Cloud migration is not a single procedure. The strategy you choose affects cost, timeline, risk, and how much improvement you see on day one. Matching the approach to each workload keeps projects predictable.
Lift-and-shift
Move the server or VM to cloud with minimal changes. Fastest path when the OS is still supported and the app runs cleanly in a virtual environment. Good for getting off failing hardware quickly. Downside: you may carry over inefficiencies and technical debt.
Replatform
Move to a managed service — for example, WordPress on tuned cloud stacks or databases on managed instances. You change the platform slightly to gain backups, patching, and scaling without rewriting the application. This is our most common path for WordPress and small business apps.
Refactor
Rebuild or modernize code during migration — PHP upgrades, API extraction, or moving to static frontends. Higher upfront effort but better long-term agility. Makes sense when the current codebase is fragile or when you are already planning application development work.
How we decide together
Discovery inventories dependencies and downtime tolerance. Some systems lift-and-shift in week one while others replatform in phase two. The migration process document explains how we sequence work so you are never betting the business on a single cutover weekend without a rollback plan.