The 1-2-3 Plan for Successfully Migrating to the Cloud

The cloud is a fantastic solution that can help your business achieve the flexibility and scalability that it needs in order to stay competitive, but implementing the cloud isn’t always a simple task. You have to take into account application compatibility, device access, what type of cloud solution you need, what type of cloud you actually want; and the time and expertise it takes to make sure it’s all done properly.

Analyze Your Needs
The first step toward getting started on your cloud computing expedition is to see what you need your cloud services to accomplish. Do you want to deploy applications to your company infrastructure without the need for complex networking? With the cloud you can do that. Do you need dynamic storage space where your team can share and collaborate on projects? The cloud can do that, too. Take a look at your current operations and search for reasons why you want a cloud solution in the first place.

If you’re unsure of what your business needs, we highly recommend that you contact the professionals at (509) 534-1530. We can take a look at the current state of your network and analyze it for legacy applications, network resources, and even hardware solutions, that could benefit from virtualization and cloud storage.

Decide on a Cloud Solution
Depending on what your business needs, the specific type of cloud solution you require will vary slightly. Of course, this also depends on what your current in-house resources can accommodate. Do you have an internal IT department that’s capable of managing a cloud service? Or, would you rather someone else take the brunt of the responsibility for hosting your cloud solution? Either way, there’s a cloud solution out there for you.

The public cloud is an affordable solution for businesses that don’t have the time or resources to manage their own cloud, while the private cloud is preferred by organizations that are able to manage and maintain their own IT solutions. The public cloud is known for its efficiency and accessibility, while the private cloud is optimized for your business’s specific needs--namely security. A hybrid cloud that combines the two is also available; just ask us and we’ll work with you to determine what type of cloud you need.

Seek Professional Assistance
When you migrate your data or applications to the cloud, it’s usually best to have someone on-hand who knows exactly what they’re doing (as is the case with most IT-related functions). You can’t afford any screw-ups when it comes to your infrastructure and its operations. If something were to happen during the migration process which puts your data or operations at risk, you could be looking at an expensive downtime bill that could threaten your IT budget.

In order to ensure that your cloud migration goes off without a hitch, we recommend contacting SCW. Our professional and skilled technicians will make it their priority to make sure your cloud implementation goes as planned. To learn more, reach out to us at (509) 534-1530.