3 Problems Solved by Moving to the Cloud

September 5, 2016 Off By David
Article Written by Autumn Salama, Senior Director of Cloud Services at Symmetry

SMBs tend to base cloud migration decisions on IT considerations – they move when it becomes too difficult, pricey or risky to continue hosting onsite. But the benefits of moving to the cloud go beyond the IT department. We looked at organizations from a variety of industries to learn what problems they’ve solved by moving to the cloud. 

1.     Moving to the cloud eases mergers and transitions. Mergers leave organizations with multiple technology stacks, hosted on separate hardware by different teams. This makes it very difficult to integrate the new company, and poses added security and compliance risks. Getting all the pieces to work together quickly is crucial to staying competitive and maintaining morale and investor confidence. Moving to the cloud with an experienced managed services partner is usually the most competitive way to do this.

 

When Pemco was acquired by Orlando Management AG, they recognized the need for outside help migrating their Oracle system to SAP. They needed to find a partner who could minimize downtime and disruption during the process, and handle working with multiple internal technical teams.

Pemco was initially interested in contracting out SAP Basis and hosting the remainder of their systems internally. But according Pemco’s Manager of Information Technology, Joe Bohte, once their MSP helped review the options they realized moving to a complete cloud hosting solution was "the most logical and cost-effective solution for our hosted SAP environment." Rather than simply reducing risk and controlling costs during migration, they were able to carry the benefits into their ongoing SAP cloud solution.

2.     Moving to the cloud eliminates rapid outgrowth of IT infrastructure. Upgrading on-premise infrastructure is a major project that must be planned and budgeted in advance. Not only is CapEx substantial, but OpEx and aging become a factor as soon as infrastructure is installed. Companies have to choose between spending on compute before they need it – and potentially risking outgrowing their IT resources. Moving to the cloud provides a better option: rapid scaling.

When luxury electric vehicle manufacturer Karma Automotive moved to the cloud, they were anticipating rapid growth. As a high-end manufacturer, they also needed the ability to quickly leverage new, potentially resource-intensive SAP technology as it emerged. Their MSP provided a right-sized SAP HANA® cloud, scalable up to 12 TB. They can now scale up in minutes, only paying for extra resources when they need them. This controls costs, while eliminating the IT risks of rapid growth.

3.     Moving to the cloud provides a permanent solution to IT staff shortages. A cloud managed services partner can act as an extension of your onsite team. In addition to migration and project management services, your partner can provide ongoing administrative support, security, compliance and other services. Some partners also serve as a resource for technical training, emergency response, strategic planning and more. In a world where good IT talent is hard to find and harder to retain, the benefits are substantial.

Organizations can accrue some of these benefits without moving to the cloud by contracting an MSP to manage onsite IT. However, this poses additional oversight, cost and complexity. The organization will have to work with the MSP to upgrade and secure physical infrastructure – with all the expense that entails. For all but the largest enterprises, allowing the MSP to handle all of these tasks makes more sense.

Moving to the cloud can yield major strategic benefits – with the right partner. Hosting companies often emphasize the cost and stability advantages of moving to the cloud. However, in many cases the biggest benefits lie outside of IT. Whether you’re looking for someone to completely run your SAP HANA cloud or just looking for hosting and occasional support, IT managed services can help you get the most out of moving to the cloud.

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About the Author

Autumn Salama is the Senior Director of Cloud Services at Symmetry where she is responsible for maintaining Symmetry’s portfolio of hosted and cloud solutions for SAP, HANA and other mission critical workloads. Autumn has been in the data center and cloud infrastructure business for over a decade managing teams responsible for everything from critical infrastructure operations, service delivery, technical support, marketing and product management. Autumn leverages her diverse experience to understand the unique requirements of Symmetry’s customers and translate these needs into a suite of hosted products that offer flexibility, scalability and a superior customer experience.