Migrating to cloud server enables a business to carry out its day-to-day computing activities in an environment that is scalable, reliable, and highly available. Today, almost every business has one or several workloads utilizing cloud services. But while cloud server migration offers many benefits, it generally comes with a few concerns. It is inherent that you understand these worries as you plan your migration.
Moving to the cloud? Consider these factors:
1. Possible losses due to downtime during migration
Downtime is an inevitable challenge encountered during cloud migration. Even when using the most efficient cloud computing service, it is impossible to completely avoid network and service outages when transferring computing essentials to the cloud. These outages can cause enormous losses for your business concerning lost revenue, stained business reputation, and loss of customer loyalty.
A competitive cloud computing service like Azure management service can help you set up a backup or allocate resources that can house and run applications during the migration. If the downtime cannot be avoided, efforts should be made to reduce its effects as much as possible. For instance, migration to the cloud server can be done when the service use is minimal. Users can also be notified beforehand about the temporary unavailability of the system or a specific application.
2. Skill Gaps
Cloud migration can introduce certain operational, integration and management complexities into a business’ IT management. For instance, the business will need a more robust Active Directory as well as security and encryption services.
If there has to be flawless migration of functionalities to a cloud server, IT staff must have the requisite skill level to manage and maintain the new computing environment. Many businesses realize at the beginning of their cloud computing journey the need to retrain staff. Your employees need to be equipped with skills that will enable them to marry the new cloud computing management requirements with their current on-premise IT responsibilities.
3. The cost of migration
Every business undertaking incurs a cost to the business. Considering the return on investment, therefore, is a crucial consideration when planning to migrate to a cloud server.
The primary question management should seek to answer as they plan for the migration is: is cloud migration sensible to our organization investment-wise? It’s important to remember that while adopting cloud computing is associated with many advantages, it doesn’t mean that it is right for everyone.
Consider the investment that has to be made to modify the current working infrastructure as well as the staff training required to handle the cloud platform. Do the expected business outcomes after the migration justify the decision to migrate to cloud server now? A low return on investment in cloud computing is an indication that the planned cloud migration is not right for the business.
4. Reduced control and visibility
Using external servers means that the responsibility of some IT assets, infrastructure, and policies is surrendered to the cloud service provider (CSP). The organization thus loses some visibility and control of the cloud-based operations and assets.
The cloud service model chosen determines how the actual shift in responsibility will take place. As a business, you need to analyze information about your data, services, applications, and users for security monitoring and logging.
The cloud service chosen should allow you a level of control and visibility of your resources and operations.
5. System and data security
For most businesses, security is the first worry of adopting cloud computing capabilities. Maintaining the security of data and systems in a cloud migration is a challenging task that should be managed with extreme care.
During, and after the transition, application programming interfaces (APIs) can be compromised. Since these are the platforms used by users to interact with cloud services, exposed APIs present software vulnerability with greater potential for exploitation compared to management APIs for on-premise computing. When attackers find a vulnerability in management APIs, they can unleash attacks on the organization’s cloud assets and even to other CSP customers.
It is critical to ensure that protocols are observed during and after cloud migration. Security should also be prudently integrated with Active Directory that ensures access control to network resources.
Cloud Migration and Azure management services
Coming up with a thorough plan and a well thought out strategy for cloud server migration is the best way to achieve success with cloud computing adoption. Engaging a trustworthy Malaysia IT company like Enfrasys ensures that your business has the right support needed for a secure and productive cloud migration process. Enfrasys offers a wide range of cloud computing services including IT planning, solution implementation, and Azure management services for more for security, mobility and productivity of computing resources.