Application migration is the process of moving a software application from one environment to another, such as migrating a program from an on-site data center server to a cloud provider’s environment. It may also refer to moving an application from one cloud environment to another. Application migration can be extremely complex because applications are not typically designed to be portable. Applications are usually designed to run on a specific platform and are often dependent on a certain operating system, network architecture, storage system or virtual machine configuration. Successful application migration may require the use of middleware products to bridge any gaps between technologies.
The rapid adoption of virtualization and cloud technologies has increased demand for application migration, raising IT challenges for apps that can’t be virtualized or moved to the cloud, apps with critical legacy dependencies, and apps with strict compliance and security requirements. Application migration may also be needed after data center closures, a server security compromise, disaster recovery, or server hardware/operating system upgrades. Rebuilding custom business applications, as opposed to updating, maintaining and migrating them, is generally cost prohibitive.
The high cost of proprietary platforms and software renewals, and the desire to improve data center price-performance metrics, are driving application migration to Linux and open source IT solutions. SUSE delivers industry-standard Linux solutions that give IT organizations the flexibility to migrate to the server platform that’s best for their workloads. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server eliminates the need to purchase proprietary servers, allowing businesses to use commodity hardware and open source platforms in their data centers.