If your organization is dealing with network storage limitations and poor network reliability and performance, it can lead to issues that affect the productivity and efficiency of your employees.
However, for organizations looking to migrate to SaaS, there may be potential challenges that affect the process. Therefore, it is important to understand these challenges so you can prepare for them before the migration process begins.
No organization benefits from using unreliable network applications that restrict scalability. Migrating to SaaS enables your organization to improve network and application performance and reliability.
Coeo understands how important reliable networks are and has helped thousands of organizations migrate to SaaS to help improve the reliability and performance of their network.
By the end of this article, you will understand what SaaS is, the potential challenges when migrating to SaaS, and best practices for successful SaaS migrations.
What is SaaS
Software as a Service (SaaS) is a cloud computing model where software applications are hosted and managed by a service provider and available for organizations to use over the internet.
Instead of organizations having to purchase, install, and maintain software on devices and servers, SaaS software and applications are accessed through the internet by individual users and devices and paid for on a subscription basis.
This eliminates the need for hardware on the premises of the organization as well as internal management of software or applications by an IT team allowing them to focus on and put time into other business initiatives.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about migrating to SaaS or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
The potential challenges of migrating to SaaS
Now that you understand what SaaS is, it is also important to understand the potential challenges of migrating to SaaS and to prepare for them should they happen during migration. These potential challenges include:
Elimination of custom settings
Since SaaS applications and tools are offered online and managed by providers, they all have a “one-size-fits-all” approach. Therefore, these applications and tools need to be generic enough to fit a wide range of organizations.
With that said, one potential challenge of migrating to SaaS is having to sacrifice the custom settings your organization may already use with your traditional network solution.
If the loss of these custom settings is detrimental to your business operations, it is important to understand if a new provider will eliminate these settings before migrating to SaaS.
Difficult to migrate infrastructure and data
While migrating to SaaS can bring many benefits to an organization, the process of moving the infrastructure, network applications, and data can be quite challenging, especially in large organizations that have large network infrastructure with lots of moving parts.
Each application and tool must document how it works as well as the network path and ports they use. This can be time-consuming and leave the possibility of human error playing a role and infrastructure not working properly when it is moved to SaaS.
However, many SaaS providers will help with the migration process so your organization does not have to lead the process.
It is important to discuss the specific migration process with your potential provider to ensure you’re comfortable with their process.
Data security and industry compliance concerns
Migrating to SaaS brings infrastructure and data to the cloud which is a public platform that can be accessed by anyone.
Migrating to SaaS can be beneficial for your network since it makes applications more flexible and scalable but it can also make network applications and data more vulnerable to cyberattacks and data breaches if the proper security is not put in place.
Additionally, these network vulnerabilities can bring compliance issues if your organization has industry standards such as HIPAA.
To avoid these issues, it is important to have security solutions such as SASE to ensure cloud infrastructure is safe.
Best practices for successful SaaS migration
Now you understand what SaaS is and the potential challenges of migrating to SaaS. However, it is also important to understand some of the best practices to avoid these potential challenges and have a successful SaaS migration process. These best practices include:
Research SaaS settings
To avoid the challenge of eliminating settings that impact your business operations, it is important to research SaaS settings offered by different providers to find the right one that meets the needs of your organization.
Understand the SaaS service
Before migrating to SaaS, it is important to understand the SaaS tools and applications you are migrating to, especially for your IT team and other employees who will be using the tools on a regular basis.
This makes the transition process more smooth ensuring that employees who are using the tools and applications understand how to use them.
Determining if migrating to SaaS is a good solution for your organization
Now you understand what SaaS is, the potential challenges of migrating to SaaS, and best practices to avoid these challenges for a successful SaaS migration. This will help determine if migrating to SaaS is a good choice for your organization.
No organization can afford to have a poor-performing network that restricts their growth and scalability, does not allow their remote workers to connect smoothly to the network, or distracts their IT team from focusing on more important business initiatives.
This will result in a network that hinders the efficiency and productivity of employees. Improving network performance and scalability by migrating to SaaS can improve connectivity for employees enabling them to perform daily work tasks with no setbacks.
However, it is also important to understand the potential challenges of migrating to SaaS so you can prepare for them during your migration.
Coeo understands how important a reliable network is and has helped thousands of organizations migrate to SaaS to improve network connectivity and application performance.
We want you to understand the potential challenges of migrating to SaaS so you can better determine if it is a good solution for your organization and prepare for these challenges if they happen during the migration process.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about migrating to SaaS or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you understand the potential challenges of migrating to SaaS and the best practices to avoid them, read this article to understand what SD-WAN is and whether it is right for your organization:
