Cloud migration with and without IT consultant help
Today, business and IT leaders worldwide are shifting from traditional technology to the most effective and limitless computer resources, which is called the cloud. There are various reasons to embark on cloud migration, such as reducing IT costs, accelerating innovation, consolidated data centres, digital transformation, and much more.
You can promote collaboration, protect your data from cyber attacks, and optimize your IT operations’ cost and performance by moving your workloads off-premises through cloud migration. However, this is not an easy task, and it requires a well-developed plan and cloud expertise.
This is only possible if you successfully move your on-premises applications and data to the cloud infrastructure without any issues. You need to understand the management and technology challenges that most organisations face during cloud migration without disrupting existing operations. Successful cloud migration requires advanced planning and strategy; you might need help from the right people, usually called IT consultants.
Recent studies show that the number one reason cited for cloud migration’s failure was a lack of understanding of when you need to make a move and how? Many known cloud providers are enhancing their services in terms of architectural options and complexities, and this is where you need an IT consultant to help with your move to the cloud. These IT consultants are specialized in application and data migrations and are experts in managing virtual desktops.
IT consultants design and maintains on-premises IT infrastructure as well maintains cloud applications and plans cloud migration processes for an organisation. They have knowledge of the latest cloud technologies and cybersecurity. They enable you to harness the power of risk-free cloud architecture to lower the operational costs and scalability of your business. IT consultants aids you in deciding which apps to migrate along with the consistency of migrated data to let you securely access business information from anywhere, anytime.
The need for IT Consultants
According to Jeff Fleece, Director of Cloud Consulting at Sungard Availability Services, “It’s time to be practical here”. Cloud implementations have hundreds of moving parts. Planning has to take into consideration all of those parts: all the interdependencies have to be mapped, the timing for each part of the migration has to be perfect to avoid business interruptions, the applications have to be made cloud-ready, etc. … It is next to impossible for people to create a thorough, comprehensive cloud implementation plan when they haven’t done it before.” (Fleece)
A whole new industry has developed with the rapid growth of cloud adoption called IT consultants or Cloud Consulting Partners. Many new companies have emerged in the market for the sole purpose of offering services to design, build, deploy and manage cloud architecture for maximum security, availability and performance. The IT consultants provide full-service cloud system integration with the requisite experience and expertise for successful cloud migration. Moreover, these consultants can be certified engineers, architects, and developers who plan and design your cloud migration process according to your organisation’s specific needs.
It can take weeks, sometimes months, to implement well-architected cloud infrastructure, depending on your IT environment’s size and complexity. Your internal technical staff cannot be available all the time and oversee the day-to-day management of your cloud infrastructure. IