Evidences from the literature on database migration to the cloud

Abstract

Context: The cloud computing paradigm has received increasing attention because of its claimed financial and functional benefits. A number of competing providers can support organizations to access computing services without owning the corresponding infrastructure. However, the migration of legacy system from the database perspective is not a trivial task. Goal: Characterize reports from the literature addressing the migration of legacy systems to the cloud with emphasis on database issues. Method: The characterization followed a four-phase approach having as a start point the selection of papers published in conferences and journals. Results: The overall data collected from the papers depicts that there are six main reported strategies to migrate databases to the cloud and twelve reported issues related to this migration. Conclusion: We expect that the strategies, approaches and tools reported in the primary papers can contribute to lessons learnt regarding how companies should face the migration of their legacy systems databases to the cloud.