The cloud migration strategy has brought such great opportunities to many businesses to use the advanced tools at a more affordable price. Gone are the days when only exclusive folks were able to attain the advantages of the cloud migration.
With the irresistible perks offered by the cloud migration, more and more businesses have seen this as the great solution to improve the productivity and service. Depending on the cloud provider, you will see a lot of simplified operations that will boost your company in every aspect. It is undeniable that the successful migration will bring a lot of benefits in the long run. But most of the time, the cloud migration process could be intervened by some issues. However, these are not the reasons why you would give up the cloud. Consider to follow these important steps so that you and your team can solve the issues.
Check your app and data movability and compatibility
There are some strings attached. Not every app and data is suitable for all cloud environments. You will want to check and recheck all of the app and data before moving it to the cloud. For instance, the sensitive data will not be suitable for the public cloud. If you are protecting your company’s information, you could consider using a private or hybrid cloud to ensure the safety of the data and app.
It is also a great idea to measure all of the app and data so that you will know about the amount of resources needed in the new platform. Some businesses use public cloud platforms. That’s okay. But you need to know that public cloud platforms used shared resources. If you need more exclusive resources, consider choosing a private cloud instead.
Budget arrangement
Obviously, cloud migration requires significant costs for your business. But rest assured that most of the cloud providers promote sensible tag prices of services. Not to mention that cloud migrations, if taken care properly, will help you to reduce the hardware and IT staffing expenses.
Migrating to the cloud will require a significant amount of network and bandwidth. The hidden expenses are the last thing you will want to know when carrying the plan of the cloud migration. So, you will need an exact plan for the network and bandwidth costs. The trustworthy and reputable cloud services like Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS offer pricing calculators to estimate the costs of the cloud migration process. Although the estimation is not 100% accurate, at least you will know what to prepare later.
What kind of cloud environment do you want to pick?
It is an important question asked long before you carry out the process. Choosing your cloud environment is a big decision you will ever make in your company’s career. It will affect your business’s future heavily.
Before choosing the deployment model for your company infrastructure and data, make sure you comprehend the definition and functions of each cloud environment offered to you.
There are four types of cloud environment that you can choose: Public Cloud, private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud, and Multi-Cloud. Make sure to get the knowledge of all of them before deciding.
Choose your cloud migration provider
Of course, to bring much better results, you will want to choose the right provider for the cloud migration. It shouldn’t be hard to find the right provider because you will easily come across their great reviews on the net.
When you browse around on the net, you will come across dozens of popular cloud providers. But if you want to get the best services, you could focus revolving on these: AWS, Google, and Microsoft. These three names are undeniably prominent in their field.
Visit their official sites and see the various packages they are offering to you. Keep in mind that the most pricey services do not justify the suitable option for you. Focus on the services that meet your requirements overly.
Mind about the security
In many cases, the cloud migration can affect the system security and governance. Well, some of the outdated apps might not work in a cloud-based environment. When you move the data to the public cloud, transparency can be the real challenge.
Therefore, it is important that you order the service from providers who have the updated certifications.
Security is indeed number one concern for every business owner when taking steps to the cloud migration. But you can handle it if you plan ahead for potential breaches, errors, and other mishaps.
AWS, Microsoft, and Google have provided the best tools for their cloud services client. You can opt to add the security tools or services to ensure that the cloud migration won’t be compromised. However, the costs might be increasing. Consider the possible ROI as well.
Conducting tests and assess possible scenarios
Ones wouldn’t know how the migration can run without testing it first. The cloud-to-cloud migration challenges are there. And if you are not aware of this, it could lead to disaster. For instance, the moving is not only about from on-premise to the cloud, but can be possible from one cloud to another.
Thus, the cloud-to-cloud migrations can require you to move from one provider to another. Or, you might need to work with multi-cloud platforms in the future. This kind of scenario might pop up sometimes when you are planning your cloud migration.
But to prepare the migration, you will want to test the apps to find out if there is configuration needed to make. Don’t worry though. You won’t walk this path alone. Your cloud provider should be able to help you with that.
Choose your cloud migration strategy
The cloud migration strategy is variable depending on the expectations and goals you expected.
The cloud migration strategy choice will also depend on the time frames for your data and apps.
If the data and apps are small to medium in sizes, migrating everything to the cloud all at once is possible. But you will need to assess the possibilities as well. Make the backups just in case there are any errors in the future.