Table of contents
Employing cloud migration consulting services is a move that can save your business a lot of money in the long run. That’s because moving to the cloud is a way to boost cost-efficiency as a whole. And when planned and carried out by experts, the process can be quick and painless.
Keep reading to learn what cloud migration consulting services can do for you and how to use them to achieve your business growth goals.
Cloud Migration Consulting Services: Benefits for Business
Moving to the cloud is not merely a progressive step to take to be in step with today’s digital society. It’s a decision that can greatly benefit multiple businesses. An on-premises infrastructure offers a substantial level of autonomy. However, in the connected world of today, it’s hardly relevant compared to the opportunities provided by the cloud.
- Cost-efficiency.
The first thing any cloud migration consulting services provider will tell you is that moving to the cloud reduces your expenses. It’s a move that enables you to cut spending on many tech services as the cloud provider would take them over. Therefore, the business can dedicate more resources to innovation and development.
- Scalability.
One of the greatest benefits of cloud migration is easy scalability. You won’t have to worry about delays as your business starts to grow. Also, you will be able to reduce costs compared to buying and installing physical servers and other equipment on site.
- Accessibility.
All your team members can access the cloud from anywhere. Therefore, it’s the best solution for any business working with remote employees or freelancers. In addition, cloud migration consulting services can help you understand how to use this technology to improve the user experience for your customers.
- Performance.
In many cases, the end-user experience can improve due to cloud migration because of a boost in performance. Cloud hosting allows to scale up when necessary to serve a bigger number of users without losing output quality. In addition, cloud services can run on servers near the user’s location. It means that the network latency can be significantly lowered for global businesses. It’s a fantastic expansion opportunity for smaller companies that cannot serve multiple locations worldwide.
Essential Steps of the Cloud Migration Process
- Planning.
The first step to success is developing a plan. When planning your cloud migration, you must first define your goals. For example, do you want to move all the business’ workload to the cloud? Or do you plan to use it for emergency disaster recovery? Also, you might consider using some hybrid models suited to your company’s needs. Defining your goals clearly will enable your cloud migration consulting service provider to help you select the best tools. - Building a business case.
The next stage is to build a business case. It means that you need to evaluate cloud migration from the point of view of cost savings, operational benefits, and architectural improvements. Doing this will enable you to calculate the Total Cost of Ownership, both current and expected, on the cloud. Note that you must be realistic in your estimates in order to make sound business decisions. You can use various cloud calculators to facilitate this task. - Data migration.
With the cloud migration plan ready, you will move on to executing this plan. Data migration is a process that must be carried out with minimal disruption to your business processes. Therefore, it’s crucial to choose the timing well. Also, bear in mind that it’s necessary to ensure the operability of every element before the next element is moved. - Consistent maintenance.
The actual process of migration is complete once you’ve moved your data to the cloud. However, the upkeep of it is ongoing. Therefore, you need to factor into your plan that you’ll have to set up a system to monitor the performance in real-time. Cloud operations also need regular maintenance to keep up-to-date and meet the availability benchmarks aligned with your business objectives.
Cloud Migration Consulting Services: Common Migration Types
The cloud migration process might appear to be straightforward. However, as it’s tailored to the business requirements, no two processes are exactly the same.
That said, there are five specific types of migrating to the cloud:
- Rehosting.
This method is indeed straightforward. Basically, you just take the system as is and completely move it to the cloud. As this process doesn’t involve making any changes to the existing systems, it can be completed fast. However, this method also doesn’t allow you to use beneficial cloud-native features, such as self-healing and automated recovery.
- Repurchase.
This type of cloud migration involves either dropping your current proprietary platform or letting the license expire. Meanwhile, you are purchasing a cloud-based alternative. Such a transition can help boost business efficiency. In addition, it’s a great way to move on from legacy solutions.
- Refactoring.
Refactoring is a highly complex process because it may involve a complete overhaul of all your applications. The cloud migration consulting services provider you work with should guide you through planning this process. And it needs lots of planning because it might be necessary to rework the logic of your system and apps. Such migration should be an option for companies willing to enact a complete digital transformation.
- Replatforming.
When replatforming, you move to the cloud similarly to rehosting. However, your migration service also helps optimize some of the system’s parts in order to take advantage of cloud technology. But it won’t be a complete system overhaul, like refactoring.
- Retain (hybrid).
The hybrid method is used by organizations that want to combine their on-premises systems with the cloud. This type of migration must be highly customized to the organization’s needs. Such a solution is often used to have the cloud as a backup.
Challenges or Why You Need Cloud Migration Consulting Services
Moving to the cloud is a way to boost your business performance in many ways. However, it’s not a process that can be taken lightly. Hence, the need to employ expert cloud migration consulting services.
When moving to the cloud, the main challenges you’ll face come from the lack of strategy, compliance, data security issues, or incorrect cost planning. You can avoid all of those by entrusting this process to qualified professionals. Contact us if you want to ensure a seamless, affordable, and quick move to the cloud.
