Essential Things to Consider Before Moving to the Cloud
Vishal Vohra
Helping companies beat their competition through innovative technology solutions
If you are considering moving your IT services to the Cloud, there are several considerations that you will need to make first. The Cloud offers considerable advantages that many businesses have used to increase their efficiency, communication, and ability to coordinate various projects. However, there are also risks involved with going to Cloud services which you have probably read in the news over the past few years.
You will need to weigh all the information carefully before making your decision. Here are a few of the important areas about Cloud services that will need to be considered.
Current Software Licenses & Compatibility
You may find that some of your software licenses are not compliant with moving to Cloud services. Furthermore, you might find that they are not compatible when switching over to a Cloud system. Before you make your decision, check out all the relevant software licenses that you have and see if they can be moved. You may have to call the vendors to double-check for licenses and being compatible. While many software systems will be fine, there are some vendors that have strict rules when it comes to the usage of their products.
Additional Investments
Moving your data to the Cloud may mean having to invest in new infrastructure. This means new devices and setups that work with the Cloud services so they can take advantage of what is available.
While the Cloud allows small companies to compete effectively with corporations in certain respects, you will need the proper infrastructure to take full advantage.
However, you might find that the investment may be considerable and beyond your current capacity to make depending on what is needed. While the Cloud allows small companies to compete effectively with corporations in certain respects, you will need the proper infrastructure to take full advantage.
Scalability
As your company grows, so does the information that you will collect in the Cloud. The service you choose will most likely have their pay structure based on your storage needs. The more you put into the Cloud, the more they will charge. You should look over their rates and see what you have today and what may be expected tomorrow so that you are not paying too much for their services. Plus, some services will have ceilings that cannot be surpassed which may be most inopportune when reached. So, be sure to look over the details when it comes to scalability.
The more you put into the Cloud, the more they will charge.
Recovery
Perhaps the greatest advantage that the Cloud offers is the ability to recover information quickly when it has been destroyed or become inaccessible on your systems. Storing your data on the Cloud may be an automatic process or one that is done at the touch of a button. Having your information backed up can be invaluable if something crashes your system. Furthermore, you can access the information from remote locations if something is wrong with the computers themselves.
Security
The security of your data should be of paramount importance to your business, especially if you are holding private customer information such as their credit card, social security, or bank account numbers for payment purposes. A hack that breaks into the information and compromises your services may be the least of your worries if customer information is taken and used to steal their money and you might be held liable for not properly securing their information.
You may find that highly sensitive customer information should be kept on a private server that offers far greater security.
However, many Cloud services provide coverage and guaranteed security for their users. Amazon Web Services is one example where they back their security with a guarantee that if the system is compromised you will have some cover. You should check with the provider about what type of security and guarantees that they offer about their services. Plus, look over the data that you intend to place on the Cloud and see if it is appropriate or not. You may find that highly sensitive customer information should be kept on a private server that offers far greater security.
Reliability
In addition to security, reliability is another vital consideration as you want your Cloud services to be available and accessible all the time. While even the best companies will have breakdowns from time to time, they also should have a very high reliability and uptime rate so you can trust the Cloud will be there when you need it.
Location
Another consideration is where your data will be located. You will want to have it somewhere that is not locked contractually because if it should be lost, the odds of recovery become quite small. You’ll want to choose a Cloud service that provides the ability to move around the data, add or subtract it rapidly from the system, and constantly indicate signs of progress.
Outsourcing
Another question that often arises is whether you can extend your own network or outsource some of your operations to third party companies. For example, businesses that use a separate billing company to handle their cost management operations will find that the Cloud system makes the perfect way to instantly check on the progress of a specific account. In addition, it can open their own networking to allow different departments to work together on issues where they have a common interest.
New Ways of Working
One area that many business owners do not consider is how the Cloud changes the way that you work. Ideally, it should open new frontiers in terms of allowing for new ways that your employees can work together. You may find that getting the Cloud lets your employees work better as teams and find new, innovative ways of sharing data while working together. Such changes are good, healthy, and will boost your productivity when more gets accomplished in less time.
