KennethFor companies across all industries, migrating their enterprise infrastructure to the cloud is crucial to being a frontrunner the ever-changing market. The benefits of utilizing enterprise applications on the cloud are numerous:
- More efficient/lower costs
- Higher performance metrics (especially when used via managed hosting provider)
- Quick and efficient scalability
- Customized security and compliance structures
While the benefits are certainly attractive to many business owners and stakeholders, a large and potentially tenuous hurdle stands in the way: migration. Migration refers to the processes that occur when you are transferring your current set-up to the new cloud environment. Much as can be expected for any sort of migration, this has the potential to greatly disrupt the flow of productivity if not approached or deployed correctly.
Migration oftentimes becomes an issue because it is not a concern that is at the forefront of moving enterprise applications to the cloud, unlike security. Some of the top reasons for unsuccessful migrations can include:
- Choosing the wrong cloud solution for their needs
- Getting all teams on board and ready for a migration
- Unrealistic timelines for completion
- Lack of knowledge in how to deploy a successful migration if done in-house and without an experienced partner
Assess Current Application Structure and Determine Cloud Best Fit
While this task can certainly be conducted by an internal team who knows your business structure best, it’s equally important to get feedback and guidance from a knowledgeable cloud service provider to ensure that the most effective cloud environment is chosen based on current and future needs.
There are a few different cloud structures to consider for your post-migration environment, including:
Depending on not only your current structure but also the ideal infrastructure for the future can heavily influence which type of cloud environment you migrate to. Because this could have such a huge impact on your productivity potential and financial bottom line, having a professional cloud provider consultant evaluate your situation could help you avoid costly future mistakes.
Create a Doable Plan of Action that Involves All Stakeholders
Once you have chosen the best fit for your new enterprise cloud environment, your next step is to create a plan of action to implement it. One of the most crucial steps is to ensure that all parties are privy to the migration, on board, and ready to do what is necessary on their end to ensure its success. This will help to ensure a smooth (and quick) transition that will get you fully migrated sooner.
While it is indeed possible to create and implement a plan through your internal team alone, more and more enterprises are finding benefits from a cost and timing perspective by partnering up with an experienced cloud service provider that has extensive knowledge of all steps of a migration process for both hybrid cloud, public cloud and private cloud options.
When choosing a partner, be sure to assess their case study history to see if any of their previous client situations are similar to your endeavors. Providers that have a wide variety of experience with different industries typically will be able to anticipate and address hurdles more quickly.
Your Migration Plan Should Be Timely, But Don’t Rush It
The faster and more efficient the migration, the faster you can realize savings and other benefits of operating through the cloud. However, don’t sacrifice rigorous testing and planning to simply roll out your new environment quickly, or you may cause more issues than you began with.
Alison DeNisco with ZDNet explains that it is imperative that you are fully aware of just how much work goes into a cloud migration - and that it is not as simple as dropping data from one storage environment to another: “Many organizations are layering cloud solutions on top of legacy systems and software, so it’s key to ensure that the solution chosen is able to be integrated with your existing systems.”
Moving your current enterprise infrastructure to the cloud is a smart move, and it’s never too late to reap the benefits of doing so. However, you must be diligent about creating and deploying a solid migration plan.
For an experienced partner who will learn the ins-and-outs of your particular enterprise, as well as what your goals are within a cloud environment, trust the experts at Wowrack. Our team will assess and create a customized plan that will ensure a smooth and stress-free cloud migration. Give us a call today.
