A step-by-step decision process for application migration to cloud-native architecture

Cloud-native architecture is changing the cloud computing environment and introducing new dimensions to cloud computing adoption through the advancement in virtualisation, scalability and automation. However, many organisations found it challenging to adopt cloud-native architectures because of some issues, mainly the decision-making around migration because of the need for the adoption decision process. However, there are many decision-support systems or processes for cloud computing. Nevertheless, the additional characteristic and complexity of cloud-native architecture made many organisations find it challenging to adopt cloud-native architecture solutions. The need for a new decision-support process for the migration of either a native cloud application or legacy application to cloud-native architecture is highly needed to help the developers to be able to select the choice of model and whether to migrate or not. Therefore, this paper provides a step-by-step decision process for an organisation to migrate their application to cloud-native architecture to fill the gap. The decision process depends on the step-by-step cross-analysis of the steps and the tasks to help identify and resolve critical constraints that can affect migration into cloud-native architecture. An expert evaluation method was used to evaluate the decision process and steps. The decision process was helpful as they informed the decision makers about the needful steps and tasks to consider before migrating to the cloud-native architecture.