Migrating Applications to the Cloud in 2025: Best Practices

In 2025, migrating applications to the cloud has become a pivotal strategy for businesses aiming to enhance operational efficiency, drive innovation, and remain competitive. Essentially, cloud migration involves moving applications from on-premises infrastructure to cloud environments, offering significant benefits such as cost optimisation, scalability, and improved performance.

However, migrating to the cloud is not without its challenges. Organisations still face increasing pressure not only to optimise their cloud strategies but also consider sustainability factors in their decision-making process. As environmental impact becomes a key consideration in IT infrastructure choices, new frameworks like GreenOps will play a pivotal role in guiding businesses through responsible cloud migrations.

This article will explore the best practices for migrating applications to the cloud in 2025, highlighting key trends, strategies, and considerations to ensure a smooth transition. From security and compliance to cost management and sustainability, we'll cover the essential steps businesses should take to maximise the value of their cloud investments while navigating the challenges of an increasingly complex digital landscape. 

Business value of migrating applications to the cloud

Why do companies opt for migrating applications to the cloud in 2025? The primary reason is to cut down on operational costs but there are more factors to be taken into account, Migrating applications to the cloud does not only cut down on costs and streamline operations but also fosters revenue growth and technological innovation. Let’s discuss each reason for companies to migrate legacy applications to the cloud: 

Cost optimisation

Migrating applications to the cloud allows organisations to shift from capital expenditures on hardware to operational expenditures with pay-as-you-go models. And naturally, this shift can lead to significant cost savings. However, it's still essential (and best practice) to manage cloud spending effectively. A 2023 report by McKinsey estimated that approximately $100 billion of migration spend could be wasted over the next three years due to inefficiencies in orchestrating cloud migrations. This potential waste typically has to do with inefficient planning, poor execution, and misaligned strategies.

Revenue growth and innovation

Cloud adoption facilitates rapid deployment of new applications and services, enabling businesses to respond swiftly to market demands and enhance customer experiences. This agility supports revenue growth and strengthens market positioning. McKinsey projects that cloud adoption could generate $3 trillion in EBITDA value by 2030, highlighting its potential to drive significant business value.

Technology alignment and scalability

Cloud platforms offer scalable resources that align with business growth, ensuring applications can handle increased workloads without compromising performance. This scalability is crucial for maintaining operational efficiency as demand fluctuates. In 2023, a Microsoft survey revealed that 62% of organisations have a migration and modernisation strategy in place, underscoring the importance of cloud adoption in IT transformation.

 "Cloud presence is not optional for any serious company anymore, it is a requirement. Sure, cloud computing provides lots of benefits like cost reduction and operational efficiency, but more importantly it gives you the ability to quickly embrace the latest and greatest technologies so you can stay ahead in a competitive environment."

Ozgur Sahin, Senior Cloud Engineer @Dreamix

Related: Build or Buy: When Do Cloud Application Development Services Make Business Sense?

Best practices for migrating applications to the cloud

App assessment and migration planning

Begin by evaluating your existing IT infrastructure to identify applications suitable for migration. Consider factors such as performance requirements, dependencies, and potential benefits.

Dreamix best practices:

• Application portfolio rationalisation: Assess your current application portfolio and eliminate redundant applications before migration rather than moving unnecessary workloads. 

• Leverage distributed architecture patterns: For nearly a decade now, microservices have proved their numerous benefits including unmet scalability, fault isolation and tech flexibility.  According to Statista data from 2021, 85% of large organisations (5,000+ employees) have admitted using microservices.

• Create operational playbooks for scaling: It’s a best practice to establish communication plans during scaling events right from the start. By preparing for increased workload demands, you’ll be better off at handling unexpected traffic spikes.

Choosing the right cloud model

Decide between public, private, or hybrid cloud models based on your organisation's needs, considering aspects like security, compliance, and control. Ask yourself: 

• Where will your application run (public, private, hybrid or multi-cloud)? 
• How will your cloud application be hosted (IaaS, PaaS or SaaS)? 
• What level of management responsibility do you want to retain?

Dreamix best practices: 

• Ensure strategic alignment & preparation: prioritise business-critical applications, such as client-facing apps that directly impact customer experience and revenue generation
• Build a cloud operating model: implement CI/CD pipelines and partner with DevOps teams to unify development and operations
• Ensure security: Categorising data by sensitivity level e.g. public, internal, confidential, restricted and map regulatory requirements to each data type depending on your industry (GDPR, HIPAA, FAA, etc.)

Related: The Importance of DevOps in Custom Software Development

Selecting the right cloud provider

Major providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud offer region-specific data centers and compliance management tools. There is always the option to go for cloud agnostic development as a way to leverage cloud providers against one another as the process of choosing. between different providers can be daunting. Next, the execution of your migration strategy requires specialised expertise and that requires ​​deep platform-specific knowledge. That’s where our cloud-certified engineers come with detailed understanding of each provider's specifics, features and limitations and offer you professional support when migrating applications to the cloud. 

If all this feels too complex and overwhelming, our Dreamix team will be happy to consult you and help you plan your application migration strategy.

Managing security and risk while migrating applications to the cloud

Moving applications to the cloud presents unique security challenges that require strategic planning by security officers, CTOs, and CIOs. If a migration process isn’t adequately handled, potential data breaches can result in substantial financial losses through regulatory fines, legal settlements, and remediation costs—often reaching millions of dollars for major incidents. Not to mention the reputational damage inflicted by security failures erodes customer trust, leading to customer attrition and declining market share that can persist for years. 

If you partner with experts while migrating applications to the cloud, you won’t need to worry about any security issues as they’ll implement best practices such as:

Risk assessment and compliance framework

Cloud engineers will develop a application migration strategy structured around risk assessment methodology, identifying potential vulnerabilities across infrastructure, applications, and data. They’ll also map regulatory requirements (such as GDPR, HIPAA, or industry-specific regulations) to specific cloud controls to ensure continuous compliance throughout the migration journey. Needless to say that cloud engineers will also implement automated compliance monitoring that provides real-time visibility into your cloud security posture and alerts stakeholders to potential gaps.

Cloud security architecture and design

When it comes to migrating applications to the cloud, security is of utmost importance as it's important for maintaining data integrity and ensuring business continuity. In do that, experienced cloud engineers implement reference architecture that follows defense-in-depth principles across all cloud environments protecting your company assets. By incorporating security zones, microsegmentation, and secure connectivity patterns lateral movement within cloud environments will be minimal. Further, zero trust design principles verify all access requests regardless of origin, using contextual factors like device health, user location, and behavior patterns for authentication.

DevSecOps integration for secure cloud deployments

While migrating applications to the cloud, security should be embedded throughout the development and deployment pipeline to ensure cloud resources are configured securely from inception. IaC (infrastructure-as-code) templates with pre-approved security configurations and automated security validation gates during deployment help with that by creating immutable infrastructure patterns that eliminate configuration drift and unauthorised modifications, improving both security posture and operational reliability.

Application migration strategy: A step-by-step plan

When migrating your entire ecosystem to the cloud, it is vital to properly analyse your current setup, choose the best services and tools that the cloud provider utilises, and find a middle ground between the two. The next, must-do step, is to clearly define all the goals of the migration, and come up with a precise execution plan. This helps optimise the effort and time required, which naturally equals cost for the partner.

Dimitar Stanev, Solution Architect @Dreamix

Discovery and planning: Prior to migrating applications to the cloud, companies need to assess their current systems, define business objectives, and develop a comprehensive cloud migration plan. Define specific business objectives including cost reduction targets, performance improvements, and scalability requirements. Develop a comprehensive migration plan that includes workload prioritisation, risk assessment as well as timeline estimates, and resource allocation. Last but not least, create detailed documentation of the current architecture to serve as a reference throughout the migration process.

Design and architecture: Create a cloud architecture that supports scalability, security, and performance requirements. You can define the target state infrastructure using cloud-native design patterns and services. Next, establish networking topology, security controls, and identity management solutions aligned with compliance requirements. Select appropriate service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) for each workload based on business needs. 

Execution and optimisation: After designing the architecture, it’s best practice to migrate applications in phases, starting with non-critical workloads to minimise business disruption. During this process, implement automated testing while continuously optimising resources and monitoring costs with the help of dashboards. Additionally, benchmark performance against KPIs and leverage cloud-native tools to identify optimisation opportunities. As a last step during this phase, implementing feedback loops between operations and development teams can ensure ongoing alignment with business objectives throughout the migration journey.

Continuous improvement: Following the initial migration, your existing cloud strategies need to be regularly reviewed and refined to adapt to evolving business requirements and tech advancements. You can conduct quarterly architecture reviews to identify opportunities for further optimisation, cost reduction, and security enhancements. If you rely on in-house talent, you’ll need to invest in continuous IT training to maximise the potential of the cloud. Alternatively, partnering with an external managed service provider like Dreamix you can save on these training costs while ensuring your cloud environment is maintained by certified specialists who keep up with the latest cloud innovations.

Related: Software solutions for your cloud-first strategy

Overcoming common cloud migration challenges

Cost overruns

Implement proactive budgeting and monitoring to prevent unexpected expenses. The 2023 McKinsey report revealed that globally, unanticipated cloud-migration spend adds up to over $100 billion over three years, potentially impacting shareholder value.

For example, if а company migrates an application and provisions compute instances similar to their on-premises servers (e.g., 96 vCPUs, 128GB RAM) without analysing actual usage patterns, this can lead to 40% higher monthly costs for underutilised resources.

