Migration to the cloud is a key requirement for the IT team. A cloud strategy is essential to meet the requirements of mobility and digital transformation. It also supports the ability of IT teams to innovate and accelerate the delivery of new services.

However, many IT organizations find that they do not have the time to focus on strategic activities like cloud migration, and they may not have the skills to plan, implement and manage cloud deployments. That’s where a migration partner can provide essential skills and resources, and add value to the migration.

Migration partners are specialists in cloud and they have experience of delivering small and large-scale migrations for businesses of every size. They employ skilled technicians who use automated tools to streamline migration processes and deliver projects quickly and cost effectively.

Working with the right partner can deliver benefits at every stage of the migration process.

Building the Case for Migration

Careful planning ensures the migration meets operational and business objectives and delivers benefits quickly. A migration partner can help IT teams build a case for migration by focusing on the objectives and identifying where cloud is appropriate or where it may not be suitable.

Using automated tools, partners can quickly collect information on applications and services, together with their dependencies, and scope the resources required to maintain or improve performance in a cloud environment.

From a business perspective, partners work with users to assess how and where they access applications and services to identify how cloud could improve mobility, productivity and service to customers.

Building a case for migration can be a time-consuming part of the process. Partners can reduce the time required and ensure that the case takes all important factors into consideration.

Preparing for the Migration

Using the information gathered in the preliminary assessment, partners can recommend the most suitable type of cloud – private, public or hybrid. They can also advise on the security and networking requirements that will ensure a safe, successful transition to cloud operations.

Security, for example, is a key issue, particularly if your business is subject to regulatory compliance or customer SLAs that specify security requirements. That can influence the type of cloud deployment and the applications and data that can move to the cloud.

Partners will review existing networks to ensure they can handle the increased traffic to and from the cloud. Poor networking can slow access and lead to user frustration. It can also impact the return on investment by limiting the benefits of migration.

Managing Migration

A successful migration minimizes downtime and incorporates contingency measures to maintain business continuity. Partners have the skills and resources to manage migration efficiently and reduce the time required to deliver benefits.

They carry out pre-migration testing to identify and minimize any risks and they prioritize critical applications and services to maintain essential operations. To ensure the migration delivers the planned benefits, partners set metrics for cloud deployments and monitor performance.

And, as part of the migration process, IT teams benefit from skills transfer. They also gain more time to focus on other strategic tasks.

Working with a migration partner can help your business gain greater benefit from the cloud.

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