Cloud technology is a necessity today, not an option. Businesses are rapidly shifting to the cloud to leverage the benefits of flexibility, hassle-free updates, low-cost & convenient disaster recovery, reduction in hardware costs, improved collaboration among staff, the privilege of access/work from anywhere, security, and many more!
Forecasts indicate that the cloud infrastructure services segment will witness a compound annual growth rate of around 18 percent from 2018 to 2022 (Source).
Businesses have realized that cloud is beneficial and necessary for their success. But a major concern or question is, how can we achieve a successful cloud migration?
So, here are the important tips that can help businesses migrate to the cloud successfully!
Tips to Ensure Successful Cloud Migration
1. Define the Purpose and Extent of Cloud Migration
The first requirement for successful cloud migration is to understand the purpose of cloud migration for your business. Depending on this purpose, it needs to be further analyzed what all needs to be migrated to the cloud and what not!
If the purpose is not well-justified for your business, you may opt not to go for cloud migration immediately as this involves significant time and costs.
It is wise to start from small. Migrate only the necessary elements of your business to the cloud at the initial stage with a slow and steady progression as needed, later, if the initial migration proves successful.
2. Estimate and Plan the Budget
The way budget planning is important before initiating any major process, it is a must for cloud migration too. Prepare an estimate of the major costs involved. Also, list out the necessary elements and optional elements separately. If required, eliminate the optional elements to cut down costs initially and add these when the budget permits in the future.
Analyze costs involved in the migration process, data security measures, cloud charges, training the staff, maintenance, etc. One-time expenses need separate budget planning. Repetitive expenses, for example, cloud rentals/maintenance charges require special attention while budgeting for cloud migration as these will be continued expenses.
3. Choose the Right Cloud Provider
There are multiple cloud providers available in the market. They offer different packages in terms of costing and features. Providers generally offer the basic package that includes things that most of the businesses would need. Then, there are specific services that suit different businesses.
Depending on your company’s needs, choose a provider that offers multiple optional features to suit your needs apart from the basic features of storage, security, database services, and computing. The provider must also allow you to select among those extra services and pay for these only instead of paying for a whole lot of unnecessary features.
Providers offer different levels of help and support. As the cloud migration process can be lengthy and tedious, it is important to ensure that the cloud provider you choose offers prompt and dependable migration support. Also, inquire about post-migration maintenance packages. Do not forget to discuss beforehand any specific challenges that your business is apprehending, in cloud migration. Moreover, confirm that the chosen cloud provider offers support for hybrid or multi-cloud if needed in the future.
Remember, if you choose the right cloud provider, half the battle is won for a successful cloud migration!
4. Ensure Data Security
The cloud migration process can be most challenging for your business data. You need to take appropriate measures for a smooth and safe migration when dealing with data.
Your business needs to ensure that there is no data loss or security breach during the cloud migration process. Discuss with the cloud provider and leverage their experience and expertise for this or hire market experts for this.
Importantly, do ensure that your data security measures also comply with and accommodate the statutory requirements and regulations including GDPR.
5. Train Your Staff for Cloud
To achieve a successful cloud migration for your business, you need to ensure that your staff will be able to handle the transition well. So, businesses need to train their staff for cloud migration beforehand.
Staff training involves significant time and money depending upon the capabilities of the human resource your business has. But, for successful cloud migration in the long-run, this element holds the utmost importance. Reserve enough staff hours and budget for staff training. As discussed earlier, ensure that you consider this in your budget planning too.
Wrapping Up
Cloud migration of your business is not as tough as it would appear. With proper planning, budgeting, data security measures, and staff training, it is possible to achieve a smooth cloud migration and reap the benefits of cloud to surge your business.
As rightly said, slow and steady wins the race! This applies to the cloud migration process too. The biggest tip for a smooth cloud migration is to start small and proceed gradually. Migrate only the most necessary elements of your business to the cloud initially to ensure that the migration is smooth for the data, staff, and business as a whole. With all these tips and precautions, your business can easily achieve a successful migration to the cloud.
Our experts at Blue Whale Apps can help smoothen the journey towards a successful cloud migration for your business; Contact Us!
