Discovering where you are on your Cloud Journey

Wherever you currently are on your cloud journey, building a roadmap for your goals is vital to success.

Your strategy needs to be flexible, so you can adjust where needed along the way.

Cloud journeys are not always straightforward – it’s important to understand where you are at to understand the destination and avoid any unnecessary hazards to gain the best possible outcome.  

The cloud migration strategy is an overarching plan which outlines the transition of an organisations’ digital assets, from services and databases to IT resources and applications, whether on-premises or hybrid environments. 

Navigating the traffic jams 

It’s also worth noting that you might not start seeing results immediately – a survey by Forbes, which interviewed 100 executives, showed that 62% of peers report the same. Unsurprisingly, the main hindrance to progress was the skills gap encountered. This was the reason given far more than other options such as unforeseen interdependencies in their current IT environment. 

Also reported were security and compliance issues, lack of company investment and an unclear migration plan. It is worth exploring these areas if your cloud journey is taking longer. 

Reviewing skills gaps in your organisation goes a long way in your migration journey – as does designing security and compliance into your cloud architecture from the start. Your cloud environment can help you to meet and go beyond your organisations’ security and compliance needs, but if not fully understood, it can result in leaving you vulnerable. Having a partner working alongside you can build knowledge within your organisation, address any issues you might be facing and keep you on the right track. 

Setting your Cloud Journey up for success 

The process is not limited to transferring data from local data centres to public cloud service providers (such as Azure, AWS or Google Cloud). The five primary stages of a cloud migration strategy typically include preparation, planning, migration, operation and optimisation.  

If you’re starting from the beginning, it is important to envision your future goals and identify how cloud fits within that and what value it can deliver to your organisation. 

Will it save me money? 

Cost savings may not be your only driver for embarking on a cloud journey. However, it must be a factor within your plan. Many organisations might not have set clear KPIs to understand their savings or what they plan to spend when optimising their cloud environment.  

Cloud migration is known to reduce infrastructure expenses – this can be from transferring applications and data storage off-premises and reducing costs from hardware maintenance and upgrades. It is worth noting that many cloud providers allow for pay-as-you-go pricing models which allows organisations to spend on the resources they actually use rather than over-provisioning on-premises servers.  

The cloud’s ability to scale up or down in line with changing business needs is another advantage of transferring your workloads to the cloud. This adaptability means that organisations can reduce costs and respond more effectively, especially in times of high demand or sudden growth without being constrained by the limitability of traditional IT infrastructures. 

Ultimately, cost-savings depend on what you want to gain from transferring your IT to the cloud. This not only includes economic factors but resources, time and user experience. Your mileage can vary – to fully utilise the benefits of cloud savings, you need to understand the structure of the cloud providers’ SKUs and pricing models.