Cloud migration is more important than ever. Especially when you consider the fact that legacy systems are a cesspool for error, risk and stagnation. These outdated systems are magnets to failure, heavy costs and inefficiency – acting as a threat and a burden to the enterprises that possess them.
It’s only the world’s top businesses that understand the true value of modern technology and the cloud.
With big data acting as a commodity, cloud migration becomes vital to get the best value out of that data. And with improved performance, faster innovation and major cost reductions – it’s hard not to see why.
The reality is that embracing this technology isn’t very difficult – and you can make huge savings in the process.
Sounds Great! But What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration is simply the decision to move from outdated and impractical technology to relevant and more efficient technology; from traditional IT systems and infrastructures to modern ones.
It’s like upgrading to the latest iPhone – the differences are aggressively obvious and the experience is far better.
You’re essentially taking your data, software and IT infrastructure to an online platform that offers flexibility, security and more efficiency.
According to Eric Pulsifer, “cloud migration is the process of moving digital assets — like data, workloads, IT resources, or applications — to cloud infrastructure. Cloud migration commonly refers to moving tools and data from old, legacy infrastructure or an on-premises data center to the cloud.”
This also refers to moving your existing digital assets from one cloud provider to another.
The cloud – often referred to as “cloud computing” – is a term used to describe a variety of on-demand and user-friendly online services that provide access to traditional server usage (sending, storing and processing data) and more.
Interesting, but How Does Cloud Impact My Business?
Great question. Obviously there are numerous advantages that come with cloud migration and best of all, they’re easy to find.
To start, let’s first take a look at some of the most successful companies making use of a cloud-based infrastructure:
eBay – When eBay decided to migrate its billion-dollar company to their own cloud-based platform in 2018, they predicted the positive outcomes and growth that would come with making such a big move.
The decision produced massive results for them and they haven’t looked back ever since.
General Electric – Starting their digital transformation back in 2014, General Electric would find that Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) powerful cloud-based platform (along with their hundreds of apps and services) was a perfect fit.
Their migration resulted in huge savings and innovations within GE Power, GE Healthcare and their overall IT capabilities.
In 2016, GE Oil & Gas achieved 52% in IT savings; in 2018, GE Power saved millions of dollars for their customers; and in 2019, GE Healthcare achieved greater patient outcomes through the use of Machine Learning through AWS.
Airbnb – It took only a year after they launched that Airbnb decided to migrate to the cloud and make use of AWS.
Other than the fact that their initial aim was to comfortably manage and customise their existing infrastructure, they were able to increase demand where necessary and without any limitations.
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Airbnb, Nathan Blecharczyk, was quoted as saying: “Initially, the appeal of AWS was the ease of managing and customizing the stack… as our company continued to grow, so did our reliance on the AWS cloud and now, we’ve adopted almost all of the features AWS provides”.
With these three success cases, it’s clear how powerful this transition to the cloud can actually be. Especially when considering how top-tier companies endorse this technology.
The List of Benefits
To further understand what cloud migration promises to achieve, we take a look at GE Power’s whitepaper on the reasons why big leaders are moving to the cloud.
According to the document, “there are key advantages that leading industrial companies are gaining by leveraging cloud infrastructure”, those are:
Faster Innovation and Implementation
Through cloud architecture, you’re able to develop and deploy new products, software and services at a far more efficient rate. You’re given the ability to remain competitive and always ahead of the game, while drawing in far more benefits for your business.
With easy-to-use platforms that deal with the design, rollout, testing and deployment of your innovations – your on-premise infrastructures don’t have to drain your time, waste your resources and remain a burden to maintain.
Powerful Security
Most businesses fear the risk of lost or stolen data. These system failures and breaches tend to cost millions in revenues and leaves behind a sense of fear and uncertainty.
With most cloud providers acting as decentralised platforms, your critical data assets tend to be far safer and secure – reducing the overall risk and reluctance involved with the security of your digital assets.
Cloud security tends to work extremely well, because of: the investments that most cloud providers make in security capabilities, software and professionals; better control of their cloud environment and architecture, as opposed to dealing with on-premise infrastructures which make us of multiple solution architectures; and the availability of consistent and continuous security upgrades, fixes and patches.
Reduced Costs
With modern technology improving the overall efficiency, speed and output of delivery, there’s an increase in the desire to scale at a faster pace. Due to that demand, traditional IT teams are required to fork out much more capital for hardware purchases, configuration and maintenance.
Moving to the cloud helps reduce those costs by: cutting back on the expenses associated with Big Data platforms, along with their hardware, design and networking needs; and the overall cost of ownership, maintenance and support regarding large-scale IT environments, including IT support personnel, security, admin and license fees.
Improved Scalability
While most companies collect their data through on-premise legacy environments, the advances in networking, data storage, analytics and sensor technology (to name a few) have made it difficult for these traditional systems to compete.
With cloud migration, you’re able to be picky and extremely specific around the compute power, resources and storage that you require. This allows you to scale up and down whenever you see fit and pay according to your demands/needs – as opposed to buying, running and maintaining infrastructure that is of no use during certain periods.
Having control of your capacity demands will result in less service interruptions and greater opportunity to scale your operations to a global standard.
Get Packing and Prepare for the Cloud!
Cloud migration is essential to the digital transformation journey that every business will inevitably need to undergo. To remain competitive, to evolve and to innovate in an age that puts technology at its core is absolutely essential to any organisation.
And although it might appear to be a fairly complicated and uncomfortable shift to take – we assure you that it’s not.
We understand the value, importance and the powerful role that your data, technology and infrastructure plays in your success. That’s why we pride ourselves on offering you top-tier AI professionals that specialise in CloudOps, Machine Learning, Data Engineering and more.
Make your transition to the cloud easier than it needs to be. Contact Us, today.
