A brief guide to effective cloud transformation from experts
Today businesses benefit from the on-demand availability of computer services that has become possible thanks to cloud computing. Although many organizations have already adopted cloud technology, many haven’t embraced it and consider it a key enabler.
In this guide, you will better understand cloud transformation, learn how to choose the right cloud provider, explore various migration strategies, and more.
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Understanding cloud transformation
Cloud transformation can be defined as a process of migrating the organization’s data, apps, and IT infrastructure from on-premises to the cloud. The reasons behind the process may be various: the need to improve business agility, cost efficiency, and scalability. Typically, such a transformation requires careful planning, the appropriate resources, and a comprehensive strategy. The readiness of the business to transform should be carefully assessed, proper tools and providers should be chosen, and a roadmap developed.
Cloud transformation offers manifold benefits for enterprises as well as challenges and risks. Let’s take a look at the key benefits and then proceed to the challenges.
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Benefits of cloud transformation
It is correct to identify the benefits and values driven by cloud transformation for each organization individually. While the typical advantages are apparent, some differ from organization to organization. To define yours, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What are the reasons we would like to move to the cloud?
- What business goals does the company want to achieve?
- Does cloud transformation align with other strategic priorities?
By answering these questions, you’ll better understand why you need to start the transformation process and what outcomes it will bring at the end of the cloud transformation journey, specifically for your company.
- Business agility. Depending on your business needs, the cloud allows fast resources scaling up and down.
- Cost efficiency. Being in the cloud means you can significantly decrease investments in software and hardware. Businesses can easily use only the resources they need.
- Enhanced collaboration. Cloud-based tools facilitate productivity and efficient teamwork.
- Improved security. Cloud transformation can also improve disaster recovery capabilities, minimizing data loss and downtime.
- Automated IT operations. Cloud provider handles the responsibilities of software updates and hardware maintenance, whereas IT teams can focus on more strategic activities and initiatives.
Read a related article: Cloud-based application development: Step-by-step guide
Challenges associated with cloud transformation
Among the most pressing challenges of cloud transformation, you should consider the following:
- The need to ensure the appropriate security
- Migration complexity caused by various factors, for example, legacy systems may require the substantial update
- The need to properly allocate the budget for cloud migration
- Difficulties in finding skilled staff experienced in cloud platforms
- Resistance to change across the organization
- And more
To check what particular challenges your company has, contact our cloud transformation consultant.
Preparing for cloud transformation
Assessing organizational readiness for cloud transformation is a critical step in ensuring a successful and seamless transition. Here are 4 important things that must be considered:
- Necessary resources and skills
- Strategic roadmap developed by professionals
- Potential challenges
- Current company’s state audit
Besides, clear objectives for the transformation should be defined, as well as a cloud strategy developed.
5 tips for choosing the right cloud provider
We prepared some valuable tips for you to choose the right cloud provider.
Tip 1. Firstly, you should identify your organizational needs and goals. Determine non-functional requirements such as scalability, performance, security, etc. These steps will help you narrow the list of potential vendors.
Tip 2. Search for a cloud vendor with a proven track record. Consider their data center infrastructure, disaster recovery capabilities, and service level agreements (SLAs) to ensure your business-critical applications and data will be accessible and protected at all times.
Tip 3. Evaluate the provider’s security protocols, encryption standards, access controls, and compliance certifications. Ensure they meet industry standards and regulations specific to your organization, mainly if you deal with sensitive customer data or confidential information.
Tip 4. Compare pricing offered by different providers. Along with the costs, it’s nice to check other essential factors such as storage, data transfer, and additional services you might need.
Tip 5. Seek customer reviews not only on the vendor’s website but also on special listing platforms that display the overall information about the company. There, you may find some unbiased feedback from customers who used the services of a given provider.
Identify the suitable migration strategy
Our article related to the cloud-transformation topic describes fully some of the most popular migration strategies (from Azure and AWS), roadmaps, and best practices. Read it carefully to understand the peculiarities of each approach, and don’t hesitate to contact our cloud migration consultants for free consulting.
You will hardly choose the appropriate way by yourself as each approach is unique and requires professionals to work according to it. For example, AWS offers their famous application migration strategies named “the6 Rs”: refactoring, rehosting, re-platforming, repurposing, retiring, and retaining.
A professional vendor will recommend the right strategy according to your infrastructure’s requirements, business goals, and current state.
Related article: How to create a successful cloud migration plan
Migrating — a major stream in the cloud transformation program
The main goal of this stage is getting the app migrated to the cloud.
This process should begin with the following questions:
- What migration strategy to choose?
- If multiple apps are migrated, what will be the order?
- How will the transition from one migration to another be organized?
Once your strategy is formalized, you can plan the cloud infrastructure. The future-state infrastructure should be visualized to map out what hardware and software you need and how those will interact with each other.
To define further if the migration process is a success, it is also crucial to establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess user experience and engagement and such metrics as lag, page load time, conversions, etc.
Security is another important thing to pay attention to during the cloud transformation process. A professional cloud services provider will develop a strategy to ensure a secure transformation. It may include such methods as data encryption, data loss prevention, prioritized compliance, etc.
How DICEUS can help you
DICEUS is a strategic partner for cloud transformation with 13 years of experience. Our team provides the following cloud-related services:
- Cloud assessment and strategy
- Cloud migration
- Cloud optimization
- Cloud security
- Cloud governance
- Other cloud-managed services
To build and operate cloud-based applications and infrastructure, we use the following technology solutions and services:
Here is our cloud tech stack.
Infrastructure Layer: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Platform Layer: Heroku, OpenShift, and Google App Engine
Application Layer: applications built and deployed on the cloud infrastructure and platform layers
Management and Monitoring Layer: Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, and Azure Resource Manager, Datadog, New Relic, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Azure Active Directory, and Google Cloud Security Command Center, Jenkins, GitLab, and CircleCI
Our tech stack is not limited to the abovementioned list, as DICEUS is a technology-agnostic company. We believe there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution in the IT industry, and we are open to working with clients to determine the ‘right software’ solution that best fits their business needs. We never propose any tech stacks until we clearly understand the client’s business goals and context– and only then do we propose the most appropriate tech solution. So, feel free to contact us and discuss your requirements.
