8 questions to ask when migrating to the cloud

It might seem like a long and complex undertaking, but migrating your organisation’s infrastructure to the cloud is easier than you think. What’s more, it can afford several advantages such as greater flexibility, capacity, and cost-efficiency.

With IDC predicting that spending on IT infrastructure products for deployment in cloud environments will grow more than 15 per cent this year, what questions do you need to ask to ensure a smooth migration?

1. Why should you move to the cloud?

Digital transformation technologies, such as Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence, require huge amounts of data and processing power, which is almost impossible using traditional infrastructure. The cloud enables you to keep pace with the latest trends.

2. What about data that must remain on-premises?

If you need to keep certain pieces of data on-premises for regulatory compliance, find a solution that enables you to move to a modern cloud operational model without necessarily moving to a public cloud.

3. How can you ensure compatibility?

The very best single-vendor systems are architected, integrated, tested, and optimised to work alongside cloud counterparts. Migration is seamless because these systems feature an environment identical to the cloud platform.

4. Can the cloud deal with Big Data from IoT?

Thankfully, private cloud migration doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice the smart data insights and rapid time to value from Big Data.

5. How will it affect costs?

The pay-as-you-go model of cloud computing is a lot different to the capital-intense nature of traditional infrastructures. Costs are closely aligned to usage, resulting in predictable and controllable expenditure.

6. Does existing software work with the cloud?

With the cloud, you should be able to consolidate databases and applications running on Windows or Linux to increase efficiency and reduce licensing costs.

7. How can you optimise apps for the cloud?

Despite the fact you can port your applications to the cloud without modification, it often makes more sense to re-write them with the cloud’s elasticity in mind.

8. Will your data be secure?

The biggest misconception that still hangs over the cloud is security. However, its much easier to reduce exposure points, lock down data, and harden infrastructure with the cloud compared to on-premise infrastructure.