What do you think when you consider cloud migrations? For the majority of businesses, while they recognise the benefits, moving to the cloud from an on-premise system is often a rather daunting thought. Your systems are no longer physically on-site which may make you feel uncomfortable.
Yes, it’s true your data will be hosted by a third party. But that doesn’t mean you’ve lost all control or it’s any less secure. These are two of the biggest misconceptions of the cloud.
If anything, the cloud is arguably more secure than an on-prem system because:
This is what I discuss with my colleagues Steve and Rebecca in episode seven of ColumbusCast - what’s stopping businesses from moving to the cloud and how they can overcome these feelings.
While most businesses tend to know and understand the benefits of the cloud, they can still be apprehensive about the transition. Particularly if it’s involving an ERP system.
However, well-known cloud providers - such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon - employ thousands of high-quality security experts to watch your data round-the-clock. You’ll also benefit from automatic functional and technical updates.
That means in most cases, the cloud can be even more secure than the on-prem alternative.
But despite their apprehensions, businesses still consider cloud transitions due to:
At Columbus, we’d always start with the design. We typically have a half-day workshop with our customers to discuss:
We’d also examine the tools that are easily accessible to everybody - for example, the Azure Total Cost of Ownership calculator. If we’re migrating a database, we might use the Azure SQL Calculator to ensure we’ve sized things and estimated costs correctly. Some other considerations include:
Once all of that has been set up, we’d run pilot tests to ensure everything is working as it should. It’s a continuous improvement process - we’ll keep reviewing the test at every stage and continuously implement improvements.
As customers become more comfortable with the cloud and the project progress, we can slowly migrate more and more elements across. It’s important to remember it may not necessarily be an ERP system that we’re migrating over. It could be a standalone SQL box.
It’s all about a slow and steady migration; it doesn’t have to be one ‘big bang’ ERP system migration.
In this episode, you’ll also hear Rebecca, Steve and I talk about different cloud migration strategies, such as lift-and-shift and how businesses can choose the right one for their needs.
I also mention some of the main challenges we’ve experienced in the past when it comes to cloud migrations. For example, testing is something businesses sometimes try to avoid doing. However, it’s still a brand new system even if it may look like your old one. There will be new functionalities and they need to be tested.
Want to hear even more tips and tricks? Whether you’re a techie or not, this episode is jampacked with advice about cloud transitions. Scroll up to listen to the episode via Podbean or search for ‘ColumbusCast’ in your podcast app.
If you want to learn even more about cloud transitions, download our step-by-step guide. We cover the steps to take when you’re migrating from legacy to the cloud.