Tip of the Week: Adaptation is the Key to Cloud Migration Success

Making the move to the cloud is far from an easy task. You need a process that’s tailored specifically for your organization, and one which is open to adaptation. If your plans are foiled by unexpected complications, it can be difficult to keep on track, and your cloud’s migration could become a nightmare.

InfoWorld discusses this scenario in length: “For example, a large enterprise that migrates 100 applications to an IaaS cloud might discover during testing that the latency is too high for 25 of the applications. The board of directors and leadership were given a plan showing 100 applications migrating to the cloud, and no one wants to communicate a change, so they power through. The result is that those 25 applications don't function well enough to support the business, and that adds up to a big, costly failure.”

In other words, it’s important to acknowledge that your plans may be subject to change and that you need to embrace this change if you want to avoid a major loss for your organization. In InfoWorld’s scenario, the solution is to not move the 25 applications to the cloud. Rather, it’s better not to rush this matter and focus on moving them as you can so as to preserve functionality. Otherwise, you could lose both time and money. Be sure to keep variables like your IT budget in mind, as well. These variables can make implementing new solutions inflexible, and therefore should be considered during implementation. After all, the slightest mistake could lead to unnecessary downtime.

Here are three ways that your business can prevent missteps in cloud migration.

Provide a Sense of Autonomy
You may be tempted to oversee every step of a project, but when it comes to migrating your data to the cloud, it’s best that you don’t. You should assign a project manager to the implementation process whose sole responsibility is to make sure that the cloud migration is successful. It’s a well-known concept that the more hands that are on a project, the longer and more painful the process becomes. This makes unnecessary hurdles for the administrator to jump through. Your IT department should be able to finish a project without having to go through each step in the chain of command.

Evaluate and Test Accordingly
You shouldn’t expect the cloud migration process to go smoothly; rather, you should plan to run into problems and be prepared to handle them accordingly. Throughout the implementation process, you should be assessing how the project is being handled. Address problems as they come up to prevent issues and delays down the road.

Make Adaptation an Accepted Practice
One of the best assets you can have for your organization is the ability to adapt to any situation. When a flaw is discovered in planning, you often don’t have time to run every decision by the chain of command. You need to be able to confidently address issues and find resolutions rather than point fingers to discover who’s to blame. This type of problem solving should be integrated into your organization’s best practices.

If your organization needs assistance with cloud migration, we have a solution. Our skilled technicians can work with your IT staff to ensure that your cloud progress goes smoothly. To learn more, reach out to us at (703) 821-8200.