Google Cloud: Application Modernization

Where to Start The Modernization Journey

Google Cloud engaged the CTO Advisor to test Google’s automated assessment tooling. Is it enough to build an application modernization program?

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Where to Start The Modernization Journey

Google Cloud engaged the CTO Advisor to test Google’s automated assessment tooling. Is it enough to build an application modernization program?

Learn More

Developers are a finite resource

To get the most out of public cloud migration, applications must be tailored to leverage the new underlay. However, developers are focused on creating new applications vs. updating legacy code.

The Challenge

Can operations leverage automation to replace developers?

With hundreds or thousands of applications within a given landscape, can operators leverage automation tools such as Google MFIT to identify a set of common low-level modernization steps during a large-scale data center to cloud migration?

The Challenge

Can operations leverage automation to replace developers?

What types of applications can automation cover?

It’s not reasonable to think automation can cover every migration scenario. Google Cloud partner SADA has noted some 3000-plus cloud application use cases. What types of applications fall within the capabilities of MFIT and the supporting tooling?

Where to next?

The scope of the CTOA project with Google cloud is somewhat limited by the size of the CTO Advisor environment. What lessons could be applied to larger environments looking to migrate large numbers of diverse applications to the public cloud?

Where to next?

The Goal

Identify the gap

The CTOA team wants to understand the scope of the challenge. The project will deliver concrete examples of technical skills needed to modernize a sample application migration using Google automated tooling.

Identify the edges

At the end of the project, organizations will have a sense of what applications are “low-hanging fruit” and what applications require developer assistance. Another consideration is what applications may be retired. The fastest app migration is the one you don’t have to move.

Filling the gap

Regardless of the automation capabilities, IT leaders are challenged to migrate as much of the landscape as possible. An outcome of the project includes identifying additional resources and the next steps for applications outside the scope or capabilities of automation technologies.

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Migration Journey and Tools

Before talking about tools, you must identify a process. The CTO Advisor has developed a high-level framework for any migration journey. Below is a high-level breakdown of the journey.

App Rationalization

Understanding what applications will be kept and which will be replaced by SaaS solutions. Today, this is a manual process with the engagement of professional services.

Assessment

This is where our engagement with Google started. During this phase, we ask and answer questions about the level of effort needed to modernize applications and the potential landing zone for applications. Google’s MFIT sits in the space.

Dependency mapping is also performed during this phase. We haven’t encountered a complete tool in determining dependency mapping, as dependency is tied to both business processes and system interaction. It’s best to leverage professional services for end-to-end dependency mapping.

App Remediation Preparation

An output of MFIT might be needed configuration changes for applications. Both automated and manual configuration changes occur during this phase of the journey. An example is changing database configuration or identifying static IP addresses. A combination of tools may be used, including Ansible, VMware vRealize, and manual interventions. This is a heavy lift as some configuration changes may require developer assistance.

Migration

Scheduling move groups is the first part of the migration process. Move groups are based on dependencies and service level agreements (SLA).

Executing the migration includes the low-level tasks of performing virtual machine-to-virtual machine migrations (V2V), migrating to native cloud services such as cloud databases, and moving application processes to containers.

Optimization

While the goal of the application modernization is to get to a minimally viable environment, there’s a need to continue optimizing the new cloud environment. Optimizations can be found in cost, performance, developer experience, and operations. More to come on this phase in future research.

Making Application Modernization Real

Google Cloud Video Series

Defining the scope of automated assessment

Hearing from the Google Product team

The results of CTOA’s App Modernization

View GCP Video Series

Google Cloud Migrate to Containers

Thanks to the GCP for sponsoring the initial version of the CTO Advisor Application Modernization Journey. To read more about Google Anthos Migrate check out the below links.