A comparative analysis of cloud migration strategies for enterprise systems architecture

This article presents a comparative analysis of cloud migration strategies within enterprise systems architecture, examining how different approaches impact technical performance, architectural sustainability, and business value alignment. Through mixed-methods research encompassing 17 organizations across financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, and public sectors, the article evaluates the efficacy of rehosting, refactoring, rearchitecting, and replacement strategies. This article's findings reveal that strategy selection effectiveness depends critically on contextual factors including regulatory environment, application characteristics, organizational cloud maturity, and business objectives. The article introduces a comprehensive decision framework that integrates technical and business dimensions, demonstrating strong predictive validity for migration success. Key insights include the identification of non-linear relationships between application technical debt and optimal strategy selection, the importance of balancing tactical and strategic migration approaches for long-term architectural sustainability, and the significant impact of organizational change management on migration outcomes. Performance analysis demonstrates substantial variations in cost efficiency, scalability, and security outcomes across strategies, with refactoring and rearchitecting delivering superior long-term value despite higher initial investment. This article addresses significant gaps in comparative migration strategy literature and provides practitioners with evidence-based guidance for navigating complex architectural transformations in enterprise cloud adoption.