In recent years, cloud computing has taken off because of a large variety of reasons tied to the huge growth of the mobile space. Everyone’s on the web, and the unmatched portability of virtual servers and virtual hard drives has led to even better cloud solutions for businesses – making it a new sphere unto itself.
Cloud computing solutions such as Microsoft Azure and SharePoint Online are proprietary services to help smooth the transition; however, it’s necessary to define your expectations before delving into any solution – no matter how robust.
Cloud Computing Consulting Services Can Smooth the Transition
Despite the many benefits of transitioning the bulk of your operations onto the cloud, it comes with certain risks. These risks are exacerbated by common mistakes that businesses make when just starting out with the migration. The attraction of faster project turnarounds, reduced overhead and flexible customization has often led companies to launch blindingly into accepting a wholesale transition of services and operations without taking advantage of cloud computing consulting. For example, cost overruns are just one of the potential problems that result; the following list details several others.
1. Take an Accounting of Your Applications
Do not assume that you can throw every application used by your business into the cloud – some may not be supported. There’s some legwork needed to ascertain the compatibility beforehand: how old is the application in question (is it legacy, etc), the specifics of its database and design specs. Make sure all applications that need to work with others can continue to do so once the transition to the virtual world is complete.
2. Testing 1-2-3
Too many businesses assume everything will work just fine once the cloud migration is complete. You would do better to run tests at every stage of the migration to be sure. In this pilot stage, assess user-adoption issues and other things that pop up as they happen. This costs time and money initially, but always saves much more of both in the end.
3. What’s the Business Plan?
Make sure the migration to the cloud is fully in line with your business goals. This is another area where cloud computing consulting comes in handy – that way you are made aware of how different parts of your business may interact with the new challenges and benefits introduced by cloud migration.
4. Use multiple Cloud Solutions if Necessary
There’s nothing wrong with having a small suite of cloud providers, as long as they meet your business’s end-goals. Microsoft Azure is one solution that generally serves as a primary option because of how powerful it is. But you can certainly employ smaller suites to handle other aspects of your business.
Lastly, it’s important not to think of cloud migration as a fire-and-forget strategy. Continued governance is an absolute requirement, and it’s not just because of security issues. Robust platforms such as Microsoft Azure provide various levels of governance, and it is essential that you take advantage of them in order to enjoy the continued success of a smooth transition, and to avoid the mistakes made by other businesses.