There are numerous events that can convince enterprises to consider data center migration of their IT environment. For some businesses, it might be the need for data center or infrastructure consolidation, while others may not have the square footage required to continue operating in-house. Whatever the case, moving the data center to the cloud can be a challenging and expensive undertaking. Still, through implementing best practices, IT teams can minimize downtime, avoid hurdles, and ensure a smooth migration. Here's how to migrate your data center to the cloud successfully:
1. Understand Which Cloud Solutions Are Best Suited To Your Needs
Before migrating to the cloud, take time to analyze your workload and carry out research on the available cloud services and tools that can help you move. Take into consideration which cloud offerings meet your operational requirements while evaluating cost, usability, flexibility, scalability, security, and access. You should use a cloud solution that offers regular updates and new technology like Microsoft Azure Cloud.
2. Develop a Cloud Migration Strategy
The most crucial element of a successful cloud migration plan is a comprehensive and actionable strategy. There are numerous ways to move your applications to the cloud, including re-hosting, re-platforming, and refactoring. These methods offer functions that meet specific business needs. However, suppose you are migrating large networks or heavy legacy applications. In that case, you might want to opt for a phased migration strategy, starting with re-hosting, and then working your way up to the full refactor.
3. Plan Your Budget
Most organizations consider moving their IT infrastructure to the cloud to reduce costs. However, not all cloud offerings or services are cost-efficient for every workload. Assess your cloud computing costs before you attempt any migration. Licensing, setup, and data storage costs, as well as ongoing maintenance costs, are factors you must consider.
4. Keep Track of Your Applications
Ensure your open source components and legacy software in inventory by running a discovery to identify any applications or components you might have overlooked. If you lose visibility into your applications, you can't effectively maintain them or resolve vulnerabilities. Discovery will also help you determine which components are not essential, so you can reduce your migration footprint.
5. Embrace Automation
Automation should be used to replace repeatable elements of your migration strategy to accelerate the process and improve consistency. Embracing automated processes also helps you streamline builds and edits while reducing human error and minimizing downtime.
6. Plan for Maintenance
When you move to the cloud, the provider handles most of your hardware and software maintenance needs, meaning less management burden for you. However, this is not an invitation to rest on your laurels. You will need to evaluate your needs regularly and allocate funds and time for ongoing management.
7. Adopt a Culture of Shared Responsibility
Don't leave the migration process to your IT or engineering department alone. Instead, engage your entire organization, including developers, operations staff, and business leaders, from the beginning. Accomplishing this may require training your staff or adopting new communication protocols to ensure that every department collaborates and shares responsibility for the migration.
8. Prepare a Disaster Recovery Plan
Finally, ensure you have a cloud-based disaster recovery (DR) solution in place. This is usually cheaper than an on-premise DR system. Use a DR plan that replicates your on-premise infrastructure in the cloud and continuously updates your data. This will allow you to continue working as normal in the event of a disaster.
Conclusion
As speed and scale drive up the competitiveness of apps, more and more businesses are turning to the cloud. If you don't want your company to fall behind, you should consider migrating your applications to the cloud. This eight-point data center migration checklist will help you ensure a seamless and efficient move. However, you can't reap the benefits of data center migration without using the right solution. If you are ready to learn more about how we can help request a free consultation today!
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