Helping Your Company Migrate to Cloud Computing

Managing your information technology infrastructure can become expensive and risky for your company. The cost of training, licensing, and physical space for technology is costly. You could be cut off from your customers and suffer significant losses in emergencies when you lose power. Many companies have turned to cloud computing hosting partners to help them manage and drive day-to-day technical operations. Here are five ways to help your company realize the benefits of migrating to cloud computing.

Select a Cloud Platform Provider

Selecting an online cloud computing partner is the first part of your migration strategy. Vendors, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), offer cloud computing services. Deciding which vendor offers the best features can be challenging. One factor to consider is scaled efficiency and the ability to increase delivery time and reliability. AWS Automation and Acceleration services would be an example of  features to consider to help separate the better potential cloud computing partners.

Understand Your Company Applications

As you start planning the migration process, understanding what you have in your technology inventory is essential. Many companies have older applications that work great in a server-based delivery but may not scale to cloud computing operations. The time may come for you to consider upgrading your applications or replacing them with whole new software.

When you look to hire technical personnel to help support your infrastructure, you want to consider recent software releases and platforms. Many prospective employees may not be able to manage your older applications. Although the pain of installing a new software package will add more time to your migration, it may pay off in the long run and save future compatibility problems.

Utilize Marketing Techniques to Position Your Company Brand

Advertising your business is critical, and the online world has become a competitive landscape. Cloud computing helps to broaden your company’s brand visibility and draw more customers. Many cloud computing platforms can help you recruit new customers, and having a reliable platform behind your company will be beneficial.

Finding an advertising partner that can grow with your company will mutually benefit both companies. This partnership can help to reduce your advertising costs in return for the advertising company to use your organization as a reference. Your organization can also build other business relationships to help position your brand.

Define Your Operational Load and Requirements

Staffing decisions are at the heart of a decision to migrate to the cloud. You can leave your information technology department the same or decide to outsource a portion of staffing to help reduce costs. Training technology personnel is a high cost for a company. There is always a risk that the technical personnel may leave for other jobs and take their technical knowledge of your company, leaving you to start over.

A cloud computing organization will look to upsell products and services. Outsourcing to a partner has many benefits, but you should retain internal staff to help balance the integrity of the relationship. Having someone on the team to help decipher what makes sense with the proposed products and services will allow you to focus your attention on running the overall company.

Develop a Continuity Plan

Cloud computing offers many advantages to avoiding emergencies that may impact your current building. If the power goes out in your building, you can have your personnel work remotely and still be able to access the data. Even with cloud presence and backup services the cloud computing organization may offer, there needs to be a continuity plan. If you need to remain available 24×7, you must pay to guarantee this service. Redundancy costs extra based upon the level of protection you want for your company, your applications, and your data.

Technology costs can have an unlimited ceiling, and you need to plan your return on investment. Your company’s online reputation is essential, so your decision for a cloud computing partner needs to be carefully decided.