Software system migration to cloud-native architectures for SME-sized software vendors

Abstract

Independent software vendors (ISVs) are often faced with the need to migrate their software products as software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to the cloud. We document and evaluate four case studies by considering various factors that the respective companies need to consider in a cloud migration process. We look at migration project as a software re-engineering activity, involving project planning, cloud architecture design and architecture transformation. Specifically for software vendors, a cloud migration opens opportunities such as the possibility of modernising their software through re-engineering their product architecture. However, small and mid-size enterprises(SMEs)often do not have the required cloud expertise to plan and implement a cloud migration. While many experience reports exist, there is new impetus in the domain resulting from the drive towards cloud-native architecture and other developments particularly in the cloud PaaS space. This allows software modernisation as part of a wider software evolution strategy. We present such a modernising architecture evolution process here. While there is a higher initial cost, the benefits of cloud-native architectures turn out to be advantageous in the long run.