Step 2: Choose your level of cloud integration

To move your legacy on-prem application to the cloud, you can migrate as a shallow cloud integration or a deep cloud integration.

Shallow cloud integration (aka “lift-and-shift”): Low risk, Low effort, Low cost. You are moving your app as is, or almost as is from your on-prem environment directly to the cloud (specifically to instantiated servers in the cloud). So there is no cloud unique services. Anything that you change to the app is minimal, just to get it up and running in the cloud.

Deep cloud integration: Here we are talking about making your application cloud native. This means you will be making changes to your app so that it can take advantage of modernized specific cloud capabilities. The most common ones that you might think of are: auto scaling, data storage, serverless computing (can be cost effective, allowing you to pay as you go). Deep cloud integration can be minimal to extensive, depending on your organizational goals.