Issues in migrating legacy systems to the cloud

There are several concerns that legacy systems pose to their host organization. A major problem is the inability to support new functionality and innovations required by the organization. Consequently, organizations recognize the need to migrate to new technologies, such as cloud computing, to meet changing demands. Little has been published about the sociotechnical changes brought about by cloud computing and the important considerations for an IT department when migrating a legacy system to the cloud. This study investigates this issue through a case study. Interviews were used to collect qualitative data from participants, comprising systems engineers, project managers, and directors. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis to identify emergent themes. The findings suggest that changing user demands and the need for more functions were the major drivers for cloud adoption. Having redundant and reliable, fast Internet links was regarded as one of the most important considerations. Changing roles can arise: engineers will be required to be more versatile and develop new business analyst and management skills. Interestingly security was not regarded as an issue as most participants felt that the cloud is more secure than the traditional data center. The primary contribution of the paper is to highlight the economic and sociotechnical issues that decision makers should consider when migrating a legacy system to the cloud.