While many businesses and organizations are still clinging to their data center technology, all indications are that this is a dying option of running busy operations. Cloud computing has come as a godsend for all types of businesses seeking to deliver smooth and seamless services without breaking the bank. The contemporary business landscape has become more competitive yet the cost of operations keeps going up.
Implications of cloud migration
Moving your services to the cloud, including servers, networking, software, storage, databases, and analytics among others, is now an alternative to physical data centers for many reasons. It is true data centers will still be around for some time but cloud computing offers irrefutable advantages including cost efficiency, scalability, agility, always-on availability, improved mobility, improved collaboration and less environmental impact.
What to consider during cloud migration
Truth be told, moving enterprise data and applications to the cloud is a daunting task. While cloud computing offers multiple benefits, it’s only possible to enjoy them if the planning phase is done meticulously. For a start, you need to get everyone on the same page using an in-depth sales pitch.
Once this is done, consider the following factors:
- Security – You are moving your services out of the firewall and into the cloud and as such, you need to take security precautions both during the migration phase and after the process. Make sure you understand your cloud services New Jersey data protection and disaster recovery strategy early enough.
- Licensing –While it is the best idea to host your software in a SaaS-style service, you have to consider any existing licensing permits. You have to consider how your application is licensed, whether per total infrastructure footprint or per VM because this will have huge cost implications if you decide to migrate to the cloud.
- Access changes – You have to consider the existing access mechanism and assess how migrating to the cloud will affect things. For instance, will the user experience be affected in any way during and after the migration process? Are there changes to the IP addresses or DNS entries that might affect the user or will you be forced to update users about such changes? Will you migrate users gradually or in a single move? All these considerations will determine how successful the cloud migration process turns out to be.
- Workload analysis – One major mistake that clients make is rushing to move all their applications to the cloud without first determining whether this is the best option. Consider whether all applications that you intend to move to the cloud will perform with the same efficiency or better. Consider security and availability around the clock for these applications.
- Integration – Most clients discover application dependencies very late in the day. This can lead to limited functionality to systems or even worse, outages which can ruin the entire migration.
There are other considerations including scale ability, software compatibility, verifying usage and downtime compensation in case of failure among other factors.
