Cloud Computing Advisory

Moving Your Applications to the Cloud (Cloud Migration)
Every organization has its unique challenges when planning a move to the cloud. How rapidly can we release high quality code? How can we make it secure and compliant? How can we leverage the cloud without sacrificing all we have built so far? How can we make this move in an orderly manner without impacting our current business? We can help you navigate these waters successfully. We can help you to migrate your applications to the Cloud. Put simply, this means we move your applications, data, workloads, and resources from legacy on-premise (or datacenter) servers to AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. We don’t redesign or rebuild the application; it is effectively moved “as-is” to the Cloud. The Cloud infrastructure lets you take advantage of almost unlimited computer resources. It also eliminates the need for you to have on-site servers that need to be maintained, upgraded, and replaced at regular intervals. This reduces your overhead, because you don’t have to continually invest in existing or new equipment. It also lets you maximize your IT staff resources.

Transforming Your Applications to Run in the Cloud
It’s one thing to migrate an existing application “as-is” to the Cloud; it’s another thing to build a brand-new application from the ground up in the Cloud. But transforming an existing application to take full advantage the Cloud is a horse of an entirely different color. Transforming a legacy application to be “Cloud Native” means effectively rebuilding the application from scratch, using a serverless architecture. But there are additional challenges. For example, you will have to migrate your legacy data to the new Cloud version, which can be difficult if your database design has changed. Even more challenging is rolling out your new Cloud application using an agile, module-by-module approach. Providing frequent releases to your users will always be well-received (as opposed to waiting months or years for a single release), but running the legacy and Cloud systems in parallel is tricky and will require a data replication architecture between the two databases. An application Transformation will also usually require building “stub” functions that can stand in for technical and functional processes that must—temporarily—be performed by a combination of the new and old systems. The concept of Transformation is not new to the Cloud; it is simply more complex. AKASI Group has been building and Transforming software applications since 1994. We can share case studies with you on how we have transformed our clients’ client-server, on-premises, and hosted applications to Cloud-Native architectures, to the delight of their users and without disrupting their business.

Developing Native Cloud Applications
“Born in the Cloud” applications are built in the Cloud, for the Cloud. They are deployed using a serverless architecture, leveraging microservices and an architecture that inherently incorporates unlimited scaling, automated DevOps, backups, and redundancy. Due to this tight integration between system and application architecture, your final release to production is literally as easy as pushing a button. AKASI Group has native Cloud development experts who can help you develop, deploy, and release applications in the Cloud. If you are ready to build your next application in the Cloud, it’s time to call AKASI Group!

Auditing Cloud Development
Congratulations, you are running some—or all—of your applications in the Cloud! Which means you now know that the Cloud has so much to offer that it is hard to determine if you are maximizing your investment. Whether you are a Cloud veteran or are relatively new to this brave new world, you need to periodically audit your Cloud environment to make sure you are maximizing efficiency, utilization, and performance, while ensuring you are not spending on unnecessary services. AKASI Group performs Cloud audits that look at the design and operational effectiveness of your applications in the following areas:

• Cost effectiveness

Many companies don’t realize they are paying for Cloud infrastructure they don’t really need. Our audit will tell you what you need, what you don’t, and where you can cut back on services and costs.

• DevOps strategy

The Cloud provides built-in, highly functional, tightly integrated DevOps tools. Effective DevOps can dramatically reduce your cost of development and deployment. AKASI Group can help you develop a lean, Cloud-native DevOps deployment strategy which will save you time and money.

• Disaster recovery and business continuity

While Cloud-based applications have built-in redundancy, you still have critical data that you need to make sure you can recover fast. AKASI Group will review your backup and recovery architecture to ensure that your applications and data are safe and easily recoverable.

• Security

Software security is more important today than ever before in history. Large-scale ransomware attacks are becoming a daily occurrence. Theft of sensitive data is commonplace in both large and small businesses. And whereas the Cloud provides unprecedented security that is inherently built into the application architecture, properly implementing that security is not inherently easy.
AKASI Group has an entire Cyber Security Practice dedicated to finding your application security flaws before you expose them to the world. We look at your application, system architecture and end points.
Securing Cloud apps presents a whole different set of challenges than securing traditional client-server and hosted apps. Luckily, AKASI Group has you covered with our deep experience in both Cloud Development and Cyber Security. Not only will we find the vulnerabilities, but we can help you fix them.