Cloud migration allows a business or organisation to evolve. With a strategy in place, businesses can experience the long list of benefits that come with migration, from flexibility to security, to how it can be beneficial for remote working to the instant recovery of any lost data. Below, we’ll explore cloud migration in more depth, and look at 4 of the biggest trends we’re seeing when it comes to migrating data to the cloud.
What is cloud migration?
Cloud migration means moving data or applications from physical, on-site infrastructure onto a cloud storage system. It is commonly used by businesses to move resources such as databases, digital assets, or IT programmes onto a secure cloud. Migration may seem overwhelming for businesses that have not used cloud computing before, however, following a few simple steps means that you can achieve the flexibility and scalability that migration to the cloud can bring. These steps include:
- Strategy – defining the outcome that you’re expecting migration to achieve
- Planning – planning how the migration can align with your expectations
- Prepare – preparing on-site and cloud environments before migration takes place
- Migration – Moving your workloads onto your new cloud
- Secure – implementing security best practices
- Management – Maintaining ongoing management for your new cloud environment
What are the benefits of cloud migration?
Cloud migration does take time and planning to get right, but once the migration has taken place, businesses can reap a variety of benefits from the move. Some of the advantages of cloud migration include flexibility and scalability, meaning that you can adapt the amount of storage you need, scaling up or down depending on workload. If your system fails, no data or documents will be lost, you can recover them due to the cloud’s backup recovery capabilities. Cloud providers also make sure that your data is always secure with enhanced, built-in security, with security patching taking place automatically in some cases.
Four big trends
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Remote Working
With more of us having to work from home over the past couple of years, the number of companies taking part in cloud migration has risen. When companies migrate to the cloud, this means that no matter where employees are, in the office, at home, even if they’re out of the country – they can still access documents, applications, and data whenever they are, if they have an internet connection. Whether companies intend on having workers return to the office or not, cloud usage is continuing to expand, which is directly linked to the changing economy brought on by the pandemic.
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Going private
It has been noted that over the last few years, data has been making its way onto the public cloud in large volumes, but now, businesses are realising that the public cloud is no longer for them. Private cloud options are best for companies that need high-performance and high-security solutions and mean that data and documents can only be accessed by a private company and its employees. Migration to a private cloud means better security and control, as well as an overall better performance, which is why we’re seeing more companies choosing this solution.
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Security
When migrating applications and data to the cloud, businesses want to be sure that their information is secure. It is has become common practice that security tends to be worked out at the end of the migration process, which is not soon enough. Cloud migration strategy should focus on implementing security at the start of the process to ensure there is no room for potential breaches that could be critical for putting a business at risk. Moving forwards, security should be integrated into the early stages of migration.
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Migrating workloads instead of data
Security concerns often mean that data should be kept in-house. There is a growing trend that has seen more companies deciding to transfer their workloads to the cloud rather than their data. Storing data on the premise means that you have full control over it, but you are still able to launch applications that use the data in the cloud. Only migrating workloads means that businesses can save time, and money and reduce the risk when it comes to moving data and applications to the cloud.
