Owing to the evidence of the impact of cloud computing which has been seen over time, people are no longer talking about why cloud computing should be adopted. Rather, they now talk about how they can move operations and services to the cloud. These are the issues you need to consider before migrating to the cloud:
- Make sure your cloud applications are an improvement to the on-premise applications you already have
Every business’ intention is to have systems that are better than what they already have in order to compete favorably in a highly competitive business landscape. This is no exception when migrating to the cloud. Your new cloud systems must give you the competitive edge you need as you cannot afford to lose anything when migrating to the cloud. Ensure that you only pay for what you will use to avoid duplication and costs. You should ensure that you change everything to meet the shifting demands by improving the efficiency of your systems.
- Decide where and what processes to start with
Moving to a cloud is not something you start and finish once. Rather, you need to have a concrete plan that involves moving operations in phases to avoid total disaster in case of a failure. Since it is new technology, it requires a phased approach where simple business processes are moved first and lessons learned from the previous phase applied to the next one. For a company that has subsidiaries or branches, you can start with one branch and scale your deployment to other branches.
- Manage compatibility and interoperability with other vendors
Interoperability is perhaps one of the leading areas of concern when migrating to the cloud. As you select your cloud vendors, one of the leading areas you should investigate is compatibility of architecture and applications with other vendors. Incompatibility can cost your business a lot and can be the cause of problems when you want to migrate to another cloud service provider. You should also address integration issues that can create separate silos and affect operations.
- Ensure the strategy of your vendor aligns to your company’s business strategy
Failure to align cloud strategy to business strategy remains the single most challenging area for many organizations and ends up jeopardizing everything. Before you commit to a cloud vendor, take your time to acquaint yourself with the architectural requirements of the service provider. Ensure that the service provider you choose offers all the capabilities that a company needs such as reporting options, budgeting features, and planning options as well as regulatory compliance. Most importantly, ensure that the vendor has integration and security strategies that can be verified by other businesses. Furthermore, inquire the investment of the vendor on future technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and IoT all of which signify intentions of the company to adapt to the future as you would always want your company to do.