Highlights and Challenges of Cloud Migration
Today, Cloud Migration is playing a significant role in various fields when it comes to storage, ease of access and collaboration. For many companies, the decision of moving to the Cloud is often motivated primarily by its cost-cutting benefits. Keeping enterprise-level IT infrastructure running is extremely expensive, and without the necessary resources and know-how, organizations can lose money through server downtimes, service outages and equipment failure. Moving to the Cloud isn’t just something that can save money, but it also increases productivity, enhances team collaboration, extends the life of our legacy systems and boosts performance of the respective software.
For any enterprise the assumption of cutting down on cost is of significant importance; what can offer maximum computing power at the lowest cost, given the fact that Cloud service providers benefit from economies of scale, it is often significantly cheaper compared to other options. Cloud services are offered in a pay-as-you-use model that requires companies to pay only for the services used, thereby, facilitating cost-savings on usage basis, reducing idle cost. With the Cloud, companies are no longer tied to a physical location to store data. They can support customers all over the world which opens entirely new streams of revenue. In case a server goes down, organizations can take comfort knowing that an alternate/backup server is in place to takeover, ensuring that their data is always readily available.
Although Cloud computing can do a lot, it is not a cure for all problems. Also, there are some issues the Cloud may not be able to solve.
Cloud computing would not fix bad application design. Some people believe that porting applications to the Cloud automatically corrects programming design deficiencies. They are half right. Cloud platforms’ ability to mask inefficient applications means that application behavior and performance does improve, but those inefficiencies will show up in the bill from your Cloud provider, due to the excess consumption of resources.
Cloud computing would not eliminate information silos. it may even create them. IT organizations that always try to break down silos of data, processes, and services may find that the use of Cloud computing services (whether public, private, or hybrid), may move them in the opposite direction. Organizations that use Cloud computing typically create additional items that live in the Cloud. Thus, they become silos of data, services, and processes that have to be integrated into the on-premise systems. It is not a huge problem if you plan in advance, but most organizations deal with this issue as an afterthought.
Cloud computing would not reduce the number of employees. It is said that the movement to Cloud will “normalize” the number of human resources required to maintain core business systems. However, Cloud deployments are systems, and they need people to monitor them during production. If the end game is to migrate systems from on-premise into a Cloud and you actually shut down your on-premise systems, perhaps you will need fewer employees to maintain them. However, the trend has been to build new systems on the emerging Cloud computing platforms, so the need for human resources rises. After all, you’re doing more.
Whether or not they believe in global warming, many organizations want to do something about it. This is either because their customers want to do business with green companies, or simply through a genuine desire to emit less CO2 or other gases believed to warm the planet. By moving to the Cloud, you will be greener in two ways. First, you will be saving energy. Second, you will be taking advantage of the work that your Cloud service provider has done to reduce its data centers’ carbon footprint. Think of it as saving money that you might otherwise spend on carbon offsets.
Cloud eliminates capital expenses for infrastructure including servers and storage. Without physical storage, companies do not have to worry about hardware becoming outdated, needing upgrades, or requiring repairs over time. Thus, to stay competitive, organizations need the flexibility and reliability of Cloud hosting, with the performance of an optimized, onsite system, whether the company is looking to cut costs and improve reliability, give their applications a performance edge, or acquire top-notch IT support for complex core systems.
