The cloud is an essential technology for businesses in the modern world. After all, the benefits of the cloud are unmatched, and it’s looking like businesses will need to look to the cloud to succeed and stay competitive in the long run.

One of the most difficult parts of getting to grips with the cloud — and the part that many businesses struggle with — is the cloud migration process. After all, moving your whole business’s infrastructure to the cloud can be quite intimidating, and knowing how to do it correctly seems nearly impossible when it seems as though there are a million different things to consider.

That’s why in this article, we’re going to go over four essential tips to help simplify the cloud migration process, to help make sure that you know everything you need to about the process and how you can take steps to make the whole process easier. That way, even if you’re not completely comfortable with technology, you can have an idea of the practical steps that are required to have a successful cloud migration strategy.

Importance of Planning Your Migration

The most important part of cloud migration is having a definitive, thorough plan. As with anything, you have to make sure you have clear goals and defined objectives to ensure that you’re on the right track and doing everything correctly. It’s the classic saying — ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ — and making sure you’re prepared should be the primary focus here.

There are a few steps that you need to take when planning for cloud migration:

  • Assess: The first step is assessing your current infrastructure and creating a list of inventory, dependencies, benchmarks, and security considerations. This will help you work out exactly what needs to be considered during the migration process.
  • Define: Next, you’ll need to define your migration strategy. This includes identifying business goals, selecting your provider, and determining the strategy you’ll use to migrate your systems to the cloud.
  • Plan: The final step before actually conducting your migration is planning. You’ll need to take all of this into account and make sure you have a plan that details every step of the process, including risk assessments and a migration timeline.

With all of this, you’ll be able to ensure that migration happens successfully, reducing the chance of error, delay, or even the migration project becoming a disaster in serious cases.

Choosing the Right Cloud Migration Partner

It’s vital to ensure that you choose the right migration partner for your business. After all, migrating to the cloud is difficult to do alone, and ensuring that you have a partner at hand to help you along the way will ensure you have the support that you need to prosper.

The first step in choosing a partner is making sure that your partner is an expert on your chosen platform. For example, if you’re making a move to Microsoft Azure, picking a partner whose expertise is in another platform is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive. So, making sure you partner with a suitable migration partner will go a long way.

The best way of checking this is to see if they have any certifications. Continuing Azure as an example, a great Azure partner — like ourselves — will often have a range of Azure certifications, which are only possible to obtain by passing exams. Seeing this will help you know that you’re partnering with someone that you can trust.

On top of this, checking that they have good records of compliance and high-security standards — and even taking a look at their services — will help you work out which partner is better for your needs, and overall.

Ensuring Data Security

Data security is vital for moving to the cloud. It can be easy to overlook, especially if you’ve already considered security without considering the cloud. But, failing to have a good data security strategy that enables your cloud migration process can be a hindrance all around.

The most important things to do regarding data security in the cloud are:

  • Encryption: Encrypting data at rest and in transit will ultimately ensure that any data that is stored or transferred simply can’t be stolen.
  • Access Controls: Implementing access controls will allow you to ensure anyone with unauthorised access can’t access sensitive data, meaning you have more control over your data overall.
  • Cloud Provider: Picking a cloud provider with a strong standard of security — like Microsoft Azure, with their security certifications and shared responsibility model — will go a long way in making sure your data stays secure.

Don’t Neglect Ongoing Management and Optimisation

Moving to the cloud is great, but it’s vital to ensure that you keep on managing and optimising your cloud implementation in the long term, or you’ll fail to see long-term success and will miss out on some of the major cloud benefits.

Managing your cloud regularly by auditing and maintaining your protocols and settings will ensure that your cloud is always working in an optimal fashion — and can always meet your needs regarding both performance and security.

Optimisation is also vital — right-sizing your implementation and scaling to accommodate growth means that you’ll be able to ensure that your business has everything it needs, while also helping save costs massively without giving up performance. This is a constant process, and it will need adjusting throughout the future.

How We Can Help

The cloud is a vital technology in the modern world, and many businesses are seeing it as the future of modern business technology. But, cloud migration isn’t as simple as just making the move — and can be confusing. These tips will help you ensure you know everything you need before deciding to start your own cloud journey.

If you’re looking for help in getting started with the cloud, reach out to us today. We’re here to help and will ensure you have the support you need to succeed.

Get in touch with us now, and see how we can help.