Cloud Migration: Who's Driving Your Bus?
Companies are constantly looking to upgrade their traditional systems and IT workflow to adapt to the latest digital technologies; Cloud Computing is one of them. Effective cloud-based technology has become essential for businesses that want to incorporate agility, efficiency, and a positive transformation to give a tough fight to their competitors.
The old infrastructure and outdated technologies create stress in maintaining data and add to extra cost and time.
Migrating to cloud-based technology will help the company tackle the challenges and ensure success for their business. However, cloud migration can be a complex mission that may require a few weeks to a couple of months to set up. Since the in-house technical team doesn't have regular work experience in migrating activities, it is advisable (and essential) to collaborate with cloud experts who can proactively handle the cloud-based migration activity.
Migration to the cloud is a beneficial service for companies that want to get rid of outdated servers, inefficient firewall software, and so on. Before migrating all your data, tools, applications, etc., you need to understand factors such as the possibilities of risk, limitations due to server downtime, initial data migration issues, data security, among others.
Cloud experts or cloud partners are the main driving force that will lead to successful cloud migration for your organization. To set yourself aside from the confusion of selecting a potential cloud partner, you should consider the following critical points:
1. Understanding the business
Although you may find numerous agencies having experienced cloud partners who can assure you a successful migration, you should choose the one who understands your company. The potential cloud expert can easily justify your requirements and recognize your business, services, operations, workflow, geography, target audience, customer needs, among other aspects.
2. Clear service and deliverables
Before signing an agreement with the cloud expert, you should learn and understand the scope of their roles, lists of services & deliverables provided by them. It may also include the budget and timeline of the project. If required, lead a healthy discussion and opt for possible modifications in the agreement. Get a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that highlights all the key points precisely in detail. A strong SLA will ensure that the project flow is smooth and is not hampered anywhere in the process of completion.
3. Skills and experience
You can discuss with the cloud partners the tools, frameworks, and processes they use. You can even conduct a short technical discussion with them to understand their expertise and industry knowledge. Cloud experts with top accreditations and certifications set them apart from the rest and can be a potential partner for you.
4. Complete transparency
Keeping the stakeholders in the loop is crucial for making cloud migration a success. Necessary changes and modifications can be discussed and done at each stage of the process rather than revealing any error or technical mishap towards the end. Building a transparent real-time dashboard for clear visibility of the life cycle can be an excellent way to lead ahead. Check if the cloud partner is ready to provide you with such a platform. An ideal cloud expert should have minimum turn-around time on emails, calls, or messages and even offer end-to-end user training on cloud shifting.
5. Compliance with latest trends
Always go with partners who have a deep understanding of various cloud platforms. They can be a right fit for you if they can efficiently help you manage activities such as OS up-gradation, disk management, and SQL migration. They should have access to advanced and latest technologies, tools, and software. Check if your cloud expert has a partnership with other cloud providers and vendors to lead a successful cloud transformation for your organization.
6. Reviews and Feedbacks
An efficient way to evaluate your cloud partner is to learn about their experience and reputation in the market. You can fetch available online resources such as customer feedback, case studies, client testimonials, ratings, among other information. You could even check the previous projects they handled and the industries in which they have served.
Conclusion
It is high time that companies start moving their physical or virtual data centers to a cloud-based platform. It will help them stay aligned with the latest trends in the industry and ensure a sustainable future for their organization and its people. Cloud migration is a rapidly evolving technology and catching up with it as early as possible will prove to be beneficial.
