Anyone with any IT network to speak of is moving to the cloud these days. But, the saying “haste makes waste” needs to be heeded when considering the rush to cloud migration and hosting services for your company’s data network. You’ll want to weigh and consider all the ins and outs of cloud hosting and prepare a strategy that works best, and which is tailor-made for your company’s IT network and infrastructure based on sensible planning and strategic objectives.

Cloud Hosting

Here are 4 main tips on how to develop a cloud migration strategy that works best for you and your organization:

  1. Stay realistic. There’s a lot of pie-in-the-sky talk out there surrounding moving entire business IT infrastructures to cloud-hosted services. Sit down with your department heads and map out a realistic changeover which takes into account all details regarding the legacy system, time-tables, storage needs, security, continuity, and budget. Go as long-term with your fiscal and IT planning and mapping as possible. Even beta test some aspects of the changeover from legacy to cloud-based to get a feel for how the new operations will play out.
  2. Manage, Review, and Estimate. Plotting out effective time-management and projecting budgetary controls and overhead reduction are keys to saving your company from being blindsided by cost overruns. Make sure you have time and scope estimations for all activities within the project, and include testing of network speed, data transfer time, validation and deliverables as part of your estimation.
  3. Minimize Risks. Performing risk-management scenarios for security – both for internal data network and cloud security – well help you make project estimations on time and cost as well. This will help you to test where security vulnerabilities lie, as well as make budgetary and employee time-table projections. Also, implement and test intrusion detection systems along with firewalls, access controls, and logs. Consider a recent White Hat security report which claims that 85% of all websites have at least one security flaw or vulnerability.
  4. Communicate Your Intentions and Expectations. Make sure all parties involved in the cloud migration event are on the same page. Often times the client will expect something different from the cloud migration or IT support team, or vice versa. A pre-migration meeting between all parties involved with the transfer from legacy systems to cloud hosting services would be a good idea. False or unmet expectations are a big reason for a cloud migration failure or mishap. A realistic risk assessment, migration strategy, and the ability to address all challenges that may arise while remaining fully operational throughout will help your ship to sail smooth waters rather than stormy ones.

On top of all that – test, then validate, and test again as part of ongoing procedural anticipation and projection. This will minimize risk and the chance of surprise cost overruns or even an unforeseen data breach or other disaster.