Prioritizing Applications for Migration to Cloud Foundry

After the initial POCs and pilot projects, many enterprises face the challenge of choosing which applications to migrate to Cloud Foundry. How can you avoid the terrors of the "Application Migration Swamp"?

Transcript

1. Using the Theory of Constraints to Prioritize Cloud Foundry App Migration Mark Carlson CTO, ECS Team @mdcarlson
2. 2 Enterprise IT is under the weather…
3. 3 Elapsed times from new idea to features running at scale in production are too long…
4. 4 Layers and layers of heavy processes give the illusion of safety…
5. 5 Aging applications often fail to scale, are fragile under load and brittle when changed…
6. 6 Cloud Foundry is part of the prescription But... • We don’t just need a better, more cloud- friendly app server. • Without process and culture change, CF is just another tool in a very long parade of tools.
7. Common Stages of Cloud Foundry Adoption 7 • Investigation and Proof-of-Concept • Initial Purchase and Production Pilot Project • Greenfield – Adoption by Development Teams for New Applications • Portfolio Modernization – Adoption by Selected Teams Across the Larger Portfolio
8. Typical Application Portfolio Mix 8 33% 67% Rebuild Virtualize, Tolerate
9. 9 Three Terrors of the Application Migration Swamp…
10. 10 Terror #1 – Lightning Sands of Indecision
11. 11 Terror #2 – Flaming Out by Forgetting the Main Goal
12. 12 Terror #3 AMOUS’s = Application Migrations of Unusual Size
13. Choosing apps to migrate? 13 “I can clearly not choose the app that is in front of me!” --Vizzini
14. Don’t Migrate Everything! 14 • Applications to Exclude: • Packaged or SaaS applications • Apps with tight coupling to hardware or legacy OS • Apps with no business reason to change frequently • Apps with tenuous connection to consumers or clear business value • Apps so trivial… no one will care • Apps so massive… no one should dare
15. 15 Application Migration Factories? Booo! Booo!
16. 16 Theory of Constraints An overall management philosophy introduced by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt Source: Institute of Management Accountants, “Theory of Constraints (TOC) Management System Fundamentals”, 1999 Bottleneck (2/hr)
17. 17 What is an Innovation Bottleneck? The inability to rapidly and continuously deliver business-impacting changes to an app that is an innovation generator is an… Innovation bottleneck • In manufacturing, a constraint is a process, process step, or anything that limits throughput and prevents the entire system from achieving its goal. • A bottleneck is a constraint in a production flow process. The process step that limits overall capacity.
18. 18 “I've just sucked one year of your life away.” –Count Rugen Innovation Bottlenecks Suck IT’s Life Away
19. The initial filters: • Technical fit 12-factor-ness. • Size / Complexity • Directly connected to easily measured business value • Supporting team not “frozen middle” or “permafrost” • Eager to embrace new ways and learn new techniques to get better • Team members are respected. Others will want to follow their lead 19
20. Finding Innovation Bottlenecks You might have an innovation bottleneck IF: • The organization’s ability to innovate as a whole is constrained by slow delivery cycles in this application • The business is pursuing or evaluating a non- traditional provider or public cloud strategy for this application because it can’t be easily changed • Introducing the smallest feature or change takes weeks or months EVEN when those features will have a major impact on business operations 20
21. 21 Strangle the Bottlenecks Strangler Application, Martin Fowler, 2004 http://martinfowler.com/bliki/StranglerApplication.html Strangler Application Migration: • Avoids big bang • Intercepts and redirects calls to new service running on CF • Wrapped in tests and circuit breakers • Each “slice” is connected to business value that is easily visible • Over time, all that remains is a well understood core that can be tolerated or eliminated
22. Don’t let (a little success) go to your head… 22
23. 23 For Further Research • “Working Effectively with Legacy Code”, Michael Feathers, 2004 • “The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement”, Goldratt and Cox, 1984 • “Application Migration Selection Criteria”, Josh Kruck and Abby Kearns, 2015 • “Migrating the Monolith”, Rohit Kelapure, SpringOne2Gx 2015 • ”The Cloud Native Journey”, Michael Coté, 2015 • “The Princess Bride”, William Goldman, 1973
24. 24 Thank you! Mark Carlson @mdcarlson ECS Team @ecsteam http://www.ecsteam.com