---
title: "Growing Enterprise Cloud Adoption: Three Steps to Improve Application Efficiency"
locale: "en"
language: "en-HK"
published: "2019-12-31T15:49:32+08:00"
updated: "2026-03-17T23:02:49.095Z"
canonical: "https://accordhk.com/blog/growing-enterprise-cloud-adoption-three-steps-to-improve-application-efficiency-118"
---

# Growing Enterprise Cloud Adoption: Three Steps to Improve Application Efficiency

Hong Kong places great emphasis on technological innovation. In April 2019, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer established the Smart Government Innovation Lab to help the industry improve public services through IT, encourage public-private collaboration and create opportunities for local start-ups and SMEs.

## In brief

Improve enterprise application efficiency by assessing your application portfolio, planning migration priorities and moving quickly with an experienced cloud partner. Match each application to a suitable cloud to reduce risks, support high availability and lower operating costs.

Hong Kong places great emphasis on technological innovation today. In April this year, the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer established the [Smart Government Innovation Lab](<http://appdeveloperhk.com/>) to connect with and help the industry use information technology to improve public services, encourage collaboration between public and private organisations, and create business opportunities for local start-ups and SMEs.

Indeed, many public and private organisations hope to use [the cloud](<http://appdeveloperhk.com/>) to improve performance and capture business opportunities. Moving enterprise applications to the cloud has become a clear trend. Several factors must be considered for a successful migration. These include : the difficulty of migrating certain applications without a suitable, experienced partner, the need to complete migration with limited resources and tight deadlines, and the risk of moving applications to the wrong cloud. The following steps can help ensure a smooth cloud migration with minimal disruption to the business:

**Step 1: Carefully assess your application portfolio**  

Many businesses have an application portfolio that includes modern applications such as microservices, cloud-native applications and mobile apps; legacy applications such as client-server applications, mainframe applications and UNIX/C; and other applications such as [Java](<http://appdeveloperhk.com/>), applications running on the Java Enterprise Edition platform, the .NET framework, and web applications.

A thorough assessment helps evaluate and classify the dependencies within the application portfolio and the ecosystem surrounding each application. This includes understanding physical and virtual server configurations, network topology, security and regulatory requirements, existing support, and data dependencies. Completing this step helps businesses identify where to start for the greatest benefit. Applications in the first category are generally already on cloud platforms or can be moved easily between clouds. Migrating applications in the second category, however, carries risks, so businesses should avoid making these their first cloud migration priority.

The real opportunity lies in the third category. Moving these applications to a suitable public or private cloud can deliver substantial cost savings. Rackspace can typically help customers save 40% to 60% on expenses.

**Step 2: Create an inventory and a plan**  

The aim of this step is to migrate and modernise applications in the third category without increasing their complexity, challenges or costs. To achieve this, IT leaders should ask the developers concerned whether they have followed cloud-native principles to achieve high availability. They should then consider which tools to use to manage and enforce application security policies and help operations teams deploy, manage and troubleshoot applications effectively. Finally, they should consider whether the applications account for the underlying hardware topology and execution characteristics.

Businesses should use the answers to these questions to prioritise application migrations and choose a cloud according to each application's needs. For example, cloud-native applications that do not depend on a direct application stack are prime candidates for the public cloud. Applications with more complex connections within a business's data centre ecosystem are better suited to a privately hosted cloud service, which can enable faster migration with lower risk.

**Step 3: Migrate quickly to achieve cost efficiency**  

More businesses are recognising that engaging a partner with extensive experience in hybrid public and private clouds can help ensure a successful cloud migration.

Although taking a cautious approach and handling a large-scale migration independently may seem the most economical option, it often leads to budget overruns in the long term because businesses must bear the costs of two cloud architectures during migration. Moving enterprise applications to private or public hosted [cloud services](<http://appdeveloperhk.com/>) can effectively reduce operating costs through hardware utilisation, better management tools and self-service capabilities.

As regional and global competition intensifies, businesses are increasingly inclined to move applications to the cloud to make their operations more agile. Choosing the right strategic partner can help businesses select the most suitable application platform, reduce risks and accelerate cloud migration. Moving to the cloud allows businesses to scale and update applications as needed to ensure high service availability while lowering operating costs.

 

Original article URL: bit.ly/35tM87W

 

## Frequently asked questions

### What are the three steps for improving enterprise application efficiency in the cloud?

Assess the application portfolio, create an inventory and migration plan, and migrate quickly to achieve cost efficiency. These steps help businesses choose suitable cloud environments and minimise disruption.

### Which applications should businesses consider migrating first?

The article identifies the third category, including Java, Java Enterprise Edition, .NET and web applications, as offering substantial opportunities for cost savings. Legacy applications carry migration risks and should not be the first priority.

### What should an application assessment cover?

It should cover application and data dependencies, physical and virtual server configurations, network topology, security and regulatory requirements, and existing support. This helps businesses determine where migration can deliver the greatest benefit.

### How should businesses choose between public and privately hosted clouds?

Cloud-native applications that do not depend on a direct application stack are prime candidates for the public cloud. Applications with more complex connections within a data centre ecosystem are better suited to privately hosted cloud services.

### Why can a lengthy migration increase costs?

Businesses may need to pay for two cloud architectures during migration, which can lead to budget overruns. An experienced partner can help accelerate migration and reduce risks.