What is Cloud Migration? Benefits and Risks for Business

Cloud technologies have found their practical applications in many business areas, and more and more companies use them in their work with every passing year. Such solutions are commercially successful, and the future belongs to them.

Cloud Migration means the process of moving data, apps, or even the entire enterprise IT infrastructures to a virtual environment and remote server facilities.

The benefits are obvious: the cloud architecture allows adapting to any workloads, and the simplicity of adding new services provides a possibility to quickly respond to changing business requirements.

Many companies are still postponing their migration to the cloud because of security and reliability concerns, or because they think it may not prove profitable. However, the world is changing, and currently, cloud technologies are not just another innovation but a clear necessity.

We will tell you why businesses need to migrate to the cloud, what stages this process consists of, and what should be done to avoid possible risks.

6 Key Benefits of Cloud Migration

Here are some of the main benefits provided by cloud computing to businesses:

• Cost efficiency. Resources are allocated on demand and in the scope required at the current stage. You will not overpay. Instead of paying high licensing dues in advance, your company can pay subscription fees for cloud services.
• Fast implementation and modernization. A completely ready-to-use service is provided within a few hours to several days. Providers implement new solutions on their side, ensuring access to new technologies.
• Stored in the cloud, data and services are available from anywhere in the world for both company employees and its customers. The only use condition is internet access.
• Technical support on providers’ side. Service providers seek to ensure client resources’ smooth and uninterrupted work. To do so, they invest their assets in creating a reliable infrastructure, hiring qualified engineers, providing data backups, etc.
• Increased security. The data is physically located outside the company, sometimes in another country. An encrypted connection ensures safe data transmission, leaving no chance for intruders to intercept sensitive information. Data backup is a required option.
• Flexibility and scalability. The scope of available resources or the number of connected users can be increased or decreased. This feature proves to be very convenient for financial planning and changing business needs.

Cloud Migration Options

You can resort to several possible scenarios for organizing cloud migration procedures. Work complexity, duration, and cost depend on the migration strategy chosen.

1. Full migration. The entire necessary infrastructure (system) is completely moved from the local environment to the cloud without any changes. This approach is the fastest and least risky. To be executed, it requires fewer resources, but the cloud platform’s capabilities are used marginally. This approach allows only minimal risks, requires minimum resources to be implemented, but the cloud service capabilities are not 100% utilized.
2. Partial migration. It is a hybrid model for moving only a portion of data and infrastructure to the cloud. Some services remain at the company’s own physical facilities, for example, for safety reasons or according to legal requirements. Companies often choose this model to test a new data processing routine and assess cloud providers’ capabilities.
3. Optimization migration. This option presumes some transformation of the system’s architecture or features. For instance, you can change the way your app interacts with the database, or you can make other changes to take full advantage of the cloud platform.

The best option depends on the specific situation, customers’ goals, and business requirements.

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Risks in Cloud Migration and How to Avoid Them

When you perform any work, you may face certain risks, and it is necessary to take this fact into account. If you fully comprehend what potential problems exist, you can avoid possible errors or reduce their probability to a minimum.

1. Hasty cloud migration. People talk so much about the benefits that cloud migration may bring that some companies make decisions to perform it without doing a detailed analysis of their actual need to do it. Taking into account the complexity of a cloud migration process, a hasty decision can lead to serious negative consequences.
2. Wrong provider choice. It is dangerous to migrate to the cloud without prior platform testing. First, you have to verify whether the cloud operator is suitable for your business tasks. After all, things that are good for one company may be completely inappropriate for some others. In our blog, you can find a quick comparison of Amazon AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud.
3. Data loss during migration. To avoid problems like damaged, missing, or incorrect data, you have to take care of your data backup beforehand. Besides, it is important to draw up a competent migration plan (a roadmap), where you precisely describe what, when, and how much data you will transfer.
4. Incompatibility of the existing architecture. If your company uses an app with complex or outdated architecture or an IT system as a whole, it may not be compatible with the cloud platform chosen. If this is your case, you should find a team of IT specialists who will implement all the necessary changes and remove obstacles to cloud migration.
5. Unauthorized access to data. If your data is stored on a remote server, it may seem less secure than when the server is located in a company office. Actually, it is not so. It will be rather difficult and expensive to ensure the appropriate level of data protection and technical security comparable with those offered by a cloud service provider. Most companies simply cannot afford it.

Summary

Each company focuses on cost optimization, including its IT division as well. The reduction in the company’s operating costs is the main benefit of cloud migration. However, many companies still restrain from the migration process as it often seems costly, risky, and time-consuming for them.

Though cloud migration certainly requires some resources and effort, abandoning this decision could put your company at a disadvantage if compared to your competitors.

We are ready to help you implement a successful, safe, and efficient cloud migration process. The Lvivity team can become a reliable technology partner for you and provide all the necessary services to start your business digital transformation.

Contact us, and let’s dwell on the details!