The Cloud Illusion – Why “Lift & Shift” is Holding You Back
When most enterprises begin their cloud journey, they treat it like a move from one data center to another. A quick “Lift & Shift”, and they’re done.But here’s the hard truth is that Lift & Shift doesn’t transform your business it just relocates your problems. At DPHI INNOVATIONS, we believe that migrating to the cloud should be more than a logistical exercise. It should be a strategic reinvention of how your workloads, data, and architectures operate in a cloud-native world.
Why the “Lift & Shift” Trap is Dangerous
Higher Costs – Legacy workloads ported directly to the cloud often result in underutilized compute, excessive storage costs, and unnecessary licensing fees.
Performance Bottlenecks – Applications not designed for the cloud may struggle with latency, throughput, and reliability.
Limited Scalability – The promise of elasticity evaporates when workloads are constrained by outdated architectural patterns.
Rethinking Cloud Adoption: What Actually Works. It’s time to adopt a deliberate and design-first approach to cloud. Here’s how: Workload Dissection
Before moving anything, classify your workloads:
Which ones can be modernized or replaced? Which should remain on-prem or in a hybrid model due to regulatory or latency constraints. Cloud is not one-size-fits-all.
Go Beyond IaaS
Stop treating the cloud like rented servers. Embrace serverless, containers, and SaaS-first architectures. Leverage managed services to offload infrastructure concerns. If you’re still managing VMs in the cloud, you’re missing the point.
Data Gravity & Latency Matter
Where your data lives can make or break your cloud strategy: Co-locate data with compute. Use edge services, data lakes, and streaming architectures to ensure low-latency and real-time access. Don’t move everything to the cloud. Move strategically.
Understanding the Migration Spectrum
Too many strategies treat cloud like a binary switch: on-prem vs. cloud. But in reality, migration is a spectrum:
1-Step (Rehosting / Lift & Shift)
Pros: Fast, low risk
Cons: Not cloud-optimized, costly in the long run
2-Step (Re-platforming)
Pros: Better performance, cost savings
Cons: More complex, higher effort
Other Strategies:
· Refactor – Redesign apps for cloud-native advantages
· Retire – Decommission obsolete workloads
· Replace – Switch to SaaS alternatives
· Retain – Keep workloads on-prem where appropriate
How is your current cloud strategy serving you? Are you gaining agility - or just trading one box for another? Drop your thoughts in the comments or connect with us to learn how we’re helping enterprises break the mold.
