Moving IT workloads to the cloud has become a key priority for many organisations and is set to grow around 3% further between 2019 and 2022. Crucially, a successful migration relies on careful and effective planning. You certainly don’t want to introduce risks or increased long-term costs to your business.
We have highlighted several key areas that might help you decide if migrating your on-premise services to the cloud will be beneficial to your organisation.
This is often the most overlooked question, but it is the most important. Is your intention to reduce costs, improve efficiency, increase reliability or ensure security? The term ‘cloud services’ has become a buzzword in recent years. However, it’s important to weigh up the pros and cons of on-premise, cloud or hybrid solutions prior to migrating.
Cloud migrations require careful strategic planning and should be managed by an experienced IT provider. It’s important to remember that all cloud services rely on a robust internet connection. Sometimes regular broadband isn’t enough due to the lack of service level agreement from the Internet Service Provider.
Data migration is sometimes an afterthought for companies considering a migration, but it shouldn’t be. Priorities and dependencies need to be assessed first. Data has to be properly secured to avoid it being exposed during the migration process. Monitoring and post-migration checks are also vital. Vantage IT can back up your data safely and effectively, and has done so for many customers.
Some cloud service providers cannot guarantee your data will be kept solely in UK based data centres. It is also important to check what level of encryption they use on your data. Both these factors could prevent your organisation from using a particular provider.
Moving to the cloud can mean new processes and ways of working, which your team may not be familiar with. A trial of the software is sometimes available from the providers, enabling your team to get to grips with the new systems prior to the migration. An example of this could be if you are moving from on-premise Microsoft Dynamics to Microsoft Dynamics 365. Other cloud services run in the background and your users should notice no difference from day to day.
Prices for some cloud services such as Office 365 are readily available online. However, there will also be costs with migration and potentially infrastructure improvements such as a leased line internet connection. We can provide a cost analysis detailing the various options available to you and our recommended solution.
You will want to avoid issues occurring during the migration process, therefore it is paramount you work with an experienced IT company. Vantage IT has carried out successful migrations for many customers and are partners with the world’s leading cloud providers. We also run several managed cloud services, such as Hosted Exchange Email as well as DataSafe Online Cloud Backup from our own UK based data centre.
If you want to investigate a cloud migration, please contact us for more information.
