On-Premises to Cloud Migration: Knowing When to Move

Considering a migration from on-premises to the cloud within the near future?

Cloud technology is transforming how organizations of all sizes and shapes conduct business. 

Gone are the times of an old server in an office closet powering core applications or team members answerable for servers and networking along with their primary job. Technology isn’t any longer seen as a burden. 

Forward-thinking businesses recognize that cloud infrastructure can provide a competitive advantage across the business by reducing costs, improving performance, and higher allocation of human resources.

The cloud truly is transformative in today’s business climate.

But how do when it’s the appropriate time to migrate your on-premises infrastructure to the cloud? How do you establish that the gains made by embracing this transformative technology shall be definitely worth the trouble of disrupting current workflows and introducing your entire organization to something latest? 

On this post, we’ll address five key pillars to take into consideration when considering cloud adoption in your organization.

The very first thing to acknowledge when considering a migration from on-premises to the cloud is that each use case and business need is exclusive. What is true for one organization may be incorrect for an additional. 

Consequently, the important thing driver of choices around any technology shift, including a migration to the cloud, ought to be defining the business outcomes you might be striving for. Without properly considering the total business impact of technology investment, you can’t ensure that your decision relies on sound logic. 

With that in mind, listed here are five guidelines to assist uncover if and when migration from on-premises to the cloud is true for you.

Perhaps the highest reason most organizations consider migrating to the cloud is that existing resources will not be performing adequately. 

As businesses grow, latest applications and data sets turn out to be integral to the business. Workflows evolve, and systems turn out to be more interconnected and essential. Consequently, infrastructure that when worked just tremendous is now dragging along, slowing down the pace of business.

While dedicated and virtual servers can meet even essentially the most demanding business requirements when configured accurately, the cloud is purpose-built for prime performance. Most businesses find that an on-premises to cloud migration leads to excellent performance for today’s needs while also providing loads of room to grow as business needs change.

In case your existing infrastructure and network are struggling to maintain up with the needs of your enterprise applications, it might be time to execute a cloud migration.

While internal applications have fairly predictable levels of use, external applications like web sites and customer portals may be all over. 

Surprise coverage by a serious media outlet can drastically increase web traffic unexpectedly (i.e., the Reddit Effect). A brand new services or products can drive customers to log in to an application in waves. All of those events and others like them may be great from a business perspective. 

Nonetheless, if the underlying infrastructure doesn’t have enough capability to serve the needs of the users, the whole system can crash. Even worse, opportunities are lost when web sites or applications are buckling under the burden of high utilization. 

Cloud deployments come equipped with burst capability and autoscaling capabilities. Because of this the capability you wish is offered within the event of a high traffic event.

If your enterprise is vulnerable to experiencing spikes in traffic and activity which can be difficult to forecast, it may be time to contemplate an on-premises to cloud migration.

As time passes, the digital footprint of a corporation grows. More data is created, collected, and stored. More applications are introduced into workflows. Legacy applications and workloads are rarely removed but are as an alternative left operating. 

The cloud generally is a particularly useful and powerful option if your enterprise continues to depend on more technology to remain heading in the right direction.

Imagine operating legacy IBM i-Series workloads while also operating a VMware cloud environment. Imagine moving from paper records to a wholly digital workplace. Imagine transitioning from in-office employees to a distant workforce. All of this stuff and plenty of others dictate that your technology utilization will change, and sometimes in unpredictable ways.

The cloud makes these iterations and changes possible and practical. 

In case your organization’s reliance on technology to drive change continues to grow, it may be time to contemplate a migration from on-premises to the cloud.

For years, many organizations employed systems administrators and network engineers as an internal IT team to administer infrastructure. Servers, switches, and storage were maintained by a team of skilled experts. 

Nonetheless, with the rise of cloud technology, lots of these engineers are transitioning their expertise to cloud technologies. Consequently, latest opportunities abound for cloud engineers, and skilled development within the infrastructure arena is increasingly cloud-focused.

Moreover, many engineers who managed infrastructure up to now are aging out of the workforce or being promoted to non-engineering roles. On condition that fewer resources can be found to handle traditional infrastructure, it is just natural to contemplate the cloud.

In case your internal resources have gotten more cloud-focused, then it may be time to embrace their newfound expertise and consider a cloud migration.

Historically, one among the nice things about traditional infrastructure has been the predictable pricing model. For instance, an organization might need a certain variety of servers deployed and could possibly be comfortable knowing that the bill every month or yr can be the identical. This makes budgeting easy and forecasting straightforward. 

Predictable pricing models have long been of profit to firms of all sizes.

But what in case your infrastructure needs will not be consistent? What if your enterprise is seasonal and you wish significantly more or fewer resources at different times of day, month, or yr? Why must you pay for unused and unneeded deployments and workloads? 

Most cloud providers have a per-consumption model wherein the client only pays for resources in use. This model can work great for anyone trying to maximize their return on investment with regards to technology.

If a pricing model that only charges for what you utilize would profit your enterprise, it might be time to take a look at migrating your on-premises infrastructure to the cloud.

All of it boils right down to understanding how your organization conducts business now versus how they might conduct business after migrating their on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. 

This variation won’t occur overnight. Nonetheless, with careful consideration of current processes and future goals, businesses can determine whether or not the cloud is true for them. 

In case you are keen on exploring how a move to the cloud would profit your organization and easy methods to make migration possible, our team at Liquid Web would welcome the possibility to talk to you. Contact us here to learn more about partnering with Liquid Web for cloud migrations and cloud management.