Although most companies keep their data in traditional on-premises environment, the cloud deployment rates are steadily rising. This has been especially true since the COVID-19 pandemic when more companies had begun to embrace the cloud.
For a long time, companies have been using traditional servers sitting on their own premises. While the on-premises environment provides certain advantages; it also comes with a number of risks and limitations. Below are some of the key disadvantages of the on-premises environment:
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- Expensive infrastructure.
- Limited scalability.
- Security overhead.
- Slow update cycles and long implementations.
- Harder for remote workers.
Benefits of migration to cloud
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, more companies began to migrate to the cloud environment. Most commonly, companies decide to migrate to the cloud to optimize costs and improve scalability. Let’s look at the key benefits of migration below:
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- Efficient use of resources and optimized costs. When in the cloud, companies pay only for used resources. They are allocated on-demand, with users knowing exactly what they need and how much of a resource they would like to use. This means, companies can more efficiently plan costs based on their business growth.
- Enhanced security. Cloud providers manage security patching and use specialized tools to ensure additional security. This leads to better security for organizations.
- Compliance. Many cloud providers offer tools that help to meet compliance requirements. This factor can be important for highly regulated industries, such as government and finance.
- Less IT resources needed to support the cloud. Since cloud providers look after the hardware, software, and networks, companies can rely on fewer IT staff to manage their environments.
- Greater mobility for everyone. The cloud allows better access for those working remotely. This is a crucial advantage these days when many employees work remotely.
Stages of migration
Moving to the cloud is a complex process. When done wrong, sometimes migration may even hinder a company’s development. Let’s take a look at the process.
The migration process can be divided into three main stages: pre-migration preparation, migration, and post-migration.
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- Pre-migration. Before you can even start migration, one should start thinking about a plan. This means having a clear vision of what exactly needs to be done; where the IT and business will overlap; know which data and assets to migrate; outline a clear cloud governance model and identify all stakeholders; and start training staff early.
- Migration. Once the plan is laid out, the team can start the migration process. It is better to start small and simple. This will create quick wins and improve trust among stakeholders. Once the buy-in is established and the initial migration steps accomplished, make sure to use the new services.
- Post-migration. Once you complete migration, there should be a continuous process of supporting post-migration activities. This is a very important part of the entire process. The success of migration depends on the post-migration support and activities. This includes monitoring everything, creating documents, setting new processes, onboarding, testing, and communicating with all stakeholders.
Hybrid model is gaining popularity
As more enterprises are moving to the cloud, the hybrid model is becoming more popular. For some companies, especially those with limited IT resources, it might be challenging to migrate everything at once. That is why, the best option for these companies might be the hybrid model.
During the cloud migration process, which for some can take months and even years, companies are using the hybrid strategy. In this model, while parts of data are being moved to the cloud continuously, companies still use their legacy environment. This may result in cost reduction and certain architectural flexibility.
About Centida
If you are thinking about migrating to the cloud and need expert assistance, feel free to contact Centida. Our consultants have successfully delivered similar projects both for large Fortune 500 companies and SMEs around the world.