Successful Cloud Migration in the Age of the Coronavirus
March 23, 2020
The Coronavirus pandemic doesn’t seem to be fading, in fact, it only seems to be picking up across the globe. Now that governments around the world are rapidly declaring a nation-wide state of emergency and that companies are forced to send their employees home, many business leaders are faced with the difficult task of actually organizing their workforce for remote work, especially those key departments such as HR that will have an instrumental role in supporting employees during this difficult time.
Of course, the only way to run an efficient operation like this is to take advantage of cloud computing, and migrate your business to the cloud in order to create a centralized work environment in the digital realm. Today, we’ll be going over the steps you need to take in order to migrate to the cloud quickly and efficiently, so that you can resume your operation while keeping your employees safe.
Define your goals and prioritize
First things first, you have to define your immediate and long-term goals so that you can prioritize your migration effectively and without wasting time or other resources. Your goals should be to resume your operation as quickly as possible, and you can only achieve that if you know exactly which departments should migrate to the cloud first – this will greatly improve workflow and internal communication, and help your employees meet their deadlines.
In this case, your immediate goal should be to get your key employees and departments (such as sales and customer service) fully-equipped to work from home, while your long-term goal could be to capitalize on cloud computing through elevated cybersecurity, efficiency, and improved collaboration in general. This will allow you to make a migration priority list and migrate mission-critical applications first. The result will be a quicker return to market and minimal financial loss.
Research providers and their brand reputation
Now that you have an idea of your goals and priorities, it’s time to find the providers that can deliver on your expectations without forcing you to break the bank in the process. When you’re preparing your business for implementing cloud solutions, you need to have a reliable partner to help you along the way and provide you with tailor-made solutions that fit your exact requirements. It’s important that you research prominent providers, research their websites and of course, get in touch with them to see what they have to offer.
On the other hand, it’s also important to research possible providers and to start narrowing down your search by talking to their past clients, while also searching for honest reviews and testimonials across the web. Be sure to visit forums in the tech and cloud computing sectors where people have shared their honest opinions of these providers so that you know exactly if the provider is a viable contender.
Choose a private cloud option for better security
One of the most important considerations is the deployment model. Choosing the right deployment model that will allow you to utilize the full resources of the cloud efficiently and effectively, and while you can choose between public, private, hybrid, and community clouds, there’s really only one right model for a business that is looking to safeguard its employees and all business data in the online realm – the private cloud.
In order to get the flexibility and scalability features necessary to run an efficient remote operation, and to enjoy higher security and reliability, business leaders are now choosing leading private cloud providers that can offer multidimensional security protection, better security policies, more reliable data, and more efficient application deployment. This means that you can migrate to the cloud quickly and that your employees can start working remotely without encountering any security threats.
Create a timeline and allocate resources
Another important consideration is that you need to build a comprehensive timeline that will keep close track of this transition. After all, migrating to the cloud can take a lot of time if you’re not holding yourself accountable, so in addition to prioritizing, you should also measure the speed of the transition and always update the timeline as you progress. Chances are that you will deviate from this timeline to an extent, but you will also be able to create a more efficient migration strategy.
Make backups and disaster recovery plans
And finally, it’s imperative that you create numerous backups in case something goes wrong. You also need to have an extensive disaster recovery plan in the case that you lose important business data during the transition or while your employees are working from home. Your cloud provider will be able to set the right data recovery plans in place, and they should also provide you with a backup strategy so that you don’t have to worry about data loss during this period.
Wrapping up
The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has forced many companies to send their employees home and to continue work remotely, which presents numerous challenges for those who are not operating within a cloud infrastructure. Be sure to use these tips to migrate to the cloud quickly and resume your operation in an efficient and effective way.
About the Author
Keith Coppersmith is a business and marketing expert who has experienced both the rise and fall of many businesses. As a regular contributor at BizzmarkBlog, he enjoys writing and providing insight into the marketing industry based on both practice and theory.
