Different Types of Cloud Migration: Approaches and Benefits

How can a move from on-premises infrastructure to a new environment cut costs, speed delivery, and protect customer experience all at once?

We guide business leaders and technical teams through clear migration strategies that match applications and data to the right providers, so teams see measurable benefits today. Our approach ties each move to cost control, risk reduction, and faster time to value, using cloud computing features like elasticity and managed services to modernize infrastructure.

We assess the current environment and build a roadmap that reduces uncertainty, clarifies responsibilities, and protects performance and security. By setting baselines and success metrics, we show post-move improvements in technical KPIs and business outcomes, and we embed FinOps and security-by-design to keep decisions financially and technically sound.

Key Takeaways

• We align migration strategies with business goals for clear value.
• Assessments map applications and data to optimal providers.
• Roadmaps reduce risk and keep operations running.
• Cost savings and agility come from optimization and managed services.
• Success metrics prove performance and customer experience gains.

Cloud migration today: why strategies matter for performance, costs, and agility

We connect business goals to clear migration strategies because modern enterprises process vastly more data than five years ago and face strong pressure to cut costs while improving service levels.

When teams treat a move as a simple rehost, operational costs can rise and performance can suffer. In the United States market, hybrid and multi-cloud realities demand careful workload placement across providers, with governance and cost visibility built in.

Aligning business goals with migration strategy and cloud computing models

We map workloads to the best-fit environment—public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud—so agility and resilience improve without runaway expenses. AI-driven planning and dependency mapping give accurate sizing and predictable performance.

Hybrid and multi-cloud realities in the United States market

Adoption unlocks specialized services but adds policy and billing complexity. FinOps integration, container-first patterns, and clear operating models keep teams accountable and protect customer experience.

Different types of cloud migration

Choosing the right move for each workload lets organizations reach benefits faster and with less disruption.

We use the six/seven Rs framework to map options—Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Retire, Retain, and the modern Relocate—so teams can match effort to value and risk.

When to mix strategies across applications and data

No single strategy fits every application or dataset; portfolios include legacy systems, cloud-native services, and heavy data platforms.

Fast moves like Rehost or Relocate cut time-to-cloud. Replatform and Refactor are better where optimization or cloud-native features deliver measurable gains.

• Repurchase suits SaaS-first replacements.
• Retire removes unused assets to lower costs.
• Retain keeps constrained systems on-premises until conditions change.

We recommend assessment-driven plans that score each workload by complexity, compliance, and business impact. Dependency mapping and APM baselines sequence work, reduce surprises, and protect mission-critical systems.

Approach	Speed	Modernization Level	Best-fit Outcome
Rehost / Relocate	High	Low	Quick cutover, minimal changes
Replatform	Medium	Medium	Targeted performance gains
Refactor	Low	High	Cloud-native agility and scale
Repurchase / Retire / Retain	Varies	Varies	SaaS adoption, cost pruning, or hybrid hold

For data-heavy workloads, we often favor native storage and analytics while taking a less disruptive route for adjacent applications. Combining Replatform for databases with serverless refactoring for event-driven components improves agility and keeps risk contained.

To learn more about assessment techniques and practical planning, see our guide on cloud migration planning.

Rehost and relocate: lift and shift, hypervisor moves, and their trade-offs

We favor pragmatic timelines, so when teams must move quickly they often choose a lift as an interim step that preserves service while a modernization roadmap is built.

Rehost (lift and shift): speed vs. higher operational costs and bottlenecks

Rehosting moves applications as-is for rapid cutover, and it usually delivers the fastest schedule.

Be aware: without follow-up optimization, rehosting can raise ongoing costs by 30–45% and introduce performance bottlenecks.

Relocate (hypervisor-level): VM portability without cloud-native gains

Relocate lifts VMs at the hypervisor layer using infrastructure-as-code and automated validation, improving portability across environments.

It preserves existing infrastructure constructs, but it rarely unlocks autoscaling or managed services that improve long-term agility.

Modernizing the lift with automation and APM baselining

We require pre-migration APM baselines for application and data flows to set measurable targets and speed post-move validation.

Automated discovery, dependency mapping, and test harnesses reduce risk and help right-size resources immediately, protecting customer experience.

• When to use a timed lift: regulatory deadlines, licensing limits, or data center exits.
• Next steps: plan containers, managed databases, and small optimizations like caching and autoscaling to curb costs.

Approach	Speed	Portability	Cloud benefits
Rehost	High	Low	Minimal
Relocate	High	Medium	Limited
Modernized lift	Medium	High	Partial (autoscale, managed services)

Replatform and refactor: reshaping applications for cloud performance

We prioritize high-impact changes that speed delivery while protecting user experience. By targeting core components first, we reduce risk and create measurable gains in performance and cost.

Replatform: lift and reshape for quick wins

Replatform focuses on container-first moves, managed databases, and configuration tuning to improve resource use by about 40% versus manual sizing. Kubernetes, GitOps, and service mesh enable consistent deployments, progressive rollouts, and rapid rollback.

Refactor and re-architect for scale

Refactoring decomposes monoliths into microservices or serverless functions to unlock elastic scaling and event-driven workflows. Adopting managed services for data, messaging, and observability reduces operational burden and speeds time to market.

AI-assisted translation and dependency mapping

AI-powered code analysis accelerates modernization by 40–60%, finding dependencies and modernizing interfaces while preserving business logic. Combining replatform for stateful components with serverless for stateless paths delivers incremental value and stronger architecture over time.

• Practical gains: right-sizing and autoscaling informed by real workloads so we pay only for demand peaks.
• Alignment: every change maps to business cases and migration strategies that improve release speed and resilience.

Repurchase, retire, retain: portfolio decisions that drive savings and focus

Practical choices about which assets to replace, retire, or keep let teams cut costs and speed delivery while keeping risk in check.

Repurchase to SaaS: TCO, data sovereignty, and integration considerations

Repurchasing replaces custom applications with SaaS to reduce management overhead and accelerate feature access. We weigh total cost of ownership, API quality, and data residency when evaluating candidates.

Key checks include vendor export capabilities, roadmap alignment, and contractual clauses that protect against lock-in.

Retire: cutting technical debt with usage analytics and dependency insights

Automated discovery and usage analytics reveal low-value applications. Retiring these systems shrinks scope, lowers costs, and frees resources for higher-impact work.

Dependency mapping ensures retirements do not break production flows and removes hidden risk.

Retain/revisit: hybrid patterns for compliance and on-premises requirements

When compliance, latency, or licensing constrain choices, we recommend retaining workloads on-premises while extending cloud control planes for unified policy and monitoring.

Clear success metrics—cost reduction, incident rates, and delivery speed—make outcomes visible to leadership and guide next steps.

Decision	Primary Benefit	Key Risk	When to choose
Repurchase (SaaS)	Lower ops overhead, faster feature access	Integration complexity, vendor lock-in	Standard workflows, strong APIs, clear TCO
Retire	Reduced technical debt and costs	Hidden dependencies if discovery is incomplete	Low usage, high maintenance, replacement available
Retain / Revisit	Compliance and latency control with unified management	Continued on-premises maintenance costs	Regulated data, specialized hardware, licensing limits

Modern approaches beyond the Rs: serverless, lakehouse, and container-first

Modern stacks embrace event-driven services, unified analytics, and container orchestration to speed delivery while reducing operational burden.

We recommend selecting patterns that match workload behavior and business goals, so teams get measurable gains in cost, agility, and reliability.

Serverless patterns for event-driven scalability

Serverless gives elastic, pay-per-execution efficiency, and pre-warmed instances can deliver sub-50ms response times for latency-sensitive paths, while step-function chaining handles longer jobs and stateful flows.

That approach can cut infrastructure costs by up to 60% and reduces operational toil, letting teams focus on features rather than servers.

Lakehouse strategy for analytics and AI

A lakehouse, built on open-table formats like Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, or Hudi, unifies streaming ingestion, ACID semantics, and time-travel for reliable training datasets and near-real-time analytics.

This architecture avoids large-scale data movement, simplifies governance, and speeds model iteration for AI initiatives.

Container-first with Kubernetes, service mesh, and GitOps

Container-first migrations using AKS/EKS, StatefulSets, and operators preserve state during cutover and have hit 99.95% uptime in production moves, while GitOps and service mesh provide policy-as-code, observability, and safe automated rollbacks.

We align serverless to spiky event streams, containers to complex services, and lakehouse to analytics workloads, creating a practical path from legacy systems to a resilient, future-ready architecture.

Key benefits of cloud migration for U.S. businesses

Moving workloads to modern platforms unlocks measurable business outcomes, from faster releases to resilient service delivery. We quantify gains and tie them to executive goals so teams see clear ROI and reduced operational risk.

Agility, scalability, and access from anywhere

Cloud lets teams bring new capacity online in minutes, enabling rapid iteration and broader access without losing control or compliance. Autoscaling and global services place workloads closer to users, smoothing peaks and improving performance.

Cost savings, decreased footprint, and disaster recovery

Subscription pricing, right-sizing, and reserved options can cut compute, network, and storage costs—sometimes by up to 66% with optimization. Reducing idle infrastructure lowers environmental impact, and cloud-based disaster recovery makes resilience affordable for small and mid-sized business across the United States.

Centralized security and improved operational efficiency

Centralized security offers continuous provider updates, identity controls, and encryption by default, simplifying audits and strengthening posture. Unified data access and tooling streamline operations, speed reporting, and improve delivery across distributed teams.

• Business outcomes include faster product cycles, better customer satisfaction, and clearer budget predictability.
• Governance and observability are essential to sustain these benefits and avoid operational drift.

Common challenges and risks in cloud migration

Transition windows create concentrated risk; careful sequencing and validation reduce surprises. We identify where downtime, data exposure, and interoperability gaps may emerge, and we build controls that keep customers and systems protected.

Downtime, data loss, and interoperability hurdles

Cutovers can cause service interruption unless teams use blue-green, canary, or phased patterns to keep traffic flowing. These patterns let us validate behavior while the legacy stack remains available.

Data must remain encrypted in transit and at rest, and strict identity controls prevent accidental exposure during high-volume transfers. Adapters and API gateways reduce disruption when legacy applications meet modern services.

Resource management, skills gaps, and monitoring complexity

Projects often stall from constrained resources or missing skills. We recommend targeted enablement, clear runbooks, and selective partners to speed capability building.

Continuous monitoring and observability are essential because port and policy shifts can create blind spots. Active scanning and alerting catch misconfigurations before they become incidents.

Security controls: IAM, encryption, and API hardening during transition

Least-privilege access, secrets management, and just-in-time elevation reduce attack surface during intense work. We also enforce rate-limiting and API hardening so new automation surfaces do not become entry points for attackers.

Acceptance criteria for readiness and exit ensure teams proceed only when requirements are met and risks are demonstrably controlled.

Risk	Impact	Mitigation
Downtime	Customer disruption	Blue-green, canary, phased cutover
Data exposure	Regulatory and reputational harm	Encryption, IAM, JIT access
Monitoring gaps	Undetected failures	Continuous observability and scans

Planning and governance: AI-driven assessment, FinOps, and security-by-design

A structured planning cadence, backed by AI insights, prevents surprises and keeps stakeholders aligned. We pair technical checks with financial rules, so each phase has clear requirements and measurable outcomes.

Assessment and planning

We set APM baselines and map workloads to the right migration strategies, so behavior before and after a cutover is comparable.

AI-driven analysis uncovers hidden dependencies and forecasts optimal placements, cutting unplanned downtime by up to 60%.

FinOps and cost governance

TCO modeling, tagging, and automated policies guide spend, and continuous cost simulation yields 20–30% savings when enforced from day one.

Security and compliance

We operationalize zero-trust with micro-segmentation, encryption, and just-in-time access, while policy-as-code automates compliance across providers and respects data sovereignty.

Sustainability and carbon-aware placement

Carbon-aware scheduling and right-sizing reduce emissions materially; region selection and load placement can cut carbon by up to 87% without degrading performance.

• Integrated monitoring and automated remediation detect drift early.
• Clear decision rights and iterative milestones keep delivery predictable.
• Every plan ties to requirements, costs, and data controls so organizations can govern at scale.

Focus	Outcome	Measure
Assessment	Predictable cutover	APM baselines
FinOps	Aligned spend	Cost simulation & tags
Security	Continuous compliance	Policy-as-code

Conclusion

A results-focused plan balances urgent moves with staged modernization so businesses capture savings and improve performance.

We recommend blending the 6/7 Rs with modern patterns—serverless, lakehouse, and container-first—guided by AI-driven assessment, FinOps rules, and zero-trust controls. This mix helps organizations meet requirements, protect data, and align resources to priority workloads.

Avoid naive lift-and-shift. Baseline application and data behavior, validate outcomes, and prove benefits with measurable KPIs.

Governance, compliance, and skills are core operational duties, not afterthoughts. We invite leaders to adopt an outcomes-first approach that delivers near-term wins and a steady path toward resilient architecture and lower costs.

FAQ

What are the main approaches organizations use when moving workloads to the cloud?

Organizations commonly choose from rehost (lift and shift), relocate (hypervisor-level moves), replatform (lift and reshape), refactor/re-architect, repurchase (move to SaaS), retire, or retain. Many teams mix these approaches per application and dataset to balance speed, cost, and operational goals.

How do we decide which strategy aligns with our business goals and performance needs?

Start with a business-focused assessment that maps applications to revenue impact, latency sensitivity, compliance needs, and integration complexity. Use APM baselines and workload profiling to match each system to the right migration pattern, then validate against cost models and target cloud architectures.

What trade-offs come with a lift-and-shift (rehost) move?

Lift-and-shift delivers fast migration and reduced project time, but it often leaves legacy operational costs and bottlenecks in place. Without refactoring, you may miss cloud-native scalability, automated resilience, and long-term cost savings, so plan for incremental modernization.

When is relocating VMs at the hypervisor level appropriate?

Relocate is useful when portability and minimal change are priorities—such as short-term migrations, datacenter exits, or disaster recovery setups. It preserves VM configurations but won’t unlock managed services or serverless benefits, so it’s usually an interim step.

What does replatforming typically involve and why choose it?

Replatforming optimizes specific elements—moving databases to managed offerings, containerizing apps, or updating runtime stacks—without full rewrites. It reduces operational overhead and improves performance while limiting development effort compared with full refactoring.

How does refactoring or re-architecting improve long-term outcomes?

Refactoring breaks monoliths into microservices, adopts serverless or managed services, and designs for scalability and resilience. That investment increases agility, lowers operational load over time, and enables faster feature delivery, though it requires higher upfront effort and skills.

What should we consider when repurchasing with SaaS replacements?

Evaluate total cost of ownership, data migration paths, integration APIs, vendor SLAs, and data residency rules. SaaS can reduce ops burden and speed time to value, but you must confirm security controls, compliance, and long-term extensibility.

How do we decide to retire or retain applications during a portfolio review?

Use usage analytics and dependency mapping to identify low-value, high-cost systems for retirement. Retain those that must stay on-premises for latency, regulatory, or legacy integration reasons, and schedule periodic revisits aligned with business priorities.

What modern patterns go beyond the classic Rs and when should we adopt them?

Serverless, data lakehouse architectures, and container-first approaches (Kubernetes with service mesh and GitOps) are ideal when you need event-driven scaling, unified data pipelines for AI, and portable delivery pipelines. Adopt these where they directly enable business outcomes.

What are the primary benefits U.S. businesses gain from migration?

Key gains include faster time to market through agility, on-demand scalability, remote access for distributed teams, better disaster recovery, reduced datacenter footprint, and centralized security management that improves operational efficiency.

What common risks should we mitigate during a move?

Plan to reduce downtime and data loss through tested migration runs, address interoperability between legacy and cloud services, close skills gaps with training or partners, and implement robust monitoring to prevent hidden performance regressions.

Which security controls are essential during migration?

Enforce identity and access management (IAM), encryption in transit and at rest, API hardening, and least-privilege principles. Apply policy-as-code for consistent controls, and design with zero-trust principles to reduce exposure during transition.

How do assessment, FinOps, and governance fit into migration planning?

Use AI-assisted discovery and APM baselines to map workloads, run TCO models and tagging strategies for FinOps, and embed security-by-design in your migration plan. Continuous cost optimization and policy-driven governance keep operations sustainable post-move.

Can we use AI tools to accelerate code translation and dependency mapping?

Yes, AI-assisted tools can analyze code bases, suggest refactoring paths, and surface dependency graphs that shorten planning and development timelines, though human validation remains critical for architecture and compliance decisions.

How should sustainability and carbon-aware placement influence migration choices?

Incorporate carbon metrics into placement and scheduling decisions, prefer greener data regions and efficient managed services, and optimize resource usage with autoscaling and right-sizing to reduce emissions and costs over time.