Increased remote and hybrid working environments have accelerated public cloud adoption, but migrations should be carefully planned.

Many businesses have migrated all or part of their infrastructure to the cloud?in the last few years. This cloud journey became ever more important for businesses throughout 2020 and 2021 as we faced the unprecedented operational impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now in 2022 industry analysts are predicting further acceleration of cloud adoption, post pandemic, as organisations look to operate an on-going hybrid work environment. As a result the public cloud computing market?in the UK is expected to reach an estimated?￡11 billion in 2022. This estimate encompasses business processes, platform infrastructure, software management and security services delivered by public cloud services.

For any organisation looking to take this step, while there are plenty of well documented benefits, such as flexibility, scalability, convenience and reduced costs (if the environment is build and managed correctly), the potential risks of public cloud computing are?less well advertised. For example, moving to the public cloud is often seen by many?as a means to securing their data, resting on the belief that cloud service providers will have all of the required security systems in place, so their organisation doesn’t need to invest in any additional resources or services. But it is important to remember that the cloud is just someone else’s compute service,?and when it comes to compliance and accountability, data security is always the organisations responsibility and therefore a robust and resilient policy is essential.

So, what should?business leaders be aware of before transitioning to cloud??

Aside from properly thinking through how?they need to manage?their data security, moving to the cloud is not automatically less expensive than an on-premises solution. Organisations need to ensure they fully understand the cost of moving to the cloud, as well as the cost and complexity of returning any corporate data back to an on-premises environment, should they wish to in the future. This is important so that they don’t become hostage to their cloud service provider. In addition, balancing the convenience of public cloud computing with the need to maintain integrity and security of sensitive company data is challenging. It is not only users of cloud services who are at threat from cyber security attacks. Service?Providers are also been attacked, as a means to gaining access to their client's environments and data. Consequently, the UK Government has highlighted regulatory requirements?that will be brought in to ensure Service Providers?have an increased level of resilience. Nevertheless, organisations still need to review their safeguarding strategies before making the move to public cloud. Above all, they should:

Understand the costs involved in moving to and from the cloud.

Understand any complexity of managing sensitive data when systems aren’t their own.

Understand how to secure their systems and data beyond the security provided by the service provider.

Understand what type of data they hold and process (particularly highly sensitive data such as PII) and the risks and implications in the event of a breach resulting in that data being compromised.

Ensure that they have the right back-up solution in place and a tried and tested disaster recovery solution and process.

Continuously review their security processes and policies.

Likewise, they need to ensure the services which they are running in the public cloud are right-sized for their needs to prevent over-spend or compromised performance.

Northdoor plc has a solid reputation in helping organisations successfully transition to the cloud. Below is one example of this.

UK-based Corporate Travel Management Company, Blue Cube Travel?, made the strategic decision in 2018 that it needed to future-proof its IT infrastructure and migrate from a traditional on-premises Server-based setup to the cloud. This migration had a wide scope as it involved not only moving from office-based Servers, but the organisation also needed to upgrade Servers, networking, phones, and enhance its security.

From the outset, Blue Cube Travel decided to outsource and select an IT specialist consultancy with cloud pedigree, as it didn’t have the in-house resources to manage a migration of this scale and importance. This migration was a strategic decision for the business and not just a simple ‘lift and shift’ of its on-premises systems to the cloud.?

The organisation needed to address several requirements such as data privacy, security, resiliency, and ensure business continuity as well as the governance required to comply with regulations such as GDPR. It chose Northdoor plc as the consultancy to assist with the migration to Microsoft Azure because it recognised that the team clearly understood the needs and challenges. With our technical expertise and professional services support each of the required migration elements were manageable deliverables and by the end of 2018 the work was complete. Servers, phones, networking, data, and a new collaboration solution were all running in the cloud.

Being hosted within the Microsoft Azure cloud made the business acutely aware of the myriad of technical solutions and services available. Kevin Trill, Director of Technology from Blue Cube Travel said: “If you don’t have a specialist partner, like Northdoor, who understands your business, the cloud, and all the possible options, it can quickly represent a risk to your organisation, especially if you haven’t implemented the right security solutions. All too often you don’t know what you don’t know”. He went on to say: “Any business, like Blue Cube Travel, that is considering a move to the cloud, needs to evaluate using professional services and managed services. Having a trusted partner, like Northdoor, to advise at the migration stage and thereafter has been essential for our continued use of the cloud. Without this expert guidance, it was highly likely that any solution we implemented risked failing to deliver on any of the reasons why we migrated to the cloud in the first place. Furthermore, operating in the cloud is not always as cost-effective as you think. A stand-alone comparison of each on-premises solution versus cloud-based is too simplistic. There is no way we could have implemented all the solutions which are now vital to our business operation without using the cloud.”

There are clearly many benefits of migrating to the cloud, as Blue Cube Travel has indicated. Making sure that you have the right elements in place is not always as straight forward as it might appear. Undertaking the appropriate due diligence in advance of such a migration is imperative for a successful long-term outcome.