Cloud migration is referred to the process of moving data, applications, and processes from an organization’s physical infrastructure to the cloud or from one cloud platform to another. With exponential amounts of data being produced on a daily basis, on-premises to cloud migration has become a promising solution to many data-related problems. Though cloud migration sounds beneficial in every form and aspect, there are situations where cloud migration doesn’t go right and may produce disastrous effects on your business. This blog post attempts to uncover the importance of cloud migration, along with challenges and the best practices to carry it out.
Before we move ahead, let’s take a look at some crucial stats:
Why migrate to the cloud?
First things first, let’s discuss why you should take all your data from on-premise infrastructure to the cloud. There are many reasons which promote data migration. However, some of those are obvious and more beneficial than others. Have a look.
1. Scalability
Cloud platforms can scale up to facilitate larger workloads and a higher number of users as compared to that facilitated by any on-premises infrastructure. Scalability without cloud computing can require organizations to purchase software licenses and install several additional servers, peripherals, and networking equipment.
2. Performance
When the website and applications of an organization are hosted on the cloud instead of disparate on-premises servers, data takes a significantly lower time to reach the users. Thus, on-premises to cloud migration helps organizations to reduce latency, improve performance, and enhance the customer experience.
3. Flexibility
When data is stored on cloud data centers, data and cloud services are accessible to all users, including employees and customers whenever necessary irrespective of their geographical locations. This allows businesses to augment into new regions, create a market for international audiences, and offer their employees flexibility.
4. Cost-efficiency
Cost-efficiency is a byproduct of on-premises to cloud migration. Since the cloud providers manage, maintain, and upgrade the cloud servers, businesses that shift to the cloud, reduce costs that are otherwise spent on IT operations, maintenance, and upgrades. With the help of a cloud platform, companies get rid of worries related to keeping things up and running. Instead, they can focus on their business goals, such as developing new markets, developing new products, and improving the existing ones.
5. Security Compliance
Security is under threat when data is housed within premises as security relies only on internal policies. On the other hand, cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services, Snowflake, Google Cloud Platform, and more understand that their customers trust them for the security of their data. As a result, cloud service providers strive hard to meet the security standards set by health, financial, and government institutions.
Organizations using shared servers on the cloud can easily enable certifications like SOC2, HIPAA, ISO27001, and PCI as most leading cloud computing infrastructures are already certified and make it easy for organizations to obtain these certificates. Moreover, security features such as authentication, authorization, and auditing are built into all cloud platforms.
What are the challenges in cloud migration and the best practices to overcome them?
Cloud migration services offer businesses lucrative benefits such as efficiency, security, economy, and scalability, thereby allowing them to perform various functions quickly and efficiently. Cloud computing services facilitate businesses of all types and sizes, which can be seen through the rising inclination of enterprises towards the cloud for streamlining processes. Though on-premises to cloud migration can help you become more competitive, it is always recommended that you consult with the right IT solution provider for an effective roadmap and to evaluate your business for compatibility and eligibility for a cloud environment.
If you are looking at the cloud as a one-size-fits-all solution for all your data- and server-related issues, move ahead with precaution. This blog points out some crucial points which can help you understand the challenges of cloud migration and the best way to avoid them.
1. Return on Investment (ROI)
Strategically designed roadmap for migration must contain minutia of costs incurred by a cloud provider over the time of at least the initial 3 years. Not only that, but you must also have a closer look at your own infrastructure as an unplanned move can result in squeezed careful life augmentation or wastage of third-party warranties and licenses. Close monitoring of infrastructure can help you identify possibilities to reduce costs while making your business better prepared for future planning for migration.
2. Business Impact Analysis
How will the on-premises to cloud migration affect your business? Are you ready to absorb the high-level impact? A thorough business impact analysis can answer your questions. You can start with an application on which your business isn’t highly dependent. The formula is to shift the less important business applications on the cloud initially to test the experience of moving workload. Components such as an intranet, email servers, and departmental applications make for the best candidate to go on the cloud.
3. Compatibility of environment
While moving to the cloud, you should maintain the configuration and infrastructure in use as it is to minimize the chances of problems. So, until the entire migration is complete, production and operations don’t have to be affected.
4. Unexpected errors and downtimes
Highly performance-sensitive applications and environments that require too much data processing are not the right candidates to be moved on cloud in the very beginning. An attempt to do so can create adverse effects on your business by increasing response time.
5. Complexities
Complex architecture systems with multiple points depending on different applications can create complications during and after migration if migrated early. Thus, the migration of such systems must be delayed if possible.
6. Licensing
Licensing and terms and conditions vary from vendor to vendor. This makes it extremely necessary to evaluate beforehand whether the vendor allows running additional copies in unusual scenarios, under the same agreement or not.
7. Service level agreements
Enterprises must analyze service level agreement (SLA) to learn in which cases the cloud service provider can be held responsible. For example, uptime and restoration are usually the service provider’s responsibilities.
8. Security
The security of your data is crucial, and a cloud service provider cannot be trusted blindly. Before migrating to the cloud, you must consult your IT service provider to verify adequate security measures are in place.
9. Ease and flexibility of remigration
Think of a future situation when you are required to move your environment from one cloud platform to another. This type of migration is not as simple as moving data from on-premises to the cloud. A well-planned roadmap must be rolled out to ensure your business doesn’t face disruptions due to the inefficiency of the data storage platform.
10. Internet bandwidth & service reliability
Internet bandwidth requirements and reliability are crucial but highly underestimated aspects. As the functions and processes of your organization will entirely depend on services provided by your cloud computing partner, you must take all the factors such as the number of users, nature of work, and location of the organization into account. Having optimum information about availability and bandwidth requirements to access services becomes extremely necessary.
Key Takeaways:
This blog lays out reasoning for why on-premises to cloud migration is essential while focusing on scalability, performance, efficiency, and security. It also emphasizes planning and execution strategies to tackle complex challenges usually encountered during the migration journey. A robust and well-thought on-premises to cloud migration strategy will arm you to better prepare for making the process as smooth as possible. If you are thirsting for more information or intrigued to explore how the cloud can solve your organization’s data storage challenges, leave me a comment.
