Let us look at an example here and explore how we could come to a specific
conclusion:
Client A has decided to reduce the data center footprint and consolidate as
part of their general strategy. The roadmap calls for reducing their footprint by
50 percent in three years. As part of the roadmap, one of the data centers is to
be shut down, so all assets in that data center need a new home. To achieve the
goal in the desired period, the client will need to look at the application land-
scape and decide what can be done for each of the applications and their assets.
An application assessment using objective analysis will shed light on the suit-
ability of a specific platform and the recommended patterns.
In our assessment we typically run through a set of questions from various
company domains, including business units, financial, technical, operational,
security, etc. Questions are assigned to domains and topics. Each question is
also configured with a range of suitability scores based on potential responses.
A client application profile is created that associates all the relevant questions
to the profiles. Based on the responses, a total score is then generated that sig-
nifies the suitability and the desired pattern. This methodology allows the
objective analysis of a set of applications. The level of confidence for a particu-
lar outcome is defined by how many questions were answered.
The following is an example of a suitability score for a few domains, with vari-
ous topics within those domains. In this hypothetical example, the outcome
demonstrates that AWS is the most suitable platform for the operational and
technical domains. There are other viable options, but they are less suited.
Figure 2 below shows each of the platforms that were considered, and lists
their corresponding suitability scores. The higher the score, the more suitable
the platform.
AWS
0
84
Score (%)
DC Consolidation
Azure
100
0
55
100
Score (%)
0
11
100
Score (%)
Figure 2: Platform Suitability Scores
Figure 3 shows the recommended migration patterns for each platform con-
sidered. For example, for AWS, the preferred pattern is replatform, but for the
data center consolidation the preferred pattern is rehost. The migration pat-
tern will be different based on the capabilities of the target platform.
24 | THE DOPPLER | FALL 2018