Cloud Migration: From OVH VPS to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Free Tier

Introduction

In early 2025, I undertook a cost optimization project for a startup running a legacy Java/Servlet/JSP application. The goal was to reduce hosting costs while maintaining or improving infrastructure quality. This post details our journey from an OVH VPS to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Free Tier, resulting in a €0/month hosting cost while gaining enterprise-grade features.

Initial Situation Analysis

Legacy Environment

• Application Stack: Java/Servlet/JSP

• Build System: No Maven/Gradle

• Deployment: Direct WAR deployment

• Infrastructure: OVH VPS

• Monthly Costs:

  • VPS: €15.98

  • Backup Service: €6.00

  • Total: €21.98/month

Technical Debt Overview

• No containerization

• Manual deployment process

• Basic backup system

• Limited security features

• No Infrastructure as Code

Cloud Provider Selection Process

We conducted a thorough analysis of major cloud providers based on the following criteria:

Google Cloud Platform

• Costs for equivalent setup: €115.89 - €136.86/month

• Breakdown:

  • Compute (n1-standard-1): €34.67

  • Database: ~€101.40

  • Storage: €0.10

  • External IP: €7.29

  • DNS: €0.65

• Free tier: Limited duration and resources

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

• Free Tier Resources:

  • 2 AMD or 4 ARM OCPUs

  • 24GB RAM

  • 200GB Block Storage

  • Autonomous Database

  • Load Balancer

  • 10TB/month outbound bandwidth

• Enterprise Features Included:

  • Web Application Firewall

  • Bastion Service

  • Cloud Guard

  • Vulnerability Scanning

  • Automated Backups

Decision Factors

1. Cost Efficiency: OCI's permanent free tier

2. Resource Allocation: Generous compute and memory

3. Enterprise Features: Included security and monitoring

4. Long-term Viability: No time limitation on free tier

Migration Strategy

Why Lift-and-Shift?

1. Resource Constraints

   • Limited budget for immediate modernization

   • Team focused on product development

   • No immediate technical debt impact

2. Future-Proofing

   • Zero hosting costs enable gradual modernization

   • Infrastructure ready for containerization

   • Automated deployment pipeline in place

Infrastructure as Code Implementation

Terraform Backend Configuration

We used Terraform Cloud for state management and team collaboration. Here's our backend configuration:

# backend.tf
terraform {
  required_version = ">= 1.1.0"
  backend "remote" {
    hostname     = "app.terraform.io"
    organization = "[Organization Name]"

    workspaces {
      name = "prod"
    }
  }
}

This setup provides several benefits:

• Secure state file storage

• State locking to prevent concurrent modifications

• Team collaboration capabilities

• Version control integration

• Automated state backups

• Run history and audit trail

Our Terraform project structure:

terraform/
├── modules/
├── script/
├── backend.tf
├── data.tf
├── local.tf
├── main.tf
├── output.tf
├── primary.tf
├── providers.tf
├── secondary.tf
├── variables.tf
└── versions.tf

Implementation Timeline

1. Planning Phase (2 Days)

   • Infrastructure design

   • Migration strategy documentation

   • Resource allocation planning

2. Infrastructure Setup (2 Days)

   • Terraform configuration

   • Network setup

   • Security configuration

3. Application Migration (1 Day)

   • Database migration

   • File system replication

   • DNS configuration

4. Testing & Validation (2 Days)

   • Functionality testing

   • Performance validation

   • Security verification

5. Cutover (1 Day)

   • DNS switch

   • Final data sync

   • Go-live verification

Results and Benefits

1. Cost Reduction

   • Previous cost: €21.98/month

   • Current cost: €0/month

   • Annual savings: €263.76

2. Infrastructure Improvements

   • High availability architecture

   • Automated backups

   • Web Application Firewall

   • Bastion service

   • Enhanced monitoring

3. Operational Benefits

   • Infrastructure as Code

   • Automated deployments

   • Enhanced security

   • Improved disaster recovery

Future Roadmap

1. Application Modernization

   • Maven integration

   • Containerization

   • CI/CD pipeline enhancement

2. Infrastructure Evolution

   • Multi-region deployment

   • Container orchestration

   • Serverless adoption

Exemple Resources and Further Reading to start

• 1 year ago, i add on my Youtube Channel Complete implementation tutorial: Pipeline DevSecOps Oracle Cloud Gratuite, Jenkins, Trivy, OWASP, Docker Hub, Sonarqube, Terraform

• Infrastructure as Code templates: https://github.com/devsahamerlin/iac-spring-boot-atp-jenkins-oci-devsecops

Conclusion

This migration demonstrates that pragmatic cloud adoption doesn't always require immediate application modernization. By leveraging OCI's free tier, we eliminated hosting costs while creating a foundation for future improvements. The startup can now modernize at their own pace without infrastructure cost pressure.

The complete automation scripts, Infrastructure as Code templates, and configuration files are available in our GitHub repository. For a detailed walkthrough of setting up a complete DevSecOps pipeline on OCI Free Tier, check out our YouTube tutorial.

Tags: #CloudMigration #OCI #DevOps #IaC #CostOptimization #CloudArchitecture