It’s significant for customers to move to a cloud service that saves them money and lets them get on with the business and services that are their primary concern. Not to mention enabling the IT department to get on with innovative improvements to really help the organisation. However, for all the benefits of moving to the cloud, there are execution challenges that IT leaders face.
As such, it is important to find the right partner for your business, with the experience and technical competence to support your projects, avoid pitfalls, and support you on your digital transformation journey.
When we think of smaller businesses in the SME space, for example, moving to the cloud can be relatively simple. Once you’ve communicated with your employees and completed the correct readiness and training, cutting across from an old system to a new service can be completed fairly quickly. But when we consider bigger organisations with greater scale and complexities, there are more challenges to consider; Can their complex requirements be met by a more vanilla public cloud service, or do they need to consume a virtual private cloud service that can be personalised to their needs? The virtual private cloud approach also brings with it the ability to support a hybrid cloud environment.
Comparatively, the new cloud service is either integrated with the legacy on prem environment to allow a phased, risk free migration strategy, or where local edge services are deployed as an extension of the cloud core to support requirements such as high density local analogue devices, or integration with paging systems for example.
A ‘one size fits all’ commercial model also doesn’t work. Some organisations have a heavy investment in on premise application licensing and devices, which can significantly reduce the cost of migrating to a cloud service, whereas others prefer to cut their ties with their legacy environment and move to a flexible subscription model that can grow and shrink as they need it to.
Sourcing a provider that gives you flexibility is key to getting the right cloud service. Be sure to do your research, and consider a provider that has:
- The appropriate service levels for your business
- Scalability that matches your business demands
- Accessibility to a pool of skilled engineering and support resources
- An accredited secure, resilient service to meet your end user and business outcome requirements
All in all, migrating to the cloud from a legacy on-prem environment is an opportunity to make real improvements to your organisation, and realise notable cost savings. Whilst it may seem daunting, or that the options are endless, be sure to take the time to evaluate your current and future needs and work with an experienced cloud partner like Maintel to create a strong and effective plan.
To find out more about the opportunities and challenges associated with cloud migration, watch our webinar.
