5 Things You Need to Know Before Upgrading to Cloud Infrastructure

It’s no secret that we are now in the age of cloud computing, as many businesses are already moving to the cloud due to its great number of benefits.
Better IT infrastructure management, for instance, is one since cloud solutions allow businesses to have a centralized hub for their assets, which can be accessed by their employees on the internet for free or at a low cost. Most cloud solutions offer a disaster and recovery system too, allowing to organizations continue their business functions even in the face of calamity.
The benefits of cloud migration are not limited to IT infrastructure. Aside from the technological aspect, another driving factor that motivates organizations to migrate to the cloud is business efficiency.
Since their migration to the cloud, many organizations were able to cut back on costs, integrate their core functions, and scale their business. Cloud solutions enable employees to access work even when they’re away from their desks, which allows for greater productivity and performance.
However, migrating to the cloud is not for everyone. While it may seem like a long-term trend for most businesses nowadays, it still comes with its own set of drawbacks that might prove to be detrimental to your business later on. Cloud migration is a big investment – think about it carefully. You don’t want to be biting more than what you can chew.
Here are top five things you need to consider before you jump to cloud migration.

1. Data Center Migration

If you already have an existing data center, you may have to think twice before fully migrating to the cloud. Migrating your data to the cloud can come handy once your hardware becomes outdated later on, but this doesn’t mean that you should completely abandon the investment that you’ve done to your data center.
Aside from the price that you’ve invested in leveraging your database server, you may also want to consider if you have any existing licensing subscription with them.
Still, cloud migration is not something you should entirely shy away from because it can reduce your capital expenditure. Having a cloud-based data center means only paying for the resources that you use, which saves you money in comparison to maintaining an on-premise infrastructure.

2. Compatibility

Compatibility isn’t normally an issue since most applications now run on top of modern operating systems. However, you still have to make sure that your applications are deployable. Some applications only run on a particular operating system.
In the event of such, you may opt to find another cloud provider whose OS is compatible with your application, or be forced to give up on the migration altogether.

3. Application Portability

Another thing to consider is your application’s portability. Should your application has external dependencies to an on-premise server, this could either complicate or make the migration entirely impossible.

4. Hardware Scalability

Cloud services are known for their unlimited scalability, which could be particularly beneficial to your business if you have hardware-intensive workloads.
New servers could dramatically boost your system’s performance, which in turn, could lead to an increase in productivity and profitability. While this can ultimately improve your business’ scalability, note that this feature comes at a hefty price.

5. Integration

Before migrating to the cloud, identify the integration points of your applications. If your applications have dependencies to on-premise systems that cannot be migrated to the cloud, you might experience problems in connectivity or authentication later on.
To help you address this issue, you might want to use an asset discovery tool, as this can help you identify server configurations along with connectivity details.

With these in mind, we hope we could help you assess if your business is ready to migrate its enterprise data to the cloud. Meeting the aforementioned application requirements is necessary if you want your cloud migration to be successful.
However, do note that this business move doesn’t need to be absolute. You don’t have to migrate everything completely, as you would probably learn later on.
Know which among your business functions can do well in the cloud and you shall reap the benefits of cloud computing.

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