Has COVID-19 expedited Cloud Migration?

The world, as we know, it has irrevocably changed, caught in the clutches of COVID-19. As companies face the operational difficulties of the crisis, many have accelerated their adoption of digital tools and methods, particularly the cloud, to stay engaged with employees and customers.

This is likely to continue post-infection. Following the immediate mass movement of remote work when state and nationwide locks began, many CFOs and financial leaders now say at least some of their employees are transitioning to post-infection permanent positions, according to a recent Gartner study. Cloud migration will make it more convenient and affordable for companies to manage their IT infrastructure and measure employee computing needs in real-time.

As more and more users are connected to computers remotely, data security is also gaining importance. The cloud can provide that support, as it is designed with productive security mechanisms on the go, providing stricter security protocols than most large companies. Simultaneously, today’s business-as-usual calls for innovation and digitalized IT support on the go, both of which are highly viable in the cloud.

Stress test for cloud

With rapid cloud migration, cloud platforms endure lifelong stress tests. Businesses are increasingly turning to Cloud-Knowledge Managed Service Providers (MSPs), which play a crucial role in accelerating migration, modernizing legacy applications, expanding existing services, deploying and deploying multiple cloud environments, and utilizing native cloud capabilities. These solutions have been proven to reduce data center footprint, the speedy launch of virtual labor productivity and collaboration services while reducing revenue losses, and increasing customer satisfaction.

What to keep in while migration, and How much does it cost?

When launching the migration program, you should look at the business systems currently in the cloud and what’s available for migration. Once you have the full visibility of what you have, you can start analyzing which systems to migrate first. To determine this, we recommend using the cost-benefit analysis process and the benefit-cost ratio of each cloud migration project to sort the order you need to access these programs. If you only complete the first migration plan on this year’s list, you should make sure that you are dealing with something that will bring tremendous benefits against the allocation of funds to the business.

When creating migration for the cost-benefit analysis, consider your current barriers or service issues during this crisis. For example, has your internal hosted help desk system proved to be a barrier to flexible working? While this may not be the case when we return to a more casual office environment, proven flexibility should be taken seriously and weighed accordingly.

The first and most critical step

When companies are unable to create a cloud migration plan, there are very few who make it to the cloud at the right time, under budget, or with the expected results. Considering the speed and magnitude of what is involved, migration can be derailed in countless ways if not carefully organized in advance.

The cloud networking/infrastructure system seems simplistic at first. Still, then developers have to build security structures for the app while detecting and shutting down any vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Balancing access and security involves endless difficult choices that are better to plan than to try to work when they fly.

Another common cloud migration challenge occurs when product groups maintaining migration applications are not directly involved in migration. Because these product teams lack experience in the underlying architecture, they are not prepared to manage the tools moving forward (even if they have that responsibility). In this way, companies need to strike another balancing act between migration experts and product teams and ensure that both parties collaborate without making the process ineffective – which can only be achieved by advanced planning.

Many elements characterize a variety of migrations, such as self-service learning, autonomous teams, demonstrating best practices, and crowdfunding assistance with the organization. Each of those pillars is an important endeavor, which emphasizes why in-depth, specific projects are essential. It is true that cloud migration strategies take time to prepare and engage in complex, difficult choices, but the effort you put into planning before migrating proves the value of the minute things start moving.

Lets Deep Dive a bit

Self-Service Learning: Create sandbox environments for testing where developers can safely explore cloud tools, and document everything to institutionalize innovation. You will also need to provide code samples harvested from evidence-proof applications, along with resources for self-driving studies. 

Autonomous teams: Give teams full control over the top of the application layer and from end to end. It includes application code, infrastructure code, CI / CD pipeline, and any deployment. With adequate resources, teams should not rely on infrastructure or DevOps when they are responsible for all aspects of the environment, from development to completion. However, they can make decisions within parameters, including decisions about which specific cloud tools may or may not work best for their use cases.

Best Practices: Use reference structures to articulate best practices and target the most common forms in the application suite. Document these as proofs of conception, contact them throughout the organization to raise awareness, and set expectations for future migrations. Areas outside of applications are eligible to document their architecture, including data storage methods, identity management, and compliance monitoring, and login and development trends. In all cases, the best practice is to incorporate screenshots explaining what to do and constantly requesting feedback.

When we focus on different aspects of cloud migration, it’s easy to see what happens when everything is done. It is important to plan internal roles and responsibilities before actual migration work begins.

You should plan key contracts and employees, such as who is responsible for monitoring the cloud platform and who will be the key support provider during future issues, including external contractors.

Plan the time to review the migration to see what can be improved and if additional measures are needed that don’t create the original plan.

Make sure that key processes are captured, that the migrant completes the documents, and that their own teams can understand both.

Finally, when your migration plan is complete, you may have a layer of IT hardware that you no longer need. Be sure to consider how to safely dispose of it, for the protection of company data, legal administrative requirements, and the environment.