Apps, e-commerce sites, ERP platforms, and a distributed workforce — what used to be a tech roadmap for many companies has become the norm today. The pace of business is faster than ever, and you need the people and systems in place to keep up in order to be competitive. Still, not all companies have easy access to data centers, expensive software, and computing power to support a fully digital operation. And forming a team to build and maintain the infrastructure is simply too expensive for smaller, leaner businesses. In Hawaii, residents received a text message at 8 o’clock in the morning: that a missile was headed their way and they should immediately take shelter. The text was a mistake and a result of someone hitting the wrong button. Making things worse, it took 38 long minutes to rescind the announcement because of a flaw in the alert system. It was the longest, most terrifying 38 minutes for many Hawaiians. This is where Cloud comes into the picture. With Cloud, a massive infrastructure is no longer necessary to start running your business over the internet. You get to go online fast, at a reduced cost, and with greater security. This means that brands with large IT budgets do not always win the race for a bigger market share. Any company armed with agility, innovation, and cloud technology can take the pole position.  

What happens when you move to the Cloud?

Before the Cloud, companies housed their applications and data in on-premise servers that were prone to wear and tear, required 24/7 air conditioning, had limited disaster recovery capabilities, and went obsolete every 5 years. Apart from being high maintenance, these legacy systems no longer keep up with today’s computing demands. Cloud migration entails transferring an organization’s data, applications, and business processes from an on-premise infrastructure to the Cloud. When you migrate to the Cloud, you leverage a Cloud provider’s computing power and expertise so you can reap benefits such as scalability, savings, performance, security, and disaster readiness. Meanwhile, you can focus on growing your business.  

Approaches to Cloud migration

When it comes to cloud migration, one size does not fit all. Your approach may depend on where you are in your digital transformation journey, the complexity of applications, the timeline, the budget, and other factors. Here are different approaches to explore when you decide to go Cloud.

• Lift and Shift. Also known as rehosting, the Lift and Shift approach is straightforwardly transferring an application from an on-premise server to the Cloud server. No modification or coding transpires. This approach is used on standalone applications that can run as is in the Cloud. While the approach is quick and less costly, it may compromise the performance of the application if it is not optimized for a Cloud setting.
• Refactoring. Refactoring happens when the architecture or the code of an application is modified for use in the Cloud. Engineers may re-code the application to be modular to be scalable, and use cloud-specific services. The resulting application is optimized for Cloud use, which may mean a faster, more secure, and better-performing app. While this approach costs time and resources upfront, a company will realize the benefits of savings, improvements, and ease of use in the long run.
• Repurchasing. To save time and resources, a company may replace an existing on-premise application with a Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution. This approach is best for organizations using a legacy application not meant for the Cloud. Switching applications can save a company from re-implementing the app and migrating the data from the old server to the new one. However, this approach entails a user adoption campaign to re-train employees in using a new application.

 

Why move to the Cloud?

Apart from doing away with the tedious task of procuring, building, and maintaining servers, here are reasons why companies should move to the Cloud today.

• Save on costs. With physical servers, you need to pay for energy consumption, a technical team, and software licenses, whether or not the servers are being fully utilized by the company. The Cloud enables a pay-per-use model, so you can allocate a budget for a project that requires high Cloud consumption and stop spending for it when the project ends.
• Scale on-demand. E-commerce traffic is usually high when your brand runs promos, resulting in the need for higher compute power. Cloud is the quickest way to scale your app resources to accommodate these surges. At the end of the season, you can just as quickly scale down your Cloud use and the corresponding billing.
• Access high-performance. With Cloud providers managing data, storage, and CPU resources, you can leverage virtually unlimited power to perform complex processes and handle large volumes of data.
• Secure your assets. To combat cybersecurity threats, let the experts protect your digital assets through encryption, access controls, monitoring, and other features.
• Be ready for disruptions. For mission-critical operations that require zero downtime, it only takes a few clicks to set up a robust backup and disaster recovery plan.

   

Where to go from here?

Convinced that your business will benefit when you go Cloud? Here are the steps to expect when you embark on a Cloud journey.

1. Assess. Review your current infrastructure. Take an inventory of your existing hardware, software, and data assets. Determine which applications can and should be migrated to the Cloud.
2. Select. Find the Cloud provider that best suits your strategy based on your performance requirements, budget, and overall IT landscape. Some of the more popular Cloud.
3. Prepare. Get your applications and data ready for the Cloud. Create backup, update software, and ensure that data is secure. Moreover, have a plan in place to deal with risks such as downtime or data loss.
4. Migrate. Finally, make your move to the Cloud! Once your assets are in the Cloud, you will run tests to make sure your apps are working as expected. Depending on how much data and apps you are taking with you, this step could take hours or days.
5. Optimize. Lastly, monitor the performance, improve, and continuously optimize your new Cloud setup.

 

Start your Cloud journey with an experienced partner

Moving to Cloud can be a long and arduous journey to take on your own. But the rewards are resilience, innovation, and future readiness. This path is not one you have to take alone. As one of the early adopters of AWS Cloud in the country, Stratpoint can help you in every step of your cloud migration initiative: from architecting, building, migration, optimization, and management backup to disaster recovery. Fill out the form below to start your Cloud journey today.