Migrating to the cloud can offer many improvements to how your organisation runs. However, a cost-benefit analysis should be taken to ensure you make the right decision. We have listed a few key signs to help you determine if now is the right time to migrate to the cloud, along with considerations when you’re looking at the scope of a cloud migration.
What are the signs that you should move to the cloud?
End of life hardware
One of the best times for a cloud migration is when your current hardware (such as servers that run in your premises) is nearing the end of life. One of the major benefits of the migrating to the cloud is that you no longer have to maintain and replace physical hardware, helping to reduce capital expenditure and future maintenance costs for managing the hardware.
Organisational growth
As your organisation changes and grows, so does your demand on technology. Your server may not have sufficient resources to enable the growth you need. Cloud-based solutions can offer more flexibility and scalability, allowing you to easily expand capacity as needed.
Increase in remote workers
If you have remote workers or allow flexible working arrangements, cloud-based solutions can enable seamless access to company data on any device without the need for VPNs or remote connections.
Benefits of cloud services
Improved reliability
Taking steps to ensure your organisation avoids downtime is essential. Moving to cloud services such as Microsoft 365 helps to ensure there is minimal downtime by reducing the amount of potential failure points associated with legacy on-premise systems.
Long-term cost savings
The major factor in cost savings is the ability to scale resources depending on your requirements without the need for capital expenditure. This allows you to quickly and easily expand or shrink the amount of resources that you require.
Considerations for a cloud migration
Internet connectivity
Ensuring you have a robust and stable internet connection is a vital part of finding success when moving to the cloud. To ensure you have a stable connection, you should run a secondary “failover” internet connection. This brings additional ongoing costs and should be factored into the cost-benefit analysis.
Training
When migrating to the cloud, staff will need to change how they access and interact with data. They will also have access to additional tools that can help improve their day-to-day work activity. These factors will require training to ensure staff are comfortable with the new systems, which brings associated costs of external training or the time for your internal team to deliver the training.
Bespoke software
If your organisation relies heavily on the use of bespoke software that currently runs on-premise, it is critical to ensure this software is compatible with your chosen cloud solution. Manufacturer-specific software can be difficult to migrate to the cloud due to the way it interacts with on-premise machinery.
Large datasets
If you create and interact with large files or large datasets, it may be more cost-effective to maintain your on-premise services as moving large data to the cloud can become time-consuming, especially when regular small changes are made to large files (such as photo and video editing).
How we can help
Primary Technology have helped organisations complete a cost-value analysis to decide whether a cloud migration would be beneficial. We have implemented cloud migrations in the business and education sectors and our team are always ready to answer any questions you may have about moving to the cloud, so feel free to contact us today.