Modernization & Migration

Bundled into the existing Cloud Digital Leader premium course — no separate purchase.

Included in this chapter:

Path	What happens to the app	Effort / time	Cloud benefit gained
Retire	Decommissioned: shut down and removed	None (no migration)	Removes cost and technical debt; nothing migrated
Retain	Kept as-is in its current environment	None (no migration)	None yet: deferred; revisit later
Rehost (lift and shift)	Moved with minor or no changes	Lowest: fastest path	Low: runs in cloud but not optimized for it
Replatform (move and improve)	Lifted, then targeted optimizations	Moderate	Medium: uses cloud features like elasticity, redundancy
Refactor	Modified toward cloud-native (containers, microservices)	High	High: cloud scalability and availability
Reimagine	Re-architected and rewritten for the cloud	Highest	Highest: fully cloud-optimized, removes technical debt

Cheat sheet

A workload is the unit you migrate: an app plus the infrastructure it needs
Migration moves a workload; modernization changes it to exploit the cloud
Organizations modernize for agility, lower cost, less maintenance, and innovation
Each application gets its own migration path. There is no one-size-fits-all
Application rationalization decides each app's path before the migration
The migration paths form a ladder: more effort buys more cloud benefit
Retire means decommission the app and remove its cost and technical debt
Retain means leave the workload where it is, a deliberate no-move
Rehost (lift and shift) moves a workload with minimal change, the fastest path
Replatform (move and improve) lifts then makes targeted cloud optimizations
Refactor modifies a workload to adopt cloud-native traits
Reimagine re-architects and rewrites the app for the largest transformation
Match the path to the constraint in the stem
Google Cloud has a purpose-built migration tool for each kind of workload

Unlock with Premium — includes all practice exams and the complete study guide.

Cheat sheet