Strategies You Need To Do Before Performing Cloud Migration

For modern business, cloud migration is important because it enables workers to be productive anywhere, at any time, and on virtually any device. Still, it's a fragile process that presents its fair share of challenges. 

Organizations need strategies to protect their data in transit, for example, both in terms of integrity and security. They also need a way to recover that data should something go wrong. Thankfully, with the right partner, the process itself is fairly straightforward - it simply requires organizations to keep a few key things in mind.

How Cloud Migration Works?

At its core, strategies involve taking digital business operations and moving them away from local storage and into the cloud. In terms of something like video production, it's common to house assets like audio clips and video files on local servers. This means that you have to physically be in the office in order to access them.

Once moved to the cloud, however, they can be accessed anywhere at any time through a secure system. As those assets would then be housed in data centers, they're accessible online - meaning employees can be just as productive at home as they can be in the office.

Checklist Before Performing Cloud Migration

There are a number of critical steps that an organization must take prior to the execution of its migration. These include:

• Establishing a strategy. How will the migration take place? What systems and resources are needed? Who is involved? What are their roles? These are all questions that need to be answered ahead of time.
• Decide on your level of cloud integration. Are you using a public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid cloud? What assets will still be housed locally? These are all crucial factors to consider.
• Select a single cloud or go multi-cloud. This will depend on exactly what you're moving into the cloud and when/where those resources need to be available for convenience and efficiency.
• Establish cloud key performance indicators. What does "success" look like in your context? You need to track KPIs so that you know the project itself is always moving in the right direction. Listing down your performance baselines is a key part of this, too.
• Prioritize migration components. Obviously, you can't move all of your assets over to the cloud at once. In what order will certain elements make the transition?

Beyond that, you'll want to take care in securing the right cloud provider in the first place - one that understands the unique requirements of your industry. This is especially important when it comes to things like video production, as assets are always in flux and need to be protected.

This partner will work with you to do any necessary refactoring to make sure you have a holistic view of your data, and they'll help you establish a data migration plan as well. At that point, you can switch overproduction into the cloud and review application resource allocation to make sure that you're actually experiencing the efficiency gains that you expected once everything is said and done.

Cloud File Data Migration Pitfalls

All told, there are a few common pitfalls that many organizations fall into during cloud migration - all of which can negatively impact the process itself. These include but are not limited to ones like:

• A lack of a data protection strategy. Remember that you can't protect key information if you're not sure where it is currently stored or where it will end up once the migration is complete.
• No data security strategy. How do you make sure that sensitive information doesn't fall into the wrong hands during the transition?
• No rapid data recovery strategy. If an issue is experienced, how do you rebound from it as fast as possible to avoid lost productivity?
• No data performance strategy. This pertains to how you'll extract value from your data using analytical tools and business intelligence.
• No data availability strategy. How do you make sure important information is always in the hands of the people who need it to do their jobs?
• No multi-cloud interoperability strategy. This refers to coming to a better understanding of how data will be used to collaborate, even among different cloud systems.
• No disaster recovery strategy. Simply put: if something goes wrong in the migration process, how do you quickly restore things to their previous functional state to avoid a major disruption?

How to Avoid Cloud Migration Challenges

The vast majority of the issues outlined above can be avoided simply by being as proactive as possible about the cloud migration strategy you're creating.

You don't want to wait until something goes wrong to start thinking about a disaster recovery strategy, for example. As the old saying goes, "if you fail to plan you plan to fail." Instead, you want to know exactly what steps to take towards recovery before the process even begins - all so that you can recover as quickly as possible should an issue take place.

The same is true of how you're going to protect your data as it is being transferred, or how the new system will integrate with a lot of your existing tools. You need to have answers to every important question before the process begins, so if an issue is experienced you and all key stakeholders know what to do immediately.

In the End

Overall, it's important to acknowledge that every business is a bit different from the next - meaning that there is no "one size fits all" approach to a cloud migration strategy. Having said that, a lot of the common issues that organizations experience can be avoided by pre-planning. A data protection strategy is important, as is one aimed at data security. This, coupled with a disaster recovery strategy to help mitigate risk should something go wrong, will help an organization enjoy all the benefits of the project with as few of the potential downsides as possible.

To find out more information about the strategies you need to execute before performing cloud migration, or to get more specific answers to any other questions you may have, please don't delay - contact ProMax today.