In business, you don’t want to have your head in the clouds. Moving your business to a cloud may bring you profit though.
What can be migrated to a cloud?
Cloud migration is a process in which digital resources are moved from on-premise infrastructure to a cloud. You can do it even with your holiday photos. In business, however, there are three main situations when you will benefit from such a migration. First, you may want to move your data-sources to a cloud. Databases, shared files, etc. When more people need to work on the same data or files, it’s tempting to migrate them. Profits? Flexibility, mobility, and security.
Second, you may move whole applications used in your company to a cloud as well. Although not every application can get installed and used that way, it’s becoming more and more popular. It’s great for many reasons, including lower maintenance costs and higher flexibility.
The third one happens when it is your company that provides software. You can then use dedicated services, platforms, and ready-to-use components, to create a cloud-based application. Such an app will benefit from the cloud computing advantages and improve your customers’ UX.
Importantly, you don’t always need or have to migrate all your resources to a cloud. For some reason, it’s often advisable to keep some crucial data inside. Moreover, depending on how your company works and what are your development plans you should decide, which processes will benefit most from the migration, and which don’t need it at all. It’s even possible to design and create an ecosystem consisting of both your on-premise infrastructure and a cloud. Choosing the right combination will let your company experience the vast pool of benefits of cloud computing.
So, what are these benefits?
What are the benefits of cloud migration
Before deciding on migrating your assets to a cloud, consider the benefits. Will they apply to your business? Look at the list of cloud migrations benefits below to find out, how this process may influence the way you work.
- Scalability – it is much easier to grow and to keep (and improve) the quality of your work when using cloud-based solutions. Moreover, it is then your cloud provider business to prepare their infrastructure for your growth. What’s even better is that your cloud can adjust the level of assets needed for the amount of traffic you’re exposed to. In other words, clouds make it possible that scalability happens instantly.
- Reliability – together with better scalability, comes the higher reliability. Clouds are designed in such a way, that they (almost) always are accessible and ready to work. As a cloud user, you don’t rely on one server or data-center only. As a result, you can count on incredibly high SLA, sometimes reaching 100% accessibility!
- Disaster recovery and automatic backup – help you ensure that nothing vanishes in case of any breakdown. Clouds are almost data-loss resistant because store copies of data in multiple locations.
- Security – previous points also add up to the security benefit. However, there’s more to this. Cloud providers usually have access to better, more breach-resistant security solutions as well as experts. What’s more, as their customer, you’re not alone regarding security and software updates. Cloud providers usually offer the so-called Shared Responsibility Model, in which the responsibility for maintenance and security is divided between the customer and provider.
- Lower costs – especially if you choose e.g. IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) you will gain the ability to adjust the infrastructure and costs to your current situation and needs.
- Improved monitoring and analytics – cloud solutions often have built-in monitoring services. Together with automatic and standardized logging of the key metrics, you are equipped with access to the most reliable data bout your infrastructure and maintenance. Even better, most cloud providers offer e-mail or phone notifications about the state of your infrastructure, assets, or breakdown.
- Improved IT resource management – when you want to change anything in your IT hardware, you need to find, buy, and assemble new parts (you, or your IT expert). When you are a cloud customer, all you need to do is to choose proper components in Software as a Service or Infrastructure as a Service models. It smoothens your processes.
- Increased mobility – with a cloud, it’s much easier (and more secure) to work remotely and in a move. It’s become even more vital after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased mobility also means that moving your office is easier and makes your company more flexible.
- Collaboration – clouds make it easier to collaborate as well. Especially for remote teams with workers in different locations.
- Reduced carbon footprint – last but not least, thanks to the economies of scale, cloud providers are often greener and produce lower carbon footprint.
Summing up, cloud migration will help you enhance your business performance, improves your company scalability, ensuring security at the same time. Moreover, it is a way to transform your company and make it more Agile.
How to start cloud migration?
Migrating to a cloud will transform your business. It can not only increase the organization’s agility, but also make it more profitable. The question is, where to start?
First, you need to get to know the possibilities and limitations of various solutions. Not just clouds, but tools enhancing the migration process and cloud administration too. There are many of them. Some are better for very big corporations, others are more suitable for medium or even small companies.
Next, you will need a comprehensive cloud migration strategy. To do this, answer the questions about your goals, set a deadline and a schedule, prepare for challenges, and build advocacy for upcoming changes. Strategic planning will help you find out what’s the best way to implement cloud solutions in your organization.
Then there’s the migration itself. It involves more than just moving data from one place to another and re-installation of your software. Often you will need additional, tailor-made applications or at least adjustments in the software you already use. To save all the features, you will want to perform some integration works too. They will help connect your applications and data sources. Furthermore, you might need to adjust your application or re-implement certain modules, so they can use cloud assets or services. Eventually, you will get to the point of verification. Does everything work as it’s supposed to? Do all back-up solutions work as they should? Profound testing is the thing here.
Even the cloud itself often needs some configuration to adjust its capabilities to your requirements. It all requires a deep understanding of your business and cloud solutions.
So, how to make sure you won’t miss anything along this complex process? We know, and we want to share our expertise with you. Because it’s good to work with experts.
If you want to consult your cloud migration plans, feel free to talk with us.
Q: What are the main situations when a business would benefit from cloud migration?
Businesses may benefit from cloud migration when they want to move their data-sources (databases, shared files, etc.) to the cloud for increased flexibility, mobility, and security. They may also benefit from moving whole applications to the cloud for lower maintenance costs and higher flexibility. Additionally, companies that provide software can use dedicated services, platforms, and ready-to-use components to create a cloud-based application, which can improve their customers’ user experience.
Q: Do I have to migrate all my resources to the cloud?
No, it is not necessary to migrate all resources to the cloud. It is often advisable to keep some crucial data on-premise. Additionally, it is important to consider which processes will benefit most from migration and which do not need it at all. It is possible to design and create an ecosystem consisting of both on-premise infrastructure and the cloud to find the right combination that will allow your company to experience the benefits of cloud computing.
Q: What are the benefits of cloud migration?
The benefits of cloud migration include scalability, reliability, disaster recovery and automatic backup, security, lower costs, improved monitoring and analytics, and improved IT resource management.
