Advantages of cloud migration
Are you going to renew your company’s IT park? Learn about the main advantages of adopting a cloud model
Cloud migration is the process that typically refers to the transfer of infrastructure that is on-premises to the cloud. Each cloud migration process is unique, as is each company. The complexity of the migration depends on what is intended: one can migrate as-is infrastructure or native cloud services such as enterprise applications, web/mobile applications, IoT, edge servers, CRM support systems, productivity software, enterprise databases, remote desktops, SD-WAN, network administration tools, legacy systems, among other examples.
Types of Cloud
You can generically choose three different strategies for implementing solutions in a cloud, according to what makes most sense for each workload:
• Public cloud: This model makes cloud services available to the public via the Internet and available to anyone who wants to use them. Customers pay for the use of computing and memory, storage or bandwidth as well as any other services they wish to consume (hence, “pay per use”).
- Private cloud: Unlike the public cloud, this involves the deployment of a flexible infrastructure but within an organisation’s network and is primarily intended to serve the organisation rather than the general public.
- Hybrid Cloud: This model is a mix of on-premises infrastructure complemented by public cloud. Large enterprises typically use it to hold important data in private services and various services geared towards public support in the public component, making it possible to use public cloud capacity when justified (e.g. to meet a sporadic need).
Cloud Migration Advantages
Depending on the model chosen, the advantages may vary, but the truth is that we can define five major advantages inherent in the adoption of a cloud model.
1. Security
The cloud can be more secure than traditional network systems since it consists of systems, networks and applications that must be configured and maintained securely, following the model of “shared responsibility”. On the other hand, if services are in a cloud, all users (both the anonymous public and employees of your organisation) are external; as such, you eliminate the security distortion that exists in much internal infrastructure by relying on users in the internal network by default.
Almost 94% of SMEs appreciate the increased security the cloud provides, according to a Microsoft Office 365 survey. The service provider is still often responsible for the most difficult security issues, such as keeping unwanted traffic out of a specific scope of access to the machines where your business data and applications reside, and ensuring that automatic security updates are applied to systems to prevent them from being vulnerable to the latest known security threats.
2. Scalability
Moving to the cloud means that the business has a greater ability to scale services and applications based on its IT requirements. An IT solution that was ideal for one year may be obsolete a few years later, making it difficult for businesses to adapt to changing customer requirements. By migrating to the cloud, organisations have the ability to dramatically reshape their infrastructure to accommodate today’s needs without being locked into the size, specific versions or configurations active in the past. The cloud gives the power to control resources based on individual and business needs.
This ability to easily change infrastructure allows technologies to be aligned with the business, enabling innovation and flexibility. For many companies, this is the most important benefit of migrating to the cloud.
3. Cost
By making the move to the cloud, you may be able to control operational costs considerably improves IT processes. The cloud model also means you only pay for what you use, with no need to maintain expensive data centres when important information is hosted in the cloud. 82% of SMEs report reduced costs as a result of adopting cloud technology and 70% are reinvesting the money saved back into their business, according to the Microsoft Office 365 survey. A ZDNet study on IT budget forecasting indicates that CIOs are increasingly turning to cloud infrastructure and services in order to increase flexibility and ease pressure on budgets.
4. Integrate
Moving to the cloud allows you to connect systems and applications to improve the efficiency of all services. Did you know that 59% of SMEs report increased productivity from the cloud? Over time, increased load and decreased efficiency are felt in the internal datacentre, just as they are with any asset. Traditionally, a business using a data centre would have to perform a periodic infrastructure upgrade to keep its data centre software and hardware up to date and running properly. This is a costly, time-consuming and always repetitive task that takes up time and resources. Enterprises can instead migrate applications to the cloud at the end of a hardware refresh cycle. There, hardware and software updates are carried out by the service provider, saving money and time, and ensuring that applications are always supported by the most up-to-date infrastructure.
5. Ease of access
Because all data is stored in the cloud, it is available no matter what happens to your physical infrastructure. Migrating to the cloud also means that members of an organisation can access the data they need from anywhere in the world, without device type limitations. This scenario opens up opportunities for the business to grow and expand while meeting operational needs.
Many cloud services can also provide monitoring of business critical applications and equipment. Being notified when an outage happens or an application has problems can dramatically speed up incident handling.
Backup services are also extremely important, especially if you need to recover from a failure and analyse where problems occurred. Backups will allow you to get everything back up and running, and logs can provide some critical information to help you figure out what caused the problem in the first place. After a cloud migration, IT staff won’t need to be in one specific location to deploy, upgrade or fix problems on any of the machines being used.
There are several benefits when it comes to migrating to the cloud, both for the enterprise business and for its customers. In most scenarios, successful migration reduces costs, improves scalability and significantly reduces the risk of a cyber-incident which could jeopardize the business. Eurotux is prepared to accompany you on this digital transformation journey, providing consulting and implementation services to make your migration a success. Each company has its own needs and goals, so Eurotux develops cloud implementation solutions adjusted to each organization’s specific framework.
Get in touch with Eurotux and see how we can help you.
