Migrating to the cloud: it’s a journey – and needs a strategy

The process of moving an organization’s data or applications from the onsite computers to the cloud technology is known as cloud migration. Deciding that whether your organization needs cloud computing totally depends on few factors.  You need to analysis the cloud models to get a better understanding of it. Then only you should opt for cloud migration.

Here are few of the benefits that you can certainly get from cloud computing:

• Cloud is really helpful if your application is getting more number of traffics but you need the right platform to meet the demands of the people. Then if you go for cloud computing it is a good step.
• If in your business, your client needs to expand it globally but you are really skeptical about it. As it will incur more cost, need maintenance structure, also need man power and time is a major factor. Then choosing cloud is the best option.
• If you want to lower down the operational cost in your company but as technology is developing, you need to have cloud services to meet the right expectations.
• Cloud becomes the best and hassle free solution if you want to store your precious data.
• Cloud services helps in giving access to the employees when if they are not present in their workplace. They can have the option of working from their home. It helps them to be more efficient in their work. The employees only need Internet and the access to the business credentials.
• Have you ever thought that if any disaster happens in your office then apart from loss of live, your data and the whole business will be lost. To avoid it, you need to have a back up but the data recovery will also cost you a fortune here. If you switch to cloud applications, then there is no fear of losing the data in any natural or manmade calamities. The cloud recovery system only helps in a faster way of retrieving the data.
• A cloud provider does the upgrading or the tracking of the software automatically. On a timely basis they update the data, keep a backup and also maintain it. But if you have to go for any other technology then it will be a real time consuming one. Downloading and upgrading the data takes a lot of time. If it gets interrupted in the mid way then there is a potential risk of losing the data also. In case of cloud, you can enjoy a seamless service.

If you have finally decided that you need cloud application as it is the right one for your business then you need to now decide which the right cloud service model is. Below are the few used models:

• SaaS: Software as a Service, applications like Google Apps, Salesforce, Office 365, and Netsuite are few of the most demanded apps. It is model which needs to be subscribed or purchased. The software is centrally hosted.
• IaaS: Infrastructure as a service where Google Compute Engine, Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Azure are used. It is used by those companies where they can host their applications for the third party. They also choose to take care of the physical infrastructure and monitor it closely.
• PaaS: Platform as a Service where we use Google App Engine, Engine Yard, AWS Elastic, Beanstalk and Heruko. Here the softwares are portable enough and it also gives an invisible view to it.

The IaaS takes care of the storage, CDN, compute, Networking and virtualization. PaaS rather takes care of the Application platform, Database, Integration and Development also.

Now when you have selected for the cloud model, you need to decide what type you need to go for. There are three types available, Public, Private and Hybrid.

• Public: If the resources get completely hosted by the cloud provider then it is public. Just like in case of Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Private: Here you have the requirement of your own business needs a d you want a private setup then Openstack or VMware’s vCloud can be selected.
• Hybrid: It is a type where you prefer to use both the public and the private type.

Once you select the type of cloud applications then you need to assess the cloud migration. Now you need to begin using it:

• Complexity in the application:

Some of the applications are quite traditional and they may not fit the end user requirement. The most basic thing for any migration is that it should be scalable by the design. It should also have a distributed architecture. PaaS and Cloudamize are good options for migrating it.

• Host Operating System: You need to find the right OS for your applications. You need to first find out the suitable OS which will be compatible with Cloud.
• Integration Complexity: You need to identify the integration points of the applications. Like the SMTP, web services, payment gateways, third party vendors and the external storage. So finding out the integrating points is the real challenge but you need to know about it.
• Network: If your applications use multicast, then cloud may not support. You need to make a wise call here.

Although migrating to cloud computing have many advantages as we looked here but there is a negative side also. So you need to be prepared for the challenges. Some of the challenges of cloud migration are –

• Business Connectivity

If there is an interruption in the Internet due to any external or internal reasons, then the business will have a downtime and it will impact them massively. It is a crucial one to have smooth Internet 24*7.

• Data Security

Though the cloud promises that they keep the data secure but the NSA snooping scandal has shaken the technological world. As the data can be accessed from any where the chance of getting the data or the password hacked remains high. So data breaching is factor which we need to think about.

• Migration Issues

When you decide to migrate all of your data to cloud then there might be additional costs included. If your business needs to download data on a regular basis or even if for a monthly basis, then the cost may increase. The employees and the staffs should also be trained to use the cloud applications. They should have the capability to use them.

• Flexibility issue

Some of the cloud apps are not at all flexible. This is a serious problem to the business. The data cannot be transferred or converted easily which becomes a real challenge to the business.

Despite of all the drawbacks, cloud computing is still a potential model for any business or organizations. If you are thinking whether you should go for it or not, then go for tested data migration. You can move some of the data and then analyze how it is operating with the help of cloud can be a better option.

Cloud is the best option in terms of accessing data, storing data and also protecting the data. In the next few years, all the companies would like to invest more in cloud then in any other technologies.