Migrating to Cloud-Native Architectures Using Microservices: An Experience Report

Migration to the cloud has been a popular topic in industry and academia in recent years. Despite many benefits that the cloud presents, such as high availability and scalability, most of the on-premise application architectures are not ready to fully exploit the benefits of this environment, and adapting them to this environment is a non-trivial task. Microservices have appeared recently as novel architectural styles that are native to the cloud. These cloud-native architectures can facilitate migrating on-premise architectures to fully benefit from the cloud environments because non-functional attributes, like scalability, are inherent in this style. The existing approaches on cloud migration does not mostly consider cloud-native architectures as their first-class citizens. As a result, the final product may not meet its primary drivers for migration. In this paper, we intend to report our experience and lessons learned in an ongoing project on migrating a monolithic on-premise software architecture to microservices. We concluded that microservices is not a one-fit-all solution as it introduces new complexities to the system, and many factors, such as distribution complexities, should be considered before adopting this style. However, if adopted in a context that needs high flexibility in terms of scalability and availability, it can deliver its promised benefits

An Analysis of Software Testing Practices on Migrations From on Premise to Cloud Hosted Environments

This research project examines the differences between software testing practices that are carried out on software that is installed locally (i.e. on premise) versus software that has migrated to a cloud hosted environment. In conjunction with this, focus was placed on determining what methodologies and frameworks are in existence for assisting with software migrations to the cloud. The reason for carrying out this research project was that the transition to cloud computing is becoming more and more mainstream, as a result organisations are required to focus their efforts on how best to move their software to the cloud while ensuring that its functionality remains intact. To determine what software testing differences are apparent and what migration strategies are available, existing literature in this area was reviewed and qualitative data was collected. Once all data was collated, results showed that there were in fact key differences in the complexity of software testing that was required for software that has migrated to the cloud. In addition, no generic strategy was found for carrying out a software migration to the cloud. Based on the findings of this research project, it is paramount that an organisation which plans on migrating any of if its software or infrastructure to the cloud needs to have a clear road map in place prior to any development or migration work commencing. By clearly planning and executing this process, clear testing and validation phases can be put in place which will ensure than an element of precaution and prior validation can be incorporated into the transition to the cloud

ClouNS - A Cloud-native Application Reference Model for Enterprise Architects

The capability to operate cloud-native applications can generate enormous business growth and value. But enterprise architects should be aware that cloud-native applications are vulnerable to vendor lock-in. We investigated cloud-native application design principles, public cloud service providers, and industrial cloud standards. All results indicate that most cloud service categories seem to foster vendor lock-in situations which might be especially problematic for enterprise architectures. This might sound disillusioning at first. However, we present a reference model for cloud-native applications that relies only on a small subset of well standardized IaaS services. The reference model can be used for codifying cloud technologies. It can guide technology identification, classification, adoption, research and development processes for cloud-native application and for vendor lock-in aware enterprise architecture engineering methodologies

Data Migration in the Era of Digital Transformation: Migrating to Cloud-Based Solutions

Internship Report presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Knowledge Management and Business IntelligenceThis internship report provides an overview of data migration, a crucial process in modern organisations' digital transformation efforts. It explores the importance of data migration for optimising data management strategies and gaining a competitive edge. The report discusses the steps of data migration, including planning, data extraction, transformation, loading, validation and reconciliation. It addresses common challenges such as data mapping complexities and system compatibility issues, and suggests strategies to mitigate risks. Additionally, the report highlights the importance of data security and privacy considerations during data migration, including compliance with regulations and the adoption of encryption and access controls. It contains best practices and recommendations for successful data migration projects, stressing collaboration, monitoring, and evaluation for accurate and stable data migration outcomes

Comparative Study on Agile software development methodologies

Today-s business environment is very much dynamic, and organisations are constantly changing their software requirements to adjust with new environment. They also demand for fast delivery of software products as well as for accepting changing requirements. In this aspect, traditional plan-driven developments fail to meet up these requirements. Though traditional software development methodologies, such as life cycle-based structured and object oriented approaches, continue to dominate the systems development few decades and much research has done in traditional methodologies, Agile software development brings its own set of novel challenges that must be addressed to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software. It is a set of software development methods based on iterative and incremental development process, where requirements and development evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams that allows rapid delivery of high quality software to meet customer needs and also accommodate changes in the requirements. In this paper, we significantly identify and describe the major factors, that Agile development approach improves software development process to meet the rapid changing business environments. We also provide a brief comparison of agile development methodologies with traditional systems development methodologies, and discuss current state of adopting agile methodologies. We speculate that from the need to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of the valuable software, Agile software development is emerged as an alternative to traditional plan-based software development methods. The purpose of this paper, is to provide an in-depth understanding, the major benefits of agile development approach to software development industry, as well as provide a comparison study report of ASDM over TSDM.Comment: 25 pages, 25 images, 86 references used, with authors biographie

Decision criteria between microservice and monolithic architecture

Abstract. In the contemporary software market companies face a challenge of continuously developing and delivering their products quickly. To answer this challenge the correct software architecture must be chosen. The conservative approach is a monolithic architecture, where all the code base is in a single unit. This approach offers simplicity and rapid initial deployment but faces challenges when companies need to scale their software. A more novel approach is a microservice architecture, which was enabled by the growth of cloud infrastructure. This architecture offers higher scalability and autonomy but brings with it a higher level of complexity. In this study I conducted a literature review to examine both architectures to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches. The intent was to get a clear understanding of the underlying criteria that companies need to consider when making an architectural related decision. The current literature revealed that the advantages and disadvantages of both architectures are quite well known, but there is ambiguity regarding the criteria that is outside of the functional requirements discovered during the design phase. This study offers a baseline to further study decision criteria regarding monolithic and microservice cloud-based applications. Further studies can be done to further examine the criteria on a more detailed and practical level

Migrating Software Products to the Cloud

Cloud computing, as a disruptive innovation, has the potential to adversely affect companies. The effects can be particularly extreme for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Subsequently, considerations of organisational resilience should be made when integrating with disruptive innovations like cloud computing. This paper reports of a longitudinal study investigating how a set of SME high-value software vendors are migrating their software products to the cloud. Adaptive socio-technical systems (ASTSs) concepts are used to provide a framework for understanding the adoption process. This study draws out a set of macro and micro themes relating to key phases of strategy development, the migration process and the impact on customer perceptions. From the findings, more systemic and holistic approaches are identified to address key tensions through the adoption life cycle while considering organisational resilience

Migrating software products to the cloud: an adaptive STS perspective.

Cloud computing, as a disruptive innovation, has the potential to adversely affect companies. The effects can be particularly extreme for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Subsequently, considerations of organisational resilience should be made when integrating with disruptive innovations like cloud computing. This paper reports of a longitudinal study investigating how a set of SME high-value software vendors are migrating their software products to the cloud. Adaptive socio-technical systems (ASTSs) concepts are used to provide a framework for understanding the adoption process. This study draws out a set of macro and micro themes relating to key phases of strategy development, the migration process and the impact on customer perceptions. From the findings, more systemic and holistic approaches are identified to address key tensions through the adoption life cycle while considering organisational resilience

AGILE ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE: A CASE OF A CLOUD TECHNOLOGY-ENABLED GOVERNMENT ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION

Australian government enterprises have shown a significant interest in the cloud technology-enabled enterprise transformation. Australian government suggests the whole-of-a-government strategy to cloud adoption. The challenge is how best to realise this cloud adoption strategy for the cloud technology-enabled enterprise transformation? The cloud adoption strategy realisation requires concrete guidelines and a comprehensive practical framework. This paper proposes the use of an agile enterprise architecture framework to developing and implementing the adaptive cloud technology-enabled enterprise architecture in the Australian government context. The results of this paper indicate that a holistic strategic agile enterprise architecture approach seems appropriate to support the strategic whole-of-a-government approach to cloud technology-enabled government enterprise transformation