Six things to Check before Moving to the Cloud to Avoid Pitfalls in the long run

In the first quarter of 2021, about $42 billion was spent globally on cloud infrastructure services. Organizations’ journeys to the cloud have been hastened thanks to digital transformation, which has totally changed the way they do business and allowed them to launch new software products faster and expand globally.

Nonetheless, it’s a difficult process that puts a lot of pressure on C-level executives, as too many problems obstruct successful digital transformation. So, how can CIOs and CTOs be confident in their approach to change?

Through this article we want to bring your focus on benefits of cloud migration, the most typical challenges encountered during a migration, and six things to consider to ensure the investment pays off through this article.

What’s the hype about moving to the Cloud?

It’s actually moving away from legacy ecosystems or low-capacity software solutions and toward a cloud environment that improves agility and transforms IT delivery throughout an organization. The following are some of the most compelling benefits of cloud migration:

• Improved security: Cloud services are far more dependable than data centers, with security analytics and automated updates built in.
• Lower TCO: Businesses save money since they don’t have to manage, power, or cool high-priced data centres.
• Easier data access: Employees and clients can access information from anywhere in the world using any device.

What To Look for When There Are Potholes in the Cloud Road?

Despite the obvious advantages and huge demand, cloud migration remains a challenge. Businesses must frequently overcome the following problems in order to be successful:

• No strategy: It’s all too easy to become trapped halfway through a migration without a good plan, so taking a step backward to establish an explicit business migration strategy is unavoidable.
• Under-skilled personnel: Overcoming the skill gap requires long-term, internal nurturing of cloud skills as well as onboarding offshore specialists with appropriate expertise.
• Change aversion: It’s human nature to be wary of the unknown. Getting management buy-in and communicating goals to the entire organization is critical for driving employee engagement and helping them embrace new practices.

Six Points to Follow for a Smooth Migration

Companies can consider the following must-have activities to modernize a business and establish new capabilities that lead to increased productivity and resilience:

1. Pick a cloud service and deployment model that works for you.

Companies must select a fit-for-purpose model based on their own business requirements. Do you want to quickly deliver low-cost, scalable software without having to worry about managing hardware resources? It would be ideal to use infrastructure as a service. Do you require a reliable framework for developing internet apps? Platform as a service (PaaS) would be appropriate.

The same may be said of deployment options. A private cloud is the best option for businesses who don’t want to share their infrastructure with others, prioritize security, and are willing to pay a premium for it. Otherwise, a public or hybrid model would be a viable option.

2. Consider a suitable migration pattern (s)

Relocate, rehost, re-platform, repurchase, refactor, retain, and retire are all options for moving software to the cloud.
Allowing for a hybrid approach while transforming is an excellent technique. Although many apps can be effortlessly migrated, some will need to remain on-premises for a while. During the transition time, periodic prioritization of the software to migrate or keep would be beneficial.

3. Put together a solid team

It’s critical to appoint a lead who will guide the team and track progress, such as a migration architect, in order to achieve transformation success. The lead would be responsible for refactoring, migrating plans, and identifying requirements and priorities, as well as upskilling the team and assisting them in staying on track.

4. Create a migration roadmap

A long-term, well-coordinated strategy will keep everyone informed about their liabilities and achievable goals. Setting milestones and deadlines will help you stay on track. As well as key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor success. It’s also critical to decide on when to switch the production environment and consider strategies to streamline the process while maintaining business continuity. During this stage, organizations can consider a training plan and essential materials to educate teams.

5. Put your strategy into action

Remember to make a backup of the complete infrastructure to aid the transition and ensure no data is lost. Remember to connect and test all of the cloud environment’s components, from storage to databases, while deploying it.

Then it’s time to move servers, data, and apps to the cloud on a regular basis, with the order depending entirely on your scenario. If you’re working with large amounts of data, start by transferring it before transferring it into an app to prepare it for future use.

Finally, verify the accuracy of the data and fine-tune the production to ensure uninterrupted performance by balancing the load or altering permissions.

6. Maintain a sense of order

Well, the worst is now behind us. Consider configuring cloud monitoring tools to identify and eliminate software glitches to ensure the high quality of the new environment. It’s also crucial to test the target system following the migration to make sure everything is working properly.

Also read: Cloud Migration Checklist and Steps

Conclusion

Assume you’ve done it: you’ve gotten rid of a legacy IT environment. It’s a significant step forward, but a journey into the cloud could also be about a refusal to accept change or a process interruption caused by a wrongly determined business goal.

Choose the proper cloud service and deployment models, consider migration trends, assemble a team of experts, establish a comprehensive plan, implement it, and set up continuing monitoring systems to overcome these challenges.

The rate of cloud adoption is higher, but there is a shortage of professionals with a cloud skillset. PeoplActive has taken a responsibility to avail remote cloud talents to the organizations that planning for AWS migration or other cloud platform adoption and are on a cloud talent hunt process. Just let us know your requirement and we’ll reach out to you soon. We are just a call away.