Tips for Migrating to the Cloud

Is the Cloud for you? What should you do before migrating to the cloud? We highlight a few things to consider to help make a decision on the cloud vs on premise architecture.

Perform Risk Assessment

When you move to the cloud realize security is a shared responsibility. The cloud provider is responsible for the hardware maintenance at the least, then depending on what service you subscribe to either SAAS, PAAS, or IAAS you are responsible for the rest.

The risks must be weighed against the potential benefits in a balanced and compliant manner. Consider the availability, security, compliance risks that come with being in the cloud.

Perform Financial Assessment

Review what IT budget is and what it will cost to move to the cloud and if that will save you money in the long run. There are many cloud providers out there, the three main ones are Google Cloud, Amazon AWS & Microsoft Azure. Each one has a unique price model but the underlying service offerings are the same for the most part. Each provider offers Compute, Storage & Networking services.

Therefore, before you migrate plan which services your organization will be moving to the cloud. Then check what each will cost if you move to the cloud.

The price of the cloud may sometimes be significant depending on what you are doing, however the cloud makes it is easy to manage your IT, integrate software, and leads to benefits of efficiency and productivity.

Perform a Goal Analysis

The cloud is an exciting technology but it is not for everyone, the cloud can fix a lot of inefficiencies but it is not for every application or service. With this in mind remember to have a clear picture of what your goal is for moving to the cloud.

What are your requirements, objectives and constraints? Then create a roadmap for all the features you need. If you have application that has a database that needs to be migrated consider the different database services offered, the cost and feature set.

Assess your long term plan, it hard to move from one cloud provider to another once you settle with one. Therefore do you due diligence and ensure you choose the right cloud provider.

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