On-Prem to Cloud Migration: Making the Transition
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Many companies operate data centers either on premise or they own serves and keep them in a rented space. In recent years we have seen a shift with more companies moving their data centers to a public cloud with the most popular public clouds being AWS (Amazon), Azure (Microsoft), and Google. Cloud computing continues to be one of the fastest-growing segments of IT spend. Moving to the cloud has its benefits, including remote management, flexibility/scalability, ease of replication, reduction in “keep the lights on” expenses, and lower maintenance costs.
While there are many benefits, a move to the cloud can come with its challenges. With any data center move or maintenance, there are always risks around the disruption of normal business. Legacy applications often have to be “refactored” to run optimally in a public cloud. Also, cultural impacts can be significant. If the company has been employing a team to manage the data center, these responsibilities would be eliminated with the transition. Transitioning to higher-value activities is better for the company, but it may not align with current employees’ career goals.
Think’s approach to dealing with potential challenges and risk factors in advance of occurrence – is a critical step to helping our partners. We know what the landmines are, we know how to prepare and prevent them, but having a Plan B ready to go when needed is a huge benefit of working with a seasoned team. Think’s Executive Advisors help vet options and manage all the migration components without disruption of normal business, especially when a partner is considering a hybrid cloud environment.
Our success has been in helping mid-market companies who have the technical talent they need to maintain the status quo but are lacking in thought leaders who can be the agents for change. CIOs looking to thrive need to develop a formal strategy, putting individual cloud decisions in the context of the company’s over aching strategic goals. Think excels in creating this type of strategic alignment.