If your organization has a poor-performing network, it will result in productivity issues especially when employees rely on network connectivity to perform their daily tasks. This can adversely affect customer relationships resulting in lost or reduced revenue.
No organization can afford to experience these issues. To mitigate these challenges, your organization may need to migrate network infrastructure to the cloud to improve network scalability, flexibility, and overall performance.
However, it is important to understand the steps it takes to complete a successful cloud migration so you know how best to move to the cloud to avoid any challenges during and after the process.
Coeo understands how important reliable network and application performance is and has helped thousands of organizations migrate to the cloud to improve performance and overall productivity.
By the end of this article, you will understand the steps required to complete a successful cloud migration and whether migrating to the cloud is the best choice for your organization.
The steps to complete a successful cloud migration
If your organization has chosen to migrate to the cloud, understanding the requirements to complete a successful migration will help you best execute the process. These steps include:
Build a business case
The first step in migrating to the cloud is understanding how your organization will benefit from this.
Understanding the driving factors to move to the cloud will help not only determine whether your organization should migrate to the cloud but also help you understand what to expect following the migration.
Understanding the business case your organization has made will also help determine whether your entire network infrastructure should migrate to the cloud or whether you might benefit more from migrating some portions to the cloud and keeping other portions on-premises.
Determine the right cloud migration approach
Another implementation decision for a successful cloud migration is to determine whether your existing applications and infrastructure need to be redeployed, adjusted in the cloud, or replaced altogether.
Your organization can take advantage of the 5 “R’s” approach for each application or portion of the network infrastructure. The 5 “R’s” are the different migration approaches your organization can take for your infrastructure and applications. These “5R’s” include:
Rehost
The rehost approach redeploys data and applications to cloud storage and computes the resources without making any modifications. This is typically the fastest approach to cloud migration because there are no modifications involved.
While this approach does not work for all applications and infrastructure, it does work well for organizations with little IT or cloud expertise in-house.
Refactor
The refactoring approach modifies a small portion of the underlying codebase for improved reliability in the cloud. An application or portion of the network may be refactored for better use in the cloud rather than the on-premise database.
This can help eliminate the need to deploy a separate database in the cloud beyond your network infrastructure and applications.
Revise
The revised approach enables your organization to modify the code to use more of the cloud’s services.
While the overall features and functionality of the application or portion of the network do not change, they are modified during the cloud migration in order to use the cloud infrastructure.
Rebuild
This type of migration approach is the most demanding and complex. The rebuild approach recreates applications and network infrastructure from scratch so it can function properly in the cloud infrastructure.
This type of approach may be necessary for legacy infrastructure that needs to be reconfigured and redesigned before migrating to cloud infrastructure.
Replace
Rather than deploy or rebuild existing infrastructure or applications, the replace migration approach eliminates current infrastructure in favor of infrastructure and applications provided by a third-party vendor.
Choose the cloud environment
The next step for a successful cloud migration is to choose the cloud environment that is best for your organization before the migration begins.
There are a few cloud environments to choose from that best meet the needs of your organization. The main cloud environments include:
Private cloud
The private cloud is a small-scale cloud that operates in your existing data infrastructure.
While this type of environment can be costly and may lack the services and scalability of other cloud environments, it can be the best solution for organizations looking for cloud flexibility and the need to retain complete control of their data and infrastructure.
Public cloud
The most common type of cloud infrastructure is the public cloud. The public cloud is offered by a third-party provider and is typically highly scalable.
The public cloud provides a global reach enabling remote workers to access data from anywhere and offers many services that can be implemented for better overall performance.
Hybrid cloud
The hybrid cloud model combines the features of both private and public cloud environments. This provides your organization with a high level of control, flexibility, and scalability over your infrastructure and data.
Hybrid clouds are typically more expensive, requiring the greatest investment and commitment to implement the infrastructure.
Choose the deployment model
Finally, it is important to choose the most appropriate deployment model for accessing cloud services. The cloud deployment models include:
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS is a cloud deployment model that delivers cloud resources closely resembling traditional network infrastructure.
Cloud architects assemble the elements of traditional infrastructure such as servers and storage to make up a detailed architecture that hosts the infrastructure of the organization.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS generally offers a more integrated deployment method that extends beyond hardware-based resources including software such as databases and development tools that replace traditional tools and infrastructure.
A PaaS deployment model may be good for an organization that outsources their deployment instead of hosting the infrastructure on-premise.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
A SaaS deployment is the most popular and easiest model providing a ready-made application that doesn’t require your organization to deploy its own workload to the cloud.
SaaS deployments are handled by a provider who manages the development and maintenance of your workloads. SaaS offerings typically include email and productivity applications as well as financial and HR workloads.
Determining whether migrating to the cloud is the best solution for your organization
Now you understand the steps required for a successful cloud migration. This will help your organization understand the steps it takes to migrate to the cloud effectively while avoiding any challenges that can occur.
No organization can operate successfully with a poor-performing network. However, if you have decided to migrate to the cloud to improve network performance and productivity, it is important to understand the steps to take for a successful cloud migration.
Coeo understands how important reliable network performance is and has helped thousands of organizations migrate their applications and network infrastructure to the cloud to improve network and application performance.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about migrating to the cloud or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
Now that you understand the best practices of migrating to the cloud and whether it is the best solution for your organization, read this article to understand the top cloud security issues and how to avoid them:
