All Cloud Migration Benefits

As cloud technology continues to evolve, we've seen an increase in interest from all levels of business, from small businesses to large corporations.

Every company is interested in ensuring that its business processes keep pace with the times and meet the standards of its industries, and today, more than ever, it is an excellent help to transfer workloads from local data centers to cloud hosting - migrate to the cloud. If your company hasn't made the leap to cloud infrastructure yet, you might be wondering what all the hype is about. In this article, we'll look at seven reasons why you might want to consider moving some of your workloads to cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, Heroku, and Digital Ocean.

7 cloud migration advantages

Their significant advantages drive the fashion for using cloud solutions: in the face of constant technological development, the cloud allows you to be flexible and not spend money on equipment that quickly becomes obsolete. With a limited budget and without spending much money on equipment, businesses get access to the necessary capacities and the most advanced tools. And the freed-up resources can be used for strategic development: expansion and development of new products and directions.

Cloud technologies make it possible to accelerate the start, quickly scale the IT infrastructure, and increase its flexibility and availability. The tender and standard procurement procedure take up to three months, and to connect to the cloud, it is enough to sign a contract with the provider and press a few keys. The cloud migration benefits are detailed below:

Cost reduction

It is a process of reducing unnecessary costs in the business. Let's say a company focuses on its product and doesn't see the point in maintaining its own data center. The services of a cloud provider, of course, cost money. However, many cloud financial management practices and tools exist to reduce costs. In fact, the culture of financial management in the cloud - FinOps - has been formed on their basis. Also, cloud services allow companies to pay only for those resources that the company uses at a particular time, and you can expand or reduce their consumption at any time. Very often, people try to compare the cost of buying a physical server and renting resources in the cloud simply by CPU, RAM, and Storage, which is not entirely correct. Of course, it may seem that using the cloud is expensive in this case. However, this comparison does not take into account many things, such as the cost of electricity consumed, the salaries of technical specialists who maintain these resources, physical and fire safety, and much more.

Workflow flexibility

Migrating to the cloud is a modern budget optimization solution. Having quick access to 99% (most) of the IT resources you need allows you to compete on equal footing in a rapidly changing business environment. Companies no longer need to wait weeks, or even months, to connect and install infrastructure components - simply add the necessary resources to your cloud system, allowing you to realize business ideas much faster.

Data center consolidation

By using cloud resources, companies no longer need to maintain their data centers by outsourcing the responsibility of maintaining backend infrastructure to cloud providers. Organizations can also distribute access to cloud services as they see fit, thereby increasing corporate efficiency. Enabling digital transformation through automation, cloud technologies can improve the efficiency of existing business processes such as CRM, SAP, data analytics, etc. For the cloud, the ability to virtualize such services is virtually unlimited.

Security

The cloud can be much more secure than an in-house data center, but security professionals need the skills and tools to make it happen on every platform an organization uses. Leading organizations are overcoming the lack of cloud security skills by creating security barriers from the start, automatically eliminating any deviations from their baseline level of control, and implementing a simplified management process to manage security, technology, and the evolution of the cloud over time. Moving your servers, data, or programs to the cloud creates an environment where your information cannot be damaged, deleted, or stolen. Physically, your data will be placed in a secure data center of your choice. Only you will have access to your data in the cloud, and your privacy is guaranteed. Data centers are provided with uninterrupted power and Internet access and comply with all necessary security measures - equipped with a 24-hour cooling system, physical security monitoring, firefighting, etc. Their competence and reliability are backed by international certificates. They guarantee a stable level of availability of your data and are financially responsible, which is spelled out in the contract.

Access

The fact that all of your data is stored in the cloud means that it can be accessed whether or not something happens to your physical hardware. The process of moving to the cloud likewise allows members of your enterprise to access the data and business information they need from any location in the world from any device. This opens up many options for increasing and enhancing your business while meeting your operational needs. Numerous cloud services can also provide monitoring of crucial apps and machines for your business. Notifying of an application outage or potential problems can significantly speed up service restoration and problem resolution times. After migrating to the cloud, your team won't need to be in a specific location to deploy, update or troubleshoot problems with the various machines in use. This creates a more flexible solution than the traditional headaches of an on-premises deployment. The consistency of provisioning and deployment processes that the cloud provides can make collaborative work much easier because the entire team will be on the same page.

Backup and disaster recovery

Backups can be made according to specified parameters, setting how often and for how long specific data should be stored. In the event of an emergency, it will be easy to restore information, and the cloud provider is fully responsible for security. And these companies value their reputation and care about the safety of customer data.

Different models of cloud services offer a wide range of business opportunities.

There are three types of models: IaaS, PaaS, and  SaaS - infrastructure, platform, and software as a service, respectively. IaaS is the basic level of cloud solutions that includes server infrastructure, communications, storage, and all the software necessary to set up the environment. You can "raise" a lot of virtual machines, configure the network in a couple of clicks, or even fully automate the process. PaaS is a service model in which the customer receives a platform (for example, a web server, development and testing environment, or backup server) on which he can deploy the applications he needs. Also, with the PaaS model, you don't have to worry about creating or configuring data backups, but simply make a database, name it, and enter additional parameters (such as security or backups), and you're done. The provider will be responsible for maintenance. The latter - SaaS - model is popular because the client uses applications deployed on the provider's platform. Solutions such as Office 365, which combine mail, messengers, accounting tools, and other options in one package, belong to this model.

Common cloud migration risks

However, not every cloud project is successful. According to analysts, it's not the clouds themselves but companies' approach to cloud migration. Here are the significant cloud migration challenges:

Regulatory risks

Each cloud provider must comply with the standards and policies of the country or region where the client's business is located. Standards are rigorous in business domains such as medicine, insurance, and telemetry. Specific security standards for sensitive data apply here. To avoid problems with the regulator, the client must understand which cloud provider will allow them to comply with all possible policies.

Safety issues

One of the biggest challenges when moving to the cloud is security. If it hasn't been thought through in the company before moving to the cloud, then many areas are at risk.

Reduced productivity in the beginning

Some companies don't rely on cloud providers after the migration, so they are left to deal with the new processes right after the migration. The company's IT team, responsible for ensuring everything runs smoothly and without threats, may not be able to cope for a while.  And since there are no partners, the responsibility for fixing and maintaining it lies solely with your team. There is a risk that employees will work slower because of the abrupt change in processes, as they need time to adjust.

Hybrid cloud integration

Combining private and public cloud environments can be a challenge with a number of potential threats. Companies need to separate services, policies, and roles and set up efficient and secure communication between the two clouds. The process of integrating two or more clouds is a complex task. But it's the only way to get the best of both worlds.

Vendor lock-in

Due to specific technologies or signed contracts, companies may find themselves locked into a vendor lock-in. What can be the problems? For example, with the Service Level Agreement - when, after scaling, the average service response time is not as expected. It is also possible to reduce bandwidth, stability under load, exhaustion of database memory, etc. All of this is worth paying extra attention to.

Lack of engineers' expertise

Any cloud is a specific tool with a lot of nuances. The client should have specialists with experience working with a particular provider and its technologies. Without sufficient expertise, additional security risks may arise, or the cost of the provider's services may increase.