Answer 6 Questions Before Moving To Cloud

Cloud is the latest technology which is creating great results for the companies due to the several benefits of cloud computing. The most important and crucial aspect of this technology is the adoption or migration process. In fact this stage is the most challenging stage for IT managers of company in question. There are many aspects which if overlooked may become long time headache for them also to a great extent the benefits of this technology depends on these aspects.

Let’s discuss those 6 aspects on which benefits of cloud computing actually depends.

Availability Levels.

Do you know the availability levels of your current IT systems? Knowing the answer can be a good base for starting your cloud journey. It will also let you know the level of commitment you need from your cloud service provider.

Do you think the level of availability is decent and enough for your business or clients? As you migrate to the cloud, the expectations shoot upwards as well. Knowing the availability levels will help you to cope with it.

SLA levels

The promised uptime from the cloud service provider should be much higher than what you are getting from your in-house set up. Uptime is a multi-factor feature which can tell you how probable are the connectivity outage, downtime due to server maintenance or server upgrades etc.

You need to calculate what you will gain by availing the cloud service.

DR and BCP

Do you use a DR for your current in-house set up? How about a BCP? Do you use that too? As you need to carry both these to the cloud, make sure that you can move them to the cloud, you have that expertise.

Will the cloud be able to help you minimise or reduce the time taken in case of a fail over DR?

Migration cost, time and effort

Have you calculated the time and effort you need to move to cloud? This is no little time, I assure you. What if you are unsatisfied with the cloud? Can you afford to move to another cloud? Or, can you afford to move back to local resources? Do you have the time, effort and money required for each situation?

Customer Support

What type of support will they provide? Will they support you over call? Or will they use email, or live chat or ticket escalation? How available is this help? 24*7 or office hours on weekdays?

Exactly why?

Finally, why do you really want to move to cloud? Are you doing it to save costs? Is the operational expenses and not capital expenses is the key influencing factor for you? Are you moving to the cloud for easy scalability, hire new servers when needed and use them as per requirements?

The answer to all the questions above should be considered cumulatively before you really plunge into cloud in hope of deriving benefits of cloud computing. While cloud is really a brilliant concept, whether it fits your need or not is another discussion altogether.