Understanding the 7 Rs of Cloud Migration — And How to Choose the Right One

A real-world guide to Rehost, Replatform, Repurchase, Refactor, Retire, Retain, and Relocate — backed by lessons from the field.

“We’re moving to the cloud.”
Sounds simple — until you realize how many ways there are to get there.
And making the wrong choice early? That’s how migrations stall, costs explode, and teams burn out.

This guide breaks down the 7 Rs of cloud migration — and how I’ve seen each one play out in the real world, for better or worse.

Photo by Brands&People on Unsplash

🧭 The 7 Rs at a Glance

Cloud migration isn’t just a move — it’s a redesign. The 7 Rs framework helps break down your options when planning that move.

Each strategy balances trade-offs between speed, cost, flexibility, and complexity.

⏱️When Each “R” Makes Sense

1. Rehost: The Fast Track

✅ Fastest to execute
💰 Low upfront cost
🤕 Pitfall: Long-term bills stack up fast if workloads aren’t optimized

Real insight: One team I worked with rehosted their monolith app overnight — and hit their go-live date. But 6 months later, they were paying 3x their expected cloud bill. Why? They never revisited the architecture.

2. Replatform: Small Tweaks, Big Gains

✅ A smart middle ground
🔧 Example: Moving to managed DB, containerizing workloads
⚠️ Risk: Hidden complexity sneaks in

Real insight: We once swapped self-hosted Redis for AWS ElastiCache — huge time saver. But missed config tuning led to performance dips that took weeks to uncover.

3. Repurchase: SaaS All the Way

✅ Ideal for commoditized workloads (CRM, HR, ERP)
💸 Subscription-based pricing
🔒 Lock-in risk is real

Real insight: A startup replaced its ticketing system with a SaaS tool. Great short-term gains — but integrating it with legacy billing systems created more work than expected.

4. Refactor: The Cloud-Native Dream

✅ Fully unlocks cloud benefits (scalability, observability, automation)
🧠 Requires deep re-architecture
🕐 Slowest, most expensive upfront

Real insight: We refactored a media pipeline into serverless microservices. Result: 90% ops savings. But it took 9 months, 3 rounds of user testing, and multiple rollback plans.

5. Retire: Less is More

✅ Clears out dead weight
📉 Reduce complexity and cost
🤔 Needs courage to say “no”

Real insight: We found 12 unused apps costing ~$8K/year. Retiring them was easy — once leadership saw the numbers.

6. Retain: Delay by Design

✅ Sometimes the best move is no move (yet)
⛓ Often due to compliance, latency, or vendor lock-in
🧭 Keep reviewing annually

Real insight: A financial client retained mainframe systems tied to batch clearing. We wrapped APIs around it instead of forcing migration.

7. Relocate: Infra-Lift for Special Cases

✅ Useful for VMware-heavy or regulated workloads
🧳 Just move the house without changing furniture
🧯 Good DR option, but rarely long-term

🤔 Choosing the Right “R” — Lessons Learned

“Migration is a chess game, not a sprint.”

Here’s what’s helped in the real world:

Mix and match: One app might need refactoring, another just retiring.
Start with inventory: Map dependencies before planning your Rs.
Plan for change: Your choice may evolve as business or cloud maturity shifts.
Cost ≠ value: Sometimes the most expensive move (refactor) saves the most in 2 years.

📋Final Checklist Before You Migrate

✅ Have you mapped your systems and dependencies?
✅ Have you aligned your choice of R to business outcomes , not just tech feasibility?
✅ Are you tracking post-migration performance and cost metrics?

💬 What’s Your “R” Story?

Have you rehosted and regretted it? Refactored and soared? Retired legacy apps no one touched?

🧠 I’d love to hear your story — leave a comment below.
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Let’s make cloud migration smarter — together.