Cloud migration can offer many benefits to your business, but it comes with several challenges. Numerous benefits of cloud migration include lower costs, flexibility, improved communication, security, and many more. Since migrating to the cloud offers numerous benefits, most enterprises plan to move to the cloud.
It is important for IT Admins to evaluate carefully before embarking on the cloud journey, as the size of the organization affects the complexity of the migration. Here are the five things you must consider when migrating your business to the cloud.
1. Analyze Your Source Cloud Data
Migrating duplicate or redundant data is an important thing to consider. It is worth investing some time in cleaning up the user accounts and data that is no longer required from your source cloud before initiating migration. Doing this helps you save migration costs and time. You can rest assured that your destination cloud will hold accurate data when you migrate with clean data.
For example, you want to switch to an advanced and robust collaboration platform to improve your business working process. Let’s say you are migrating from Slack to Teams. The first step is to decide which data you need to migrate, including workspaces, channels (public and private), and direct messages to plan a successful Slack to Teams migration.
2. Find the Right Cloud Migration Provider
Only a few tools facilitate data migration between various clouds. Migrations from one cloud to another can be difficult, but using the appropriate tools can simplify the process.
For example, if you want to migrate from Dropbox to Google Drive, you should choose a tool that supports migration between these clouds based on your company’s business needs. Test various tools or services for data migration to determine which is most appropriate for your company.
3. Set Realistic Costs and Timelines
After picking a cloud services provider, you must consider timelines and costs. Make sure it matches your niche such as ERP hosting for restaurants. To finish the project within your budget, you must set realistic goals for your cloud migration project. The time needed to migrate to the cloud and the costs might make it challenging for your business to make the switch.
Despite knowing your costs and timelines, you should prepare for some surprises. Moreover, the reliability and efficiency of your service providers are essential. Make sure they have a solid and proven cloud migration approach to complete your migration project on time and within budget.
4. Prioritize the Data Migration Features
Several migration tools offer cloud migration, but each will offer different functionalities and features. Migrating the data without its features doesn’t make sense. Therefore, you will need to research more to understand what migration tools offer. Here are the data migration features you need to prioritize:
- Permissions
- Versions
- External shares
- Shared links
- Embedded links
- In-line comments
- Timestamps
5. Ensure Your Data Is Secured
It is challenging for any business to migrate large amounts of business-sensitive data. Therefore, any data loss could seriously affect a company. You must ensure that your data is secure throughout the migration process and safe from data hacks.
By selecting the best migration service provider, you can guarantee the security of your data. Before starting the process, you should speak to the provider about your security concerns.
