Cloud Migration 101: What Your Business Should Know About Planning

Data storage options have become far more advanced and varied than they used to be in the past. In fact, business owners now have the option to store their data and maintain their business platforms in cloud storage systems located anywhere around the world. This is a significant technological advancement, and it is one that helps to ensure data security and appropriate disaster response. If you're thinking about migrating to a cloud platform, you should complete a cloud migration assessment first. Here's a look at some of the things to expect from that process.

Start By Determining Your Goals

The first step of a cloud migration assessment should be to identify your ultimate goals with this process. Try to establish measurable goals such as a fixed amount in savings from eliminating hardware investments or something similar. Additionally, consider things like improving disaster recovery to within a specified period following an emergency. You need to know clearly what you're trying to accomplish for your business in order to approach the migration correctly for your needs.

Complete A Thorough Migration Inventory

The next step in your assessment is a comprehensive inventory of your applications and your storage infrastructure. You'll need to clearly identify every platform that will be transitioning to cloud storage as well as all of your server storage systems that will be moved. It's important to create as comprehensive an inventory as possible to ensure that you have sufficient capacity in your new storage system and to be sure that you get everything transitioned appropriately.

A key part of this inventory is also platform dependencies. You need to clearly identify the dependencies that any of your platforms have so that you can be sure your new structure will maintain them. Otherwise, you'll risk operational problems after the fact.

Assess Any Platforms That May Need To Be Replaced

As you review your platforms and applications, you should also think about any of the platforms you rely on that may not migrate well into a cloud-based environment. If you have any platforms that aren't fully cloud-compatible, you should talk with your migration assessment contractor about the possibility of transitioning to a different platform. Then, review the options to find the platform that will offer the most seamless transition and cloud operation.

Cloud migration is an important process for any business that's looking for redundancy and security in their data, software, and operations. Talk with a specialist today for more help and to plan your cloud migration assessment.

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