Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift) is often the recommended first step for complex, monolithic applications. It allows for a quicker migration to the cloud (benefiting from infrastructure scalability like auto-scaling) with minimal immediate changes, reducing risk and ensuring business continuity. This provides a stable foundation from which more advanced strategies like refactoring can be planned and executed in phases.

Right-sizing is a fundamental and immediate cost-optimization technique. It involves analyzing performance metrics and matching the instance type (CPU, memory, storage) to the actual workload requirements. This directly reduces waste and lowers costs while maintaining necessary performance, making it a more constructive first step than purely punitive or disruptive measures.

This combination directly addresses both requirements. TLS/SSL encrypts data while it is moving between the application and the database (in transit). The cloud provider’s server-side encryption (often using a service like AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, or Google Cloud KMS) encrypts the data as it is stored on disk (at rest). This is a standard and effective practice for meeting common compliance encryption mandates.

A PaaS/serverless model (e.g., AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, Google Cloud Run) removes server management overhead. Combining this with a globally distributed CDN (e.g., Amazon CloudFront, Azure CDN) caches static and dynamic content at edge locations close to users, dramatically reducing latency. This architecture is designed specifically for high-performance, global applications without infrastructure management.

In the IaaS model, the CSP is responsible for the security ‘of’ the cloud: the physical data centers, hardware, network fabric, and hypervisor that abstracts the compute, storage, and networking resources. The customer is responsible for security ‘in’ the cloud, which includes the guest OS, applications, data, and configuration of network controls like firewalls.

A Warm Standby strategy maintains a running, scaled-down version of the primary system in a secondary region. It balances cost and recovery speed effectively. It can meet a 4-hour RTO (faster than pilot light or backup) because core services are already running, and with continuous data replication (e.g., via database logs), it can achieve a 15-minute RPO. It is less expensive than a full Multi-site Active/Active setup.

An SLA is a formal contract that defines the provider’s commitment regarding service performance, most notably its availability or uptime (e.g., 99.9%). It also specifies the service credits or remedies available to the customer if the provider fails to meet these commitments. While other documents cover compliance, pricing, and features, the SLA is the key document for uptime guarantees.

A Container Orchestration Platform like Kubernetes (offered as a managed service by all major CSPs, e.g., EKS, AKS, GKE) is specifically designed to manage containerized applications. Its core features include service discovery (finding microservices), load balancing (distributing traffic), and automated deployments/rollouts (managing application updates), making it the ideal choice for this scenario.

The Foundation Phase (or similar phase named in frameworks like AWS CAF, Microsoft CAF, or Google’s Cloud Adoption Framework) is about preparing the organization for cloud operations. This includes setting up the initial secure environment (landing zone), defining governance policies (security, cost), and crucially, building organizational capability through training, new processes (e.g., DevOps), and often a CCoE to guide best practices.

Rehosting (Lift-and-Shift) is often the recommended first step for complex, monolithic applications. It allows for a quicker migration to the cloud (benefiting from infrastructure scalability like auto-scaling) with minimal immediate changes, reducing risk and ensuring business continuity. This provides a stable foundation from which more advanced strategies like refactoring can be planned and executed in phases.0