Lift and Shift (also known as Rehosting) is a cloud migration strategy that involves moving applications from on-premises environments to cloud infrastructure with minimal or no modifications to the application architecture, code, or configurations, prioritizing speed and simplicity over cloud optimization.
Context for Technology Leaders
For CIOs managing large-scale cloud migrations, lift and shift is often the fastest path to realizing basic cloud benefits—eliminating data center costs, improving disaster recovery, and establishing a cloud presence. Enterprise architects recognize that while lift and shift minimizes migration risk and effort, it forgoes the performance, scalability, and cost benefits of cloud-native architectures. It is typically used as a first phase in a progressive modernization strategy, where applications are migrated quickly and then optimized over time.
Key Principles
- 1Minimal Change: Applications are migrated as-is with no code modifications, preserving existing architecture, configurations, and operational procedures to minimize migration risk.
- 2Speed of Migration: Lift and shift enables rapid migration of large application portfolios, often using automated migration tools that convert VMs to cloud instances.
- 3Risk Reduction: By avoiding application changes, lift and shift eliminates the risk of introducing bugs or compatibility issues that come with refactoring during migration.
- 4Foundation for Modernization: Migrated applications can be subsequently optimized, re-architected, or replaced in a phased approach once they are running in the cloud environment.
Strategic Implications for CIOs
While lift and shift minimizes migration risk, CIOs should be aware that it often results in higher cloud operating costs than optimized architectures because applications cannot leverage cloud-native services. Enterprise architects should establish criteria for when lift and shift is appropriate versus when replatforming or refactoring delivers better long-term value. A common pattern is to lift and shift for quick wins while investing in refactoring for strategic applications.
Common Misconception
A common misconception is that lift and shift is the simplest and cheapest migration approach. While it is simpler to execute, the long-term costs of running unoptimized workloads in the cloud often exceed on-premises costs. Organizations should view lift and shift as a first step rather than a final destination.