to choose which 'R' to adopt. The '6R' model describes an effective method for a successful migration to AWS.

Figure 4 AWS 6Rs migration strategy

(Source: Intraway)

The early 5R model proposed by Gartner

Gartner released the '5R' model as early as 2010, defining all available options for migrating a specific application to the cloud. That is, Rehost, Refactor, Revise, Rebuild, and Replace. Before understanding AWS's 6R strategy, it is necessary to get familiar with Gartner's 5R migration model first.

Rehost (also known as Lift and Shift, migrating without modification) is a method to migrate systems/applications from the local environment to the cloud environment without any modification. This strategy requires minimal risk and work. At the same time, it reduces infrastructure and operational costs. In the long run, it is beneficial to the enterprise, as it will encourage companies to adopt a cloud-first approach and continuously expand cloud skills in their business. Personally, I think this is what most enterprises expect at present, and it is also what AWS wants to improve, especially in the process of migrating legacy systems, where most clouds cannot well兼容 systems and applications. So far, the best one is still AWS.

Refactor (also known as Re-architect, refactoring for cloud migration) is a method to convert non-cloud applications into cloud-based applications. It requires a thorough transformation (re-design) of the application to adapt to the cloud environment. Those who wish to modify their applications and infrastructure from a single architecture to a service-oriented (or serverless) architecture for enterprise can adopt this strategy to improve agility or business continuity, and maximize operational cost efficiency in the cloud. Personally, I believe this approach is generally suitable for new systems or large companies, as they have the financial resources to make significant initial investments. However, as the system goes into operation, one will gradually experience the advantages and benefits of the cloud, and the operating costs will be significantly lower compared to the local environment.

Revise (also known as Re-platform, involving migration with minor modifications) is the migration according to the original system design, while also performing minor version updates. This strategy does not optimize much before migrating to cloud computing (because optimization may not be suitable for the new environment), such as switching from self-managed infrastructure to managed services, or from commercial software to open-source software. By migrating to database as a service platforms (such as Amazon RDS) or migrating the system to a fully managed platform (such as Amazon Elastic Beanstalk), the time spent managing database instances can be minimized, saving a lot of time and human resources for the company to focus on more critical tasks. This method can help the company bridge the gaps in professional skills, insufficient operations personnel, and insufficient security personnel, and no longer worry about operations and security issues, allowing the company to focus entirely on its business.

Retire (migration of irrelevant applications) refers to some redundant applications (extra or non-essential applications) that may exist during the cloud migration process. These can be shut down or not migrated to save costs. The saved money can be used to enhance business cases, direct the team's attention to issues that everyone is concerned about, and at the same time, reduce the company's exposure to the cloud. In other words, spend money where it counts, and don't waste money unnecessarily.

Retain (refusing migration due to high cost or mandatory requirements) belongs to the situation where the local business system has made substantial investments, the system is in an active stage, the version iteration is fast, or the system requires strong hardware support (it may not be able to meet the needs provided by the cloud or the investment may be higher than that of local deployment). Moreover, if the existing system is running well and the corporate data is not suitable for external systems, in these cases, the company can consider migrating when necessary, otherwise, it is best to continue with the localized deployment and not blindly follow the trend.

Amazon has adopted this model and expanded it to 6R: Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Retire, Retain. We will introduce it to you in the next article.