Skill gaps and training

When migrating applications to the cloud, organisations frequently underestimate the talent transformation required for success. The skills needed to manage cloud environments differ significantly from traditional on-premises infrastructure management. If you choose to rely on in-house talent, here are the aspects you’ll need to consider:

• Comprehensive cloud certification programs for existing staff covering major platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud)
• Hands-on labs and sandboxed environments where teams can experiment without risking production workloads
• Cross-functional training to bridge the gap between development, operations, and security teams
• Cloud center of excellence (CCoE) to develop internal knowledge repositories and best practices
• Ongoing education budgets to keep pace with rapidly evolving cloud services and capabilities
• Career advancement pathways that recognise and reward cloud expertise acquisition

While some companies choose this DIY approach, many others choose to trust an expert external vendor. In fact, in our deep-dive nearshoring guide we posted recently, we discuss how improved access to talent is the number one reason for 42% of companies to outsource managed services in 2025. Other feasible reasons include the ever-increasing customer demands towards digital-first interactions, seamless service delivery and personalisation. 

Another 22% of companies surveyed by Deloitte agree that partnerships with vendors fuels partner-enabled innovation and transformation. This is  exactly what we at Dreamix do with our clients - we become their co-innovation partners in their digital transformation journey. We align strategically with your business objectives to identify opportunities where cloud capabilities can create competitive advantages unique to your industry and market position. Our certified cloud software developers experienced in domains like aviation, healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics truly understand the industry specifics, which enables shorter knowledge transfer and accelerates your cloud migration journey. 

Vendor lock-In risks: As of 2023, more than 86% of organisations have adopted a multi-cloud approach in order to avoid potential vendor lock-ins and strengthen their agility and flexibility while scaling (Source: Microsoft). Plus, enterprises  are migrating increasingly complex workloads, with mission-critical applications now representing 67% of new migrations. Any business therefore needs to develop strategies to avoid provider lock-in risks such as unexpected price increases for proprietary services or exit costs Technical dependencies like proprietary API dependencies or data portability limitations, which may cause data loss or are also worth considering.

Related: 10 Best Multi-cloud Strategy Examples

Future trends in cloud migration

AI-driven cloud migration

Migrating applications to the cloud won’t be the same in the future with AI dominating the digital landscape. Currently, advanced AI platforms such as AWS Application Discovery Service, Azure Migrate, and community-developed solutions such as CloudMapper, can quickly assess existing on-premises infrastructure to create comprehensive dependency maps and relationship diagrams with minimal manual intervention. Let’s see the advancements of cloud migrations expected by AI tools in the near future:

• Automated application dependency discovery - one such example is Azure Migrate that comes with dependency visualisation capabilities that use ML to identify and map dependencies between servers and applications.
• AI-recommended migration strategies - currently Google Cloud's Migration Center leverages AI to analyse application characteristics and workloads. The product can then recommend migration strategies and target architectures based on this analysis.
• Predictive cost modeling - advanced AI algorithms will likely be able to provide highly accurate cost predictions for various migration scenarios. 
• App modernisation intelligence - beyond the "lift and shift" migrations, AI tools will increasingly offer intelligent recommendations for application modernisation

Containerisation and microservices acceleration

The adoption of containerisation as a primary migration strategy will continue to grow. Organisations will increasingly break down monolithic applications into microservices during migration rather than after. Let’s illustrate this with an example from custom aviation software development when doing flight operations system modernisation:

Consider a major airline that needs to migrate its flight operations platform to the cloud. Traditionally, this might have involved:

1. Initial migration of the entire monolithic system "as-is" to cloud VMs
2. Gradually refactoring components after migration
3. Dealing with extended parallel operations of old and new systems

With modern containerisation approaches:

• AI analysis tools will first scan the monolithic codebase, identifying service boundaries
• The system will get decomposed into a couple of containers during migration (using Docker, Kubernetes or Red Hat Openshift):
  • Aircraft tracking microservice
  • Crew scheduling microservice
  • Maintenance planning microservice
  • Weather integration microservice
  • Fuel optimisation microservice

This parallel decomposition and migration approach significantly reduces overall project timelines while immediately providing cloud benefits.

The future of GreenOps

GreenOps, short for "Green Operations," is an emerging framework that integrates sustainability into cloud computing practices. This approach includes techniques like demand shifting, moving computational workloads to locations or times with cleaner energy availability, and demand shaping, adjusting workloads based on the current availability of clean energy.

Operational and financial benefits: Implementing GreenOps enables companies to reduce environmental footprints and operating costs. By optimising IT environments, businesses can achieve more sustainable and financially sound operations.

Integration with FinOps: GreenOps complements FinOps, a financial operations framework, to enhance cloud management. This integration helps organisations optimise computing costs and lower carbon emissions by using cloud resources more efficiently.

Shift towards sustainability: A survey by ClimateAction reveals that the majority of IT decision makers now prioritise sustainability over pure cost reduction. This shift indicates a significant change in corporate priorities, emphasising environmental responsibility in IT operations.

How our cloud migration services can help

At Dreamix, we specialise in custom software development, cloud migration, and legacy system modernisation. Our comprehensive cloud migration expertise addresses every aspect of the migration journey - from initial assessment through execution and post-migration optimisation. Our certified cloud engineering teams bring deep expertise in migrating your existing applications to cloud: be it AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. We do this with a proven agile methodology that reduces risk and accelerates time-to-value. Contact us today to learn how we can help your organisation achieve cloud migration success.