Migration of an on-premise application to the Cloud

Abstract

Cloud computing has recently became a widely discussed topic in the IT industry. More and more organizations consider using the Cloud, because it enables an easy and cost efficient way of hosting applications, with dynamic scaling and geographical distribution possibilities. Still, it is not clear how and when cloud computing should be used. Existing application are often written in a way that does not really fit a cloud environment well. Also, certain quality attributes (e.g. performance, security or portability) can be affected. More studies are needed on how existing systems should be plugged into the Cloud and what are the consequences of the migration. This thesis aims to share experience and observations we gained from adopting cloud computing for an on-premise enterprise application in a context of a small software company. Our study produced several valuable results. First, main cloud computing opportunities and challenges were identified. Second, biggest cloud platforms were studied and compared. Third, a cloud prototype was developed based on the existing system. Finally, this prototype was used to evaluate the behavior of similar systems in two environments (on-premise and the Cloud) and under different conditions in the Cloud, addressing such concerns as performance and cost.