It pays to remember that the Cloud is not for every business and you may consider the cost to not be worth making the change.
You will want to discuss these aspects and more before deciding on whether to move your data to the Cloud. It pays to remember that the Cloud is not for every business and you may consider the cost to not be worth making the change. However, there are considerable advantages that the best Cloud services offers. Whether the changes are small or large, if they add up to greater productivity it can boost your bottom line as a business.
Manager de transition
6 年Very interesting and useful article. Move To futur in our present.
Senior Storage Consultant at Advizex, Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking Finalist
7 年Vishal, great article. Your points concerning security are in concert with the concerns of the clients I've worked with. In addition, you mentioned the location of data in the cloud, which is a concern for many businesses. For example, government entities often require their data to be located only in the U.S. Performance (i.e. how quickly data can be accessed) and the cost of retrieving data from the cloud also seem to rank high on the list of important considerations for companies considering moving some of their data to the cloud.
Operations & Administration. Design, Installation, & Service Organization for Networking, Security, Audio Video & more.
7 年We moved our data to the cloud. It has allowed us to work from different offices while keeping our data synced. initially we tried Google Drive but it kept fracturing our files and creating "conflicted copies". We moved to Drop Box and have been there since. Drop Box does an outstanding job of keeping our files synced between desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. We have had a few issues with syncing, but they were related to internet connections, not the service. It would be nice if they had a more tiered pricing/storage structure, but the price is not outrageous. We don't have plans yet to migrate our apps to the cloud, we would lose control of them as companies keep constantly changing their models from software/license based to recurring revenue/license based. You end up stuck in their ever changing schemes. We were using an online backup service, but the draw on the servers CPU was enormous. Now we just back up Drop Box to a local SSD drive (reverse of the normal way!).
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7 年Moved into cloud in 2004. Never looked back. WebStack has moved from cloud to cloud as the IT weather has changed, but it was the best decision I ever made as a business owner.
Award winning Technology Leader, Project/PPM Expert & Management Consultant.
7 年Hi Vishal, Interesting article. From my side I can say that I have worked on many cloud migration projects and the most important thing by far is to plan, check the plan and check it again !! Seriously, I get called in to help many customer that have started on a cloud migration journey (often with a partner) and run into problems. In 98% of cases these problems arise because they haven't planned it out correctly. They invest maybe 5% of their budget into planning instead of the 30-40% of the budget. The devil is in the detail - always ! And I'd be happy to speak to anyone that is considering migration, in progress, or will be doing it in the next 18 months or so. For larger enterprises the considerations such as phased deployment, staged with user training, and proper engagement and community communication is key. Collaborating with the community affected on what and why you are going through this migration is also key. You would be surprised how often an individuals input raises something that hadn't been considered. As for the risks involved, then during the migration itself, care around configuration and data integrity (and all the security and backup processes) needs to be paramount, but equally all of the data recovery and backup processes need to be tested. I am staggered at how many companies put a backup or DR solution in place without actually testing that it works and then find out on the day they need it, that it doesn't, or in one case I was called in to deal with, that the DR company holding or the data had gone bust and that they could not recover data. Worst still is when the solution works fine, but he company failed to renew their card payment details, only to discover that when they needed to pull back the data, they couldn't because "someone" had forgotten to renew the billing details !! Simple things can often be the MOST risky. I spend a lot of my time now helping companies to ensure effective plans are in place with regular checkpoints. Of course as an specialist in Microsoft Project & Project Online I encourage customers to use this platform as a means of automating alerts to critical reminders and to allocate time to the right people to perform DR and backup checks as well as to plan multiple migrations. This is especially important in companies where migration of legacy applications needs to dovetail with cloud services. Once data is in the cloud, then the risks are very low and TCO is much lower than on premise since generally there is no hardware maintenance, or patch management to worry about, and overheads both in terms of equipment, support and staff time are significantly reduced. :-)