What are the benefits of cloud migration?

Cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications, or other digital assets from an on-premises environment to the cloud. In certain cases, cloud migrations may also refer to moving digital assets from one cloud platform to another. 

Before businesses migrate to the cloud, they must carefully analyze their goals, budget, network performance, and IT environment. They must then create a thorough execution plan that ensures data is properly transferred, security protocols are in place, and users are trained on the new system.

How can your business benefit from cloud migration?

There are several reasons why you may want to consider cloud migration for your business. 

Better scalability 

The biggest advantage of migrating to the cloud is that you can scale computing power and features according to your company’s growth. 

With on-premises infrastructure, you are limited by the capacity of your physical servers. If you want to scale up, you need to invest in additional hardware, software licenses, and network capacity, which can be both time-consuming and expensive. Alternatively, if you’re downsizing your operations, scaling down your IT infrastructure can be complicated. You can either sell your servers at a loss or keep them idle and risk increasing costs because you’re not fully utilizing your investment. 

In the cloud, you can quickly provision additional resources on demand and scale back when you don’t need them. You can simply call your cloud provider for more storage, accounts, or features, and pay for only what you use. This saves you from making large upfront investments in hardware and capacity that you may not fully utilize.  

Flexible access

A limitation with legacy systems is that employees often have to be on premises to access company data and applications. This can cause major workflow issues, especially as more employees now prefer to have the flexibility to work from anywhere. 

Cloud-based systems offer employees the ability to log in and access data from any location with an internet connection. This increases productivity, as employees are no longer tethered to their desks and can work from anywhere at any time. The cloud also enables bring your own device policies, as employees can use their personal smartphones, laptops, and tablets to access work data and applications. 

Stronger cybersecurity

Securing your company’s servers can often be a challenge because everything rests on your shoulders. You need to implement the latest security patches and updates, invest in cutting-edge network security solutions, and continuously monitor your systems for threats. Any lapse in security can expose your company to costly and reputation-damaging cyberattacks. 

When you migrate to the cloud, you offload the burden of securing your servers to your cloud provider. Cloud providers invest heavily in cybersecurity and have teams of experts dedicated to keeping your data safe. Most offer data encryption, identity and access management, and intrusion prevention systems. Cloud providers also proactively monitor for security threats and implement security updates as needed.  

Optimized performance

Cloud providers offer various features and solutions that allow your business to run at peak performance. For example, top providers have cloud infrastructures with instant load balancing and auto-scaling features to ensure your hosted applications are getting sufficient resources to run smoothly. 

Some cloud providers even offer content delivery networks, which can further improve performance by caching static website content and delivering it to users from the closest server location. This speeds up load times, especially for users who are located far from your primary data center. 

Built-in disaster recovery

Natural disasters, power outages, and major cyberattacks can bring your systems and operations to a grinding halt.  If you don’t have a solid disaster recovery plan in place, it can take days or even weeks to get your systems back up and running.

Fortunately, storing your data and running your applications in the cloud can help your business quickly recover from a disaster. With cloud computing, data is stored in remote data centers unaffected by local disasters and boasting maximum uptime. This means if a disaster wipes out your on-premises data center, you can simply restore data or spin up virtual servers in the cloud to quickly get back up and running. 

Improved collaboration

Cloud platforms like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 offer a suite of tools that can help improve collaboration within your company. These tools include video conferencing, online meetings, instant messaging, file sharing, and more. Using these tools can help improve communication and collaboration among employees, as they can quickly share ideas and work on projects together in real time. 

Reduced costs

While the upfront costs of the cloud migration process itself can be significant, it is often cheaper in the long run than running on-premises infrastructures. With on-premises systems, you have to pay for the hardware, software, electricity, and cooling needed to keep your servers running. You also need to hire technicians to look after your servers.  

In contrast, cloud providers charge a flat monthly subscription fee that costs merely a fraction of on-premises systems. There are no upfront and operational costs associated with managing and maintaining hardware and software. You pay only for the resources you use, making it easy to budget for IT all year long.  

How can you ensure a smooth migration?

Cloud migrations can be difficult to navigate without proper guidance. To ensure a smooth and successful migration to the cloud, it’s important to partner with an experienced IT services provider that specializes in cloud computing. 

An IT services provider can help you assess your business needs and budget to determine the right cloud deployment model for you. They will then design a cloud infrastructure that’s best suited for the workload and optimize your network for the cloud. What’s more, they can map out a clear migration and training strategy that will minimize downtime for your business.  

Dynamic Solutions Group has extensive experience helping businesses migrate to the cloud. We can help you plan and execute a smooth migration with minimal disruption to your business. Call us today to learn more about our cloud services.