ChannelVision Magazine

N ow that your customer has decided to move its data and key applications to cloud, you stand on the cusp of presenting them with a host of benefits in terms of cost, security, flexi - bility and performance. While migrating to the cloud to digitally transform and streamline an IT environment is easier than ever, it still can be challenging. To ease the process, take heed of the les - sons learned by IT teams who’ve gone through the journey to help make your cloud migrations as efficient, pain-free and successful as possible. Lesson 1 - Understand why a company is moving to the cloud Clarity about cloud migration will position you on the path to success. Reduced costs, flexibility, scalability, data security, business continuity without the need for backup plans, improved collaboration due to easily shared data are just some of many reasons to move to cloud. How many are relevant to the organization? Once you’ve pinpointed their goals, evaluate the current infrastructure and determine workload or application de - pendencies to identify which apps will make cloud candidates. Lesson 2 - Mind the costs Organizations migrate to cloud mainly to reduce costs on hardware and IT staffing. But that’s simplifying it a bit because, for example, some apps deliver a greater ROI than oth - ers. Ask your cloud providers for some real-life scenarios based on various factors – from data storage to security services, from testing and monitoring tools to cloud technology training ex - penses. Prioritize requirements, then select a high-performance platform that meets the budget. Lesson 3 - Think security Moving data to the cloud means ceding some control for its security to the cloud provider. This can present risks, especially with public cloud that runs multiple clients’ apps on shared servers. You risk exposure to hackers or operations downtime if the cloud pro - vider’s system goes down. Make sure you deploy made-for-cloud vulnerability- scanning security tools, back-up critical data, apply strong data encryption, in - stitute redundancies and consider other cloud-based security solutions. Lesson 4 - Know which applications to move first To determine which apps are the best candidates for cloud migration, evaluate them as far as the following qualities are concerned: criticality, pro - duction status, operational standards, compliance, ease of migration, busi - ness impact, among others. The less critical, sensitive and advanced the app, the more documentation and the fewer the compliance requirements it has, the better the app is for initial mi - gration. Also, look for app dependen - cies, and migrate those services – of - ten the internal versus the external or close-to-the-customer ones – with the fewest dependencies first. Lesson 5 - Get IT staff ready To achieve a successful organiza - tional change that is cloud migration, an organization will need developers, managers and administrators with solid skills in the new technologies and processes and operational design and principles involved in cloud. As an experienced external consultant with migration experience, you may be the best person to train the staff. Addition - ally, it’ll require a “migration architect” – with a system architect-level stand - ing – to lead, plan, develop strategies and make decisions, and complete the entire migration process. Lesson 6 - Decide which migration options are wanted There are several choices. When it comes to strategies, you can rehost, refactor, or rebuild. Many organiza - tions start with rehosting – also called “lift-and shift,” which uses infrastruc - ture-as-a-service to migrate existing applications as they are, without dif - ficult and costly code changes. When it comes to the type of cloud, you can opt for public, private or hybrid. Lesson 7 - Select the right cloud provider You’ll need all the support you can Migration Must-Dos 10 lessons learned from successful cloud migrations  By Adir Cohen VIRTUAL REALITY 28 CHANNEL VISION | March - April, 2020