How to Prepare for a Successful Cloud Migration

Enterprises around the globe are looking to migrate their infrastructure to the cloud. Whether you are moving an individual workload or your entire environment, cloud migration requires careful planning. According to LogicMonitor’s Cloud Vision 2020: The Future of the Cloud study, 83% of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by this year.

However, when moving to a cloud environment, many organizations make little effort to make sure that their environment is cloud optimized. Walking into a cloud migration without careful planning can result in costly infrastructure problems, potential outages and more. Every component in the cloud works hand in hand. From billing to machine learning to programming to security, it’s beneficial in many ways to adopt to the cloud platform – but it needs to be carefully handled.

For Successful Cloud Migrations, Every Change Matters

Cloud Deployments

First, analyze your current IT environment and assess your business’s strategic goals. There are three different ways to deploy cloud resources: public, hybrid or private cloud.

• Public cloud:
  • Owned and operated by a third-party cloud service provider
  • You share the same hardware, storage and network devices with other organizations
  • Usually a pay-per-usage billing model that can save a significant amount of money
  • Highly reliable with almost unlimited scalability
• Private cloud:
  • Provides a dedicated IT infrastructure on your own private network
  • More flexibility to customize the environment to meet specific business needs
  • Improved security because your resources are not shared
  • Still have the scalability and reliability of public clouds
• Hybrid cloud:
  • Data and applications can move between public and private clouds
  • Ability to maintain a private infrastructure for sensitive operations
  • Cost-effective, but allows you to scale to additional public cloud resources when needed
  • Easier transition to the cloud because you can gradually migrate

Make sure that you have a deep understanding of all the features for each type. All three provide similar benefits, but you should choose the best deployment method for your business.

Performance & Reliability

To optimize your cloud computing, make sure you have full transparency before making the jump. Reliability is a major factor to consider. Once configured correctly, it could make managing your environment a lot easier — and in some cases, cheaper.

Performance is also key in a healthy cloud environment. Most organizations migrate workloads to the cloud to improve their operational performance. Having the right resources or the most patched software can indicate how the environment can handle stressful situations.

Cost

Cloud adoption doesn’t have to be a costly venture. The leading cloud providers are continuing to evolve their offerings. There are many things to consider when budgeting for cloud-based platforms and calculating the total cost of ownership. Some potential costs when executing a cloud migration plan:

• Hardware and Software Costs: servers, software licenses, warranties, current consumption and storage capacity, etc.
• Operational Costs: labor and talent; facilities; administrative requirements to maintain, hire, or retrain your IT department
• Indirect Costs: downtime or productivity loss if your IT infrastructure were to go down
• Execution Costs: the costs involved from moving IT operations and data to the cloud; application integration and testing; third-party consultant fees
• Post-migration Costs: monthly infrastructure; fees involved in maintenance and improvements for the new environment; continued integration and app testing, training, security, and compliance

It’s very likely that these costs will amount to a smaller number than what you are currently paying for on-premise infrastructure.

Security

One of the biggest concerns for any business when it comes to cloud migration is the fear of data loss. Security is a significant worry when adopting a new cloud computing strategy. It’s important that you have the right partner who will make sure your concerns are addressed and that your information is secure. ivision’s cloud solutions go through rigorous testing and give your business protection for your most sensitive data.

There is a lot of work that goes into safeguarding infrastructure. Ignoring this effort can lead to other difficulties down the road. Migrating to and from any cloud infrastructure is bound to pose some security risks. It’s critical that you are prepared for any hitch.

Is a Cloud Migration Worth It?

Migrating to a cloud environment may seem like a hassle, but it will bring many other benefits. It will allow your business to be more agile and flexible. You can quickly scale in an instant. You will be able to sleep easier at night knowing that your cloud environment has high availability, backup, and recovery.

Working with a trusted IT services partner can take away much of the stress that comes with cloud migrations. Furthermore, once you have deployed a solution, a reputable managed services provider can ensure seamless coverage on your cloud environment, helping you:

• Optimize resources through day-to-day management so that your internal team can focus on business drivers.
• Secure your data with disaster recovery solutions to protect you from downtime.
• Manage vendors and help track hardware, software, and manufacturer contracts.

Each component makes all the difference in the long run for a successful cloud migration. Every change matters —the moment you set foot in the cloud.