Cloud CMS: 3 points of attention for your migration
Migrating a website or Enterprise web portal from on-premise hosting to Cloud hosting requires more than just a few clicks and some patience. It's not just a matter of transferring data from one box to another, but of adapting a web infrastructure to the structure of the cloud.
The original process was to export the site via the administration interface, which turned out to be completely impossible since we have over 100 gigas of data.
Here are 3 points to bear in mind if you want to migrate to Cloud hosting:
- Plan a data cleansing phase,
- Check the compatibility of your environment with the destination cloud infrastructure,
- Remember to migrate logs (legal obligation).
Preparing for migration
Before you can proceed with the following steps, you'll need to carry out an audit, which will highlight the extent of the effort involved in migrating to cloud hosting. Jahia follows a 3-step scheme during this preparatory phase.
- Architecture audit: check that on-prem configurations can be transposed to Jahia Cloud
- Module code audit: check that modules compile and deploy correctly
- Data audit: verify data integrity, so that the site(s) can be imported without error.
Based on the results of this audit, migration can be planned, either in-house (with or without Jahia support), or via an external integrator.
Data cleansing
Jahia has developed a module called Content Integrity, to detect inconsistencies within the export database, and “cleanse” data during migrations to the Cloud. Based on this module, we can develop and run cleansing scripts tailored to each company's infrastructure.
Jahia tips for preparing your migration
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Make sure your data is centralized and standardized.
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Establish strong data governance and data quality assessment processes to detect and correct errors, inconsistencies and obsolete data.
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Create a clear data architecture model, and thoroughly document existing architecture and migration processes.
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Carry out performance tests and real-life simulations before going live, to avoid unpleasant surprises.
Compatibility check
Between your on-premises hosting and cloud hosting, the technological environments can be very different. It is therefore essential to ensure compatibility between solutions.
Among the tools that can lead to these technological differences are :
- databases, which have specific functionalities or data types (e.g. migration from on-premise MySQL to Amazon RDS)
- file management and storage services, which may require API changes (e.g.: local storage to Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage)
- identity and access management systems, which often require adaptation of permission schemes (e.g. LDAP or Active Directory to AWS IAM or Azure Active Directory).
As part of the EBU's Cloud migration, for example, it was necessary to guarantee compatibility with JDK11 and Jahia 8 APIs.
Note
Allow a margin in the Cloud migration timeline. There is often a gap between the theoretical, ideal process and reality. This may be due to data quality, or to architecture mismatches (specific custom code, CMS version, JDK version...).
Log migration
There is no universal law regarding how long logs must be stored, but many regulations set guidelines for data retention, particularly for logs that may contain personally identifiable information (PII). For example, certain logs related to the Payment Card Industry or Healthcare data must be retained for specific periods under PCI DSS (1 year) or HIPAA (6 years).
You should therefore take this into account when planning your migration, as you may be asked to provide logs prior to your cloud migration.
Note
Jahia Cloud logs are stored in S3 Buckets, but can also be duplicated locally to double the security of your data. Providing for the possibility of retrieving data from the production environment locally, even in the context of Cloud hosting, can sometimes also simplify the work of the development team.
I trust Jahia's services, but I always have an in-house service that retrieves data just in case.