What is the Right Time for an On-Premises to Cloud Migration?
Cloud technology transforms how everyday business is conducted in any organization irrespective of its size. Gone are the days of a legacy on-premise server, which required constant attention to upgrade and change. Technology is the new mode of digitalization. Cloud infrastructure can provide a competitive edge across the firm by lowering costs, enhancing performance, and better allocating human resources. But how do you know when it's time to make the switch from on-premises to cloud infrastructure? How do you know if the benefits of adopting this disruptive technology are worth the effort of breaking current operations and exposing your entire company to something new? In this article, we'll go over five critical pillars to consider when deciding about cloud adoption for your company.
5 Key Considerations for an On-Premises to Cloud Migration
The very first step of cloud migration is to understand that every business is unique and so is its needs and data management. What is right for one organization can be wrong for another. So, the primary focus of your decision during cloud migration should be specified in the business performance that you are striving for. Before considering the full business impact of technology investment, you cannot decide how to proceed with Cloud Migration and when. With that in mind, let’s dive into the details of cloud migration and when can you identify the right time to get started.
1. Performance Needs to be Improved
The first sign of cloud migration generally happens when your on-premise software cannot perform adequately as it used to do. As time passes, technology changes, and businesses grow, you need software that is flexible and adaptable enough to adjust to the evolving workflows. Instead of dragged and slow infrastructure, it is time to choose a virtual workspace in which you enhance your business performance through the roof. A dedicated and virtual server can fulfill all your demanding business requirements when customized accordingly, the cloud is built to adjust to all your performance needs. Cloud is a scalable platform ideal to provide you the opportunity to grow your business gradually based on your needs.
2. Autoscaling or Burst Capacity is Needed
Internal application uses are regular and predictable, but when you are dealing with external cloud-based applications like websites and customer portals you need to be prepared for any sudden changes. Sudden coverage by a major media outlet can drastically increase web traffic unexpectedly. And your application can be crashed with huge customer traffic for that, which is great from a business perspective, but to hold on to your business growth you need a strong enough cloud platform to run it smoothly. Without proper supporting infrastructure, what could have been a great moment for your business can turn out to be a catastrophic disaster. Cloud solution comes with in-built burst capacity and autoscaling features which provide all the excess capacity that you would need to handle high-traffic events. If your company is prone to unpredictable traffic and activity spikes, it may be time to explore an on-premises to cloud conversion.
3. Technological Uses Changes
As your business grows, the digital footprint of your organization expands simultaneously. Every day new data is created, collected, and stored, taking up more and more space. To keep up with the market transformation new applications are included in your system. Legacy programs and workloads are rarely decommissioned; instead, they are kept running. If your company relies on additional technology to keep on track, the cloud can be a very valuable and powerful choice. Technology has transformed every sector of the business, digitalization replaced paper records, and many businesses have permanently chosen remote work infrastructure. And all of these changes are largely made possible because of cloud migration. All of these factors and a slew of others indicate that your technology usage will shift, often in unexpected ways. If your company's reliance on technology to drive change continues to expand, it's time to think about moving from on-premises to the cloud.
4. Cloud Data Protection
The cloud data protection plan will be distinct from the on-premise security structure. You'll need to adopt a new set of cloud data security strategies to assure data safety, integrity, consistency, and business continuity. Unlike on-premise solutions, the cloud provides business continuity and disaster recovery plans for your entire data security. Examine your IaaS provider's and its partners' offerings. Set acceptable RPO criteria for backup and restore to ensure that you satisfy your data loss tolerance limitations. You must choose an acceptable disaster recovery strategy (failover or quick backup/restore). Cloud gives you the ability to roll back a running system to a certain point in time.
5. Variable Pricing Works Best for Your Company
Generally, on-premise infrastructure comes with a predictable pricing model, where there are no surprise bills at the end of the month. For example, a corporation may have a set number of servers deployed and be confident that the bill will be the same each month or year, making your budgeting and finance forecasts much easier and more certain. But as your business develops, your infrastructure needs also change. Choosing Cloud would solve your problems as it is a flexible and scalable workplace where you can add a user as per your need. Most cloud providers adopt a per-consumption approach, in which the user only pays for the resources that are used. Cloud technology will also save your cost of maintaining on-premise software and IT technicians. This concept is ideal for anyone trying to maximize their return on investment in technology. If your firm would benefit from a pricing model that only costs for your use, it may be time to consider transferring your on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.
Is Now the Right Time to Move to the Cloud?
It all comes down to understanding how your organization does business now versus how it might do business after shifting its on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. This transformation will not occur overnight. Businesses, on the other hand, can assess whether or not the cloud is good for them by carefully considering present operations and future goals. If you'd like to learn more about how a cloud migration could help your company and how to get started, our team at Tech Falcon would love to hear from you.