Cloud migration: Assessing, Mobilising and Modernising for Success

This article takes a closer look at cloud migration, providing insights on what you need to consider before making the move

In today’s fast-paced, digitally driven world, cloud spending is increasingly becoming commonplace in IT budgets as organisations look to stay competitive and agile. So much so in fact that Gartner predicts that by 2025, more than half of IT spending would have shifted to the cloud. For those still planning this move however, migrating to the cloud can be a daunting task involving a magnitude of factors and considerations. Despite these challenges, the benefits of migrating to the cloud are numerous and, with the right approach and partner, your transition to the cloud can be smooth and efficient.

What is cloud migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications and other business systems from on-prem infrastructure to a cloud-based infrastructure. The cloud holds immense potential for businesses, offering improved agility, increased uptime and near-instant scalability.

Tools and techniques are now available to those with the technical know-how, which has accelerated the process of starting a cloud migration journey, whether it’s moving existing on-prem workloads or creating cloud-native solutions from the start. However, akin to any other significant endeavour, cloud migration presents its own set of obstacles and challenges, making it crucial to have the right cloud partner by your side. As a leading software solutions company, BBD has a wealth of experience helping businesses transition to the cloud. We also understand the intricacies involved in making the leap and offer a suite of cloud enablement services that make migrating to the cloud simple and seamless. To learn more about the steps necessary for a successful migration, check out our guide to migrating to the cloud.

Choosing a cloud provider

Offering a flexible and scalable solution for organisations to store, process and manage their data and applications, cloud computing has become the basis of modern business and technology.

But with so many players in the cloud market, such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), IBM cloud and Oracle cloud, choosing the right provider for your organisation can be a complex task, especially since each provider offers a unique set of tools, services and benefits. In addition to this, multi-cloud solutions are yet another significant factor to take into account when selecting a cloud provider for your organisation. These solutions involve leveraging the strengths of multiple cloud providers to achieve various benefits such as increased redundancy, decreased vendor lock-in and overall improved performance. When considering multi-cloud solutions, it is critical to carefully consider the cost and complexity of managing multiple providers and ensuring their compatibility.

To determine the best fit for your organisation, it’s important to carefully assess your specific needs and requirements as well as your budget and technical capabilities.

Some factors to consider when choosing a cloud provider are:

• Cost: Different cloud providers offer different pricing models, making it essential to determine the cost of the services and applications you need to run. Some costs associated with this include the cost of storage, computing and bandwidth
• Security: It’s important to keep in mind each provider’s security measures and data protection policies as well as their compliance and regulation standards. Considering these factors will ensure that your data and applications are secure when migrating them to the cloud
• Performance: Assess each provider’s infrastructure, network and data centres to ensure that they can provide the speed, reliability and performance you need for your applications and services
• Compatibility: Identify which providers’ services and tools are compatible with your existing infrastructure to ensure that your applications work seamlessly and that you are able to integrate with other providers or on-prem systems if need be
• Services and applications: Considering the types of services and applications you will run and aligning those to the providers’ tools and features offered will help ensure that your chosen cloud provider offers the functionality and capabilities you need

Choosing a cloud provider doesn’t have to be an all or nothing approach, if you’re looking to combine aspects from different providers to best suite your environment and infrastructure needs, multi-cloud solutions are a great option to consider. Additionally, enlisting the support of a trusted partner like BBD can provide you with invaluable guidance in navigating the complexities of developing a cloud strategy tailored to your business needs. Our cloud expertise and experience can assist you in identifying the most appropriate cloud solution, assessing the potential risks and benefits of various options, and designing a robust and scalable cloud infrastructure that aligns to your business objectives. Whether your organisation prioritises cost-effectiveness, security, performance or a combination of all three, there is a solution out there for your specific needs!

Navigating the cloud migration journey with BBD

Once you’ve made the decision to migrate, finding a suitable migration partner will ensure your transition is seamless. As a Microsoft Azure Gold Certified Partner, AWS Advanced Tier, Well-Architected and a CloudFront Global Content Delivery Network Partner, we are cloud agnostic. Meaning we assess the requirements around each business environment and establish which solutions would be best suited, rather than trying to fit the environment to a packaged off-the-shelf solution. “After assessing your environment, dependencies, structure and business, we then mobilise your workforce” explains Werner de Jager, BBD Cloud Managed Services (MServ) executive. “A key benefit of engaging with BBD is in how we work with your team to not only complete the migration seamlessly, but also upskill and transfer knowledge to your team – empowering your business. And once you’re in the cloud, we then look to modernise your workloads for optimisation.”

Partnering with a migration expert allows you to reap enormous rewards. De Jager goes on to say that not only does a migration partner bring expertise and experience to the table but they can also help you overcome the common blockers associated with migration, provide a safety net, and fast-track your cloud journey.

No matter where you are on your cloud migration journey, we can help you seamlessly transition infrastructure and software to the cloud.

With our extensive cloud solutions experience and suite of cloud enablement offerings, we have helped our clients successfully migrate to the cloud. One such client operating in the financial services and public sector partnered with us to migrate their system to the cloud in order to better assist organisations operating in local government with a large number of projects. Acting as a guide and advisor ensuring a successful outcome, a migration partner like BBD will enable your migration to be managed effectively and efficiently.

Whether you need help with cloud assessment, planning and strategy or execution and management, we can help you achieve a bright, cloud-based future. Let’s chat.