There are many reasons that your organization may decide to undertake data migration from a local datacenter to the cloud. Perhaps your equipment is nearing end-of-life, and the thought of upgrading or replacing all of your technology is overwhelming or financially impossible. Maybe your business is growing so quickly that you are constantly adding more equipment to keep up, and it is getting too expensive and time consuming. Whether you are concerned with server technology or networking capability, migrating to the cloud may be an excellent option for you.
Of course, most organizations – experts say over 80% – already have some data residing on the cloud. For instance, many email applications and communication tools are cloud-cased. But if you are thinking about moving your entire local data center to the cloud, there are important factors to consider.
Remember, Things May Go Wrong
We don’t want to set the stage for failure, but the reality is this – moving all of your data processing capability to an entirely new location is a complex undertaking. Things could get hung up mid-migrations, networks could be insufficient, and your IT personnel may not have the necessary skillsets. As a small to medium sized organization, you may wish to enlist the help of a professional IT services organization who can managed the project for you.
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You’ll Need the Right Data Migration Tool
Every job well done is dependent on having the right tools on hand. In order to migrate your data to the cloud – or any alternate storage format – you’ll need a migration tool. Many software engineers to build their own transfer tool, but building a migration tool from scratch may be risky. After all, once your migration day comes, the solution is largely untested, may have cost more than expected to produce, and may not have the bugs worked out. When it comes to the large amounts of data that cloud migrations generally entail, transfer speed and security are paramount to secure and ensure.
Basic Steps
- Understand why the migration is necessary. By qualifying and quantifying your reasoning, you can stay on track with your plans and purposes.
- Identify which data you will be migrating. You may not need to migrate all your data to the cloud, so establishing which data is targeted is imperative.
- Plan your migration in stages. The biggest problems often occur when SMBs take on too much at once. Not only is it overwhelming, but all your eggs are in one basket – if something fails, it all fails.
- Establish checkpoints to evaluate progress. Keep an eye on expected metrics and make sure all is going according to plan. Adjust if necessary.
- Keep employees in the loop. Your personnel will need to adapt to new protocols and ways of getting things done. Providing training and communication before, during and after the project is important to success.
Of course, there are solutions available to you which can take a lot of stress and worry off your plate. Managed services companies, for instance, can provide start-to-finish support for data migration. A dedicated team of IT professionals will consult with you, help you to determine the scope of your project, manage the process and provide the necessary resources. They can also manage your cloud services once your data has been migrated. Not only do these types of solutions provide a deep bench of expertise, they allow companies to streamline their onsite operation and be more productive.
Would you like to learn more? Call the IT professionals at Alliance IT in Sarasota today.
