With so many pressures on your on- premises datacenter, now is a great time to get started on your cloud migration. Following are simple steps that will help you get started.

1. Identify

Finding the right cloud provider that understands the unique needs of your size business is an important part of your evaluation. IDC recommends businesses consider the following in their cloud provider evaluation.

• Differentiation: Look for providers that have a platform that enables differentiation and facilitates the quick adoption of new technology.
• Security and uptime: Assess for security and uptime commitments that are best-in-class in the industry.
• Experience: Look for experience, particularly with businesses like yours.
• Innovation: Ask about future proofing and technology leadership—your cloud provider should be heavily investing in the latest innovations.
• Support: Hands-on support and expertise will position you to best assess the migration strategy that meets your needs.

2. Assess

Use an assessment, like Migration Evaluator, that is thorough but noninvasive to get started without monopolizing your team’s time. A migration assessment and discovery process provides you with a total cost of ownership model within hours to build business justification for your migration project.

Up-front, data-driven analysis can help you identify the optimal lowest-cost option for each workload and provide a license analysis.

3. Partner

Exiting your on-prem datacenter can be daunting. Having the right team to help you can be the difference between meeting or missing your goals. Work with an experienced system integrator will be a key part of your migration support team. Experts help anticipate challenges and leverage learning over many migrations to ensure you get the results you expect.

4. Mobilize

Once you have completed an initial assessment and have your cloud provider and partners identified, you will then be able to address any gaps identified in the assessment that might impact the success of your migration.

5. Migrate and Update

The best cloud migrations offer two key elements that allow you to leverage the cloud at the pace that works best for your business:

• Migrate with minimal changes. This is the first step with the fastest results. Often called “re-hosting,” we “Lift and Shift,” so you can begin seeing benefits sooner. Often fully automated, this migration doesn’t require changes to the underlying architecture.
• Future Proof. Adopting cloud-native technologies can help you fully realize the benefits of the cloud transition, reducing operational costs as applications are re-envisioned and become managed cloud services.

Want to move to the cloud, but you think it’s too much for your IT team? Our certified and experienced team is ready to help you. Contact us today for a free and fast assessment of your migration needs.