1. Lessons being learnt from moving a legacy app to the cloud

2. Processing Legacy application Our legacy platform. Limitations Data
Ingested
Accessed via Browser
Data
Data is onsite
Ingested via a crawler
Installation via shell scripts
Once deployed happy user can find their data
Guaranteed physical and internet security

3. Things to consider before starting
Not just about the technology
Why/worth doing it?
Consider customer experience as moving from sales driven to website driven
Minimum friction needed to drive adoption
Security becomes a concern due to being external to organisations
Target segment

4. So what is the cloud?

5. So you are doing it...What now?
Tidy up what you have, remove cruft
Want to make items repeatable, automated, scalable
Understand your limitations
Understand what the cloud can and can’t deliver
Security concerns become more apparent
Releases no longer exist, just implementation of new features

6. Dilbert always has the answer….

7. So how did we plan to move?
We virtualized the processes ready to move it to the cloud.
Understand your stack complexity and business pressures
Not a one time job
We have Java/Python portions that communicate over the network - makes life a bit easier
Make sure the business agrees
Understand what you app can and can’t do
Multi tenancy the backend / Physically separate?
How many users?
Costs?

8. Moved from manual deployments through to automated deployments
Step 1 - Moving it whole
Moved from manual deployments through to automated deployments
Shell scripts replaced by configuration management (bash -> puppet) - straight port.
Still a single physical appliance
Still targeting legacy customers
Man time reduced to hours rather than days
Still had legacy issues (upgrades/maintenance)

9. Move configuration management from full stack to each component
Step 2 - Splitting it up
Move configuration management from full stack to each component
Place components into logical groups for containers
Add in logic to scale up each subsystem
Get them to speak to each other
Resolve scaling issues with original approach
End up with legacy and new approaches to maintain

10. Step 3 - Getting it ready for the outside world
Security now becomes a major concern
Remote crawler VPN as have to access on site data
Single backend per customer for initial release
Understand and control costs
Recurring revenue vs a single payment
Choose your infrastructure provider
Beta test with trusted customers

11. Step 4 - Going live (not quite there yet)
Ordering system
Support methods
SLA
Backups
Business process change for deployments of releases
Unknown Unknowns

12. What new issues will we face?
Managing 3rd parties
Security / Backups
Availability
Performance
Feature requests
Support
Multi tenancy requirements
Customer feedback methods

13. Questions?
Q&A