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What Are the Best Practices for Cloud Migration for Enterprises?

Written by Ronnie Liu | Oct 19, 2022 4:00:00 PM

Cloud migration is an important step in the digital transformation of an enterprise. In fact, according to a Tech Republic report, the global cloud market will reach $1 trillion in 2028

There are many benefits of a cloud environment. They include increased productivity, cost efficiency, and agility. Read further to learn more about the best practices for enterprise cloud migration.

What is Enterprise Cloud Migration?

An enterprise can develop and run new applications in the cloud using agile software development practices. Cloud services help enterprises speed up this process, which is generally done in stages.

Depending on the nature of the application, it can involve major code changes. This type of migration should only be considered when existing solutions are no longer meeting business needs.

A successful enterprise cloud migration data strategy combines several elements to ensure a smooth transition for the entire organization. They include:

 • Prioritizing workloads

 • Developing a pilot

 • Testing the user interface

 • Adjusting the strategy as necessary

 • Documenting the strategy to guide the teams through the process

The source and destination platforms should have similar architectures. Also, migration tools must be fit-for-purpose.


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Benefits of Cloud Migration

Cloud migration offers several benefits for businesses. Some of these benefits are lowering costs, improving scalability, and improving disaster recovery.

Cloud migration allows companies to be more flexible and efficient. This frees up valuable resources for growth.

Also, many cloud service providers offer to monitor business-critical applications. This allows businesses to quickly restore services when needed.

Increased productivity

Cloud migration can also boost staff productivity. Companies that use cloud services have reported uptime of up to 99%. In addition, their employees are free to work from home and enjoy flexible schedules.

Business Continuity

Cloud adoption helps organizations make the transition to the cloud without any downtime. For many businesses, this move is necessary for business continuity and accelerating innovation.

Cost Reduction

Another benefit of cloud migration is the reduction of hardware costs. By moving to a cloud provider, businesses can avoid expensive in-house hardware purchases.

Furthermore, cloud migration can reduce system downtime. The cloud provider handles upgrades and repairs.

Cloud providers regularly upgrade their services. They are required to comply with regulatory requirements, reducing the risk of cyberattacks. For example, according to Gartner, up to 99% of cloud security failures will be the fault of the customer.

Cloud Computing

Cloud migration also allows businesses to take advantage of the many benefits of cloud computing. These include cost reduction, increased scalability, and faster application updates.

Many organizations choose new cloud-based systems and services. The reason for this is to take advantage of content services platforms (CSP) capabilities. However, it's important to understand the risks and benefits of cloud adoption before making the decision.

Challenges of Cloud Migration

Cloud migration is not without its challenges. Enterprise cloud migration involves moving applications, data, and infrastructure to a cloud infrastructure.

Data Transfer

One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that all data is transferred accurately and completely. Cloud migration can be a daunting task, especially for large businesses with a lot of data.

Compatibility

Another challenge is ensuring cloud compatibility with applications and systems. This can be a time-consuming and expensive process but is worth it in the end.

Security

And finally, there is the challenge of ensuring that your cloud infrastructure is secure. This is critical, as any data breach could have devastating consequences. Data security should be your top priority.

Despite these challenges, cloud migration can be a very successful endeavor. Companies should approach it carefully and with the help of experienced professionals. With the right planning and execution, your business can enjoy all the benefits that the cloud has to offer.

Best Practices for Cloud Migration for Enterprises

When preparing for cloud migration, there are several important practices to keep in mind. The first step is to identify which resources and platforms are critical to your business. Only migrate these to the cloud when you have a proper support system in place.

Application Management

Once these are moved, the next step is to migrate your applications. This is a major task since new applications have to be developed, migrated, and tested. Also, you need to plan how to decommission these applications after the migration is complete.

You'll need to understand the existing infrastructure. Without a detailed overview of the system components, you can't devise an effective cloud migration strategy.

Create an Inventory

To do this, stakeholders should make an inventory of their assets and their interdependencies. It is also important to understand that enterprises can't migrate all of their infrastructures to the cloud.

Re-platforming

Aside from refactoring and retirement, organizations should also consider re-platforming. Re-platforming involves a complete re-architecture of applications. It can save money and improve security. It is usually the most expensive option, but it can save money in the long run because of its compatibility with future versions.

Documentation

A good cloud migration strategy is tailored to the organization's needs and desired outcomes. It should also include a clear roadmap and a document that guides teams through the entire process. The document should also facilitate a rollback in case something doesn't go as planned. The goal is for the transition to be seamless.

How to Maximize ROI by Moving IT Services to the Cloud

Cloud infrastructure allows businesses to take advantage of a pay-as-you-go model. This helps them manage costs. High visibility applications are usually systems that experience high usage.

Moving these applications to the cloud helps you leverage a scalable model. This will improve your business's ability to manage costs.

Cost Control Tools

Cloud management platforms can be useful in managing cloud expenses. They encompass several different functions:

 • Budget management
 • Cost tracking
 • Allocation
 • Reporting
 • Optimization
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These tools are designed to help companies optimize their cloud bill and minimize the total cost of ownership. However, some cloud management platforms lack features and may only be useful for a limited number of applications.

To properly manage cloud expenses, organizations need to have a unified view of cost metrics. Simply processing issued bills will not provide a clear picture of daily spending.

To make it easier to manage cloud expenses, organizations should use native providers' tags and hierarchies. This will enable them to monitor cost metrics and implement chargeback.

Focus on Business Needs

If you're moving to the cloud, you'll need to focus on what your business needs and goals are. You've probably got high ambitions for your business, and you'll need to prioritize those goals in order to meet them.

Focusing on business goals will help you avoid detours and ensure that your migration is a success. However, if you're moving your operating system to the cloud, it's essential to understand that you may not meet every single goal, and that's okay. If you're already on the right track, you can encourage your team to be more flexible and willing to accept changes.

Collaboration Between Business and IT leaders

For most companies, collaboration between business and IT leaders is essential for maximizing ROI. Moving IT services to the cloud is a good way to do this.

There are several ways to do this, but the key to success is collaboration between the two sides of the organization. For example, business leaders should align cloud initiatives with their business strategies.

They should also collaborate to determine how to measure the ROI of cloud services. According to a recent study by Dimensional Research, 53% of business leaders have adopted smart meeting rooms. In addition, 54% have committed to investing in user-friendly collaborative solutions.

This type of technology will help companies break down silos and maximize productivity.

Collaboration helps create a customer-centric organization by reducing friction and improving customer service. It also reduces the need for expensive customer care staff, as it can connect each customer with the appropriate team member.

Cloud migration is an intricate process. It is often difficult to quantify the benefits in monetary terms. However, the benefits will multiply over time as a business migrates to the cloud. Though the initial ROI may be marginal, future benefits will greatly affect the business.

Measurement of ROI

Moving to the cloud has numerous benefits. One of the greatest is the ability to operate remotely. It has been estimated that mid-sized businesses spend approximately $3000 - $7000 per employee annually on office space. This does not include the costs associated with utilities and parking. Remote workers do not incur these expenses.

In addition to the cost-saving benefits, moving to the cloud can increase ROI. But, a company must first understand the costs and benefits of moving its applications to the cloud, and the ROI threshold must be determined. The initial investment, implementation costs, and support costs will all affect the overall ROI.

Migrate to the Cloud

Enterprises should consider a variety of factors when migrating to the cloud. These include data security, cost, application compatibility, and performance. This article provided an overview of the best practices for cloud migration for enterprises. To stay up-to-date on the latest in cloud computing, subscribe to our newsletter.