The Thinkwise platform supports a wide range of deployment options, from on-premise servers to fully cloud-native infrastructure. To help you plan and execute a successful cloud transition, we have published comprehensive transition to the cloud documentation on our docs.
Even if you have no active plans to move your application, we do recommend to replace unsupported features, thereby increasing the portability of your Thinkwise applications.
More than a hosting change
Transitioning to the cloud is not just about moving servers. It is a strategic decision that unlocks real business advantages.
Scalability and cost efficiency. Cloud infrastructure can scale with demand. Your infrastructure capacity grows during peak usage and shrinks when things quiet down, with costs matching actual consumption. No more purchasing, maintaining, or replacing physical servers.
High availability. Replication across multiple data centers keeps your application running even when one location fails. Automated backups and disaster recovery give you point-in-time restore capabilities that are difficult to implement on your own hardware.
Portability. A cloud-ready application runs on the Thinkwise Cloud, Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or other data center/cloud provider. You are not locked into a single provider as your application is now easily portable. This freedom lets you adapt your infrastructure strategy as business needs evolve, without fundamental architectural changes.
Control over governance and data sovereignty. Cloud environments give you fine-grained control over where your data lives, who can access it, and how it is secured. Combined with SSO, conditional access policies, and isolated tenant environments, you maintain full oversight of your data governance requirements.
Reduced dependency on maintenance parties. By standardizing on cloud-native services and the Thinkwise platform’s built-in capabilities, you reduce reliance on external infrastructure specialists. Platform updates, security patches, and monitoring become part of a managed, automated process rather than a manual exercise.
A better integrated platform
The transition to the cloud also coincides with a broader trend in the Thinkwise platform: features that previously required extenders or external tools are now part of the standard platform. The cloud transition documentation guides you through replacing legacy constructs like database mail, SQL Server jobs, and CLR assemblies with their platform-native alternatives. The result is a cleaner, more portable application that runs consistently across environments.
What the documentation covers
The cloud transition documentation is structured around eight clear steps, starting from zero:
0. Transition to the Universal UI (prerequisite)
1. Prepare your application for the cloud
2. Set up your cloud environment
3. Set up file storage replication
4. Migrate to the cloud environment
5. Perform integration and acceptance testing
6. The final deployment
7. Explore cloud capabilities
The documentation covers everything from replacing unsupported SQL Server features to preparing authentication with SSO and setting up file storage replication well before go-live.
Ready to get started? Read the full Transition to the cloud documentation.
Start with the Universal UI
Before you can transition to the cloud, your application must run on the Universal UI with its 3-tier architecture. If you have not made this transition yet, follow the seven-step Universal UI transition guide first.
Cloud-agnostic by design
This documentation applies to any cloud platform. Whether you choose Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, or the Thinkwise Cloud, the preparation steps remain the same. The Thinkwise Cloud simplifies things further since we manage the infrastructure and deployments for you, but the application-level preparation is identical regardless of where you deploy.
Get in touch
We built this documentation to give you everything you need. That said, every application is different. If you find information missing, scenarios not covered, or something that could be clearer, please comment on this topic. Your feedback improves the documentation for everyone.