Three Ways to Migrate Custom Oracle Middleware Applications to the Cloud
UPDATED MAY 12, 2023: Understanding and classifying middleware applications is one of the most critical and complex tasks of any Cloud adoption process. No doubt, your company has several diverse applications integrated into your system. Off-the-shelf applications for sure, but custom-built and legacy applications as well.
Whether you are considering migrating your Oracle solution to Amazon Web Services (AWS), Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) or another cloud platform, each of your legacy applications will have its own migration needs that will need to be accounted for during your migration efforts.
Three Methods for Migrating Your Middleware Applications to a Cloud Environment
Re-Hosting: Lift & Shift Migrations
The first method for migrating your middleware applications to the Cloud pertains to your applications that rely on traditional server/compute technologies or applications that, based on their complexity, won’t benefit from re-factoring to utilize newer technologies like serverless or micro-services.
For these applications, we recommend leveraging the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offerings provided by AWS and OCI (depending on your preferred platform). With these IaaS offerings, you can re-create the compute/servers required to run these applications just like you would with a traditional datacenter. You can also layer on new Cloud tools and concepts like:
- – On-demand pricing
- – Next-generation networking and securities
- – Additional service integrations like Content Delivery Networks or API gateways
As a note, many Oracle middleware applications will potentially fall under this category. Most of the WebLogic off-the-shelf applications use stateful sessions for clustering and will require additional effort to be able to integrate with newer Cloud concepts like auto-scaling.
Re-Platform: Migration Applications to a Managed Platform
For this next method, you’re going to focus on applications that can (and should) be moved to a managed platform. AWS has several services available to support the deployment of custom applications that use various tech stacks (Java, PHP, .Net, etc.).
In these instances, AWS takes over the provisioning, management, and autoscaling of compute/service and network compliances. This can significantly reduce operational costs as companies no longer need to maintain servers, operating systems, networks, etc. It also eases the migration tasks by removing infrastructure components from the mix.
Re-Architect: Recreating an Application for the Cloud
While many applications can be migrated via a “Lift-and-Shift” approach or through a managed platform, others may need to be completely overhauled to function correctly in the Cloud. “Re-thinking” or “re-architecting” these types of applications allows your team to ensure that these tools and concepts can utilize their full potential and appreciate the benefits of being deployed on the Cloud.
For example, you can explore opportunities to break down monolithic apps into smaller “micro” services and utilize serverless technologies like Lambdas, Amazon Simple Notification Services (SNS), or Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) to improve performance. At the same time, you can replace the traditional Oracle RDBMS data sources with new concepts like Data Lakes, Object Storage, or NoSQL Databases.
The Migration Support You Need
Regardless of your Cloud platform of choice, careful consideration needs to be given for how you are going to migrate your legacy middleware applications. You can also use your upcoming migration as an opportunity to audit your applications and determine if there are any that can be sunset or rolled into a new system or application to drive further efficiency.
Have questions? TekStream has deep experience deploying enterprise-grade Oracle middleware applications both on traditional data centers as well as cloud environments like AWS or OCI. As part of any migration, we utilize that experience to help classify applications and apply best practices to the deployment of those applications in the Cloud.
Are you looking for more insight, tips and tactics for how best to migrate your legacy Oracle solution to the Cloud? Download our free eBook, “Taking Oracle to the Cloud: Key Considerations and Benefits for Migrating Your Enterprise Oracle Database to the Cloud.”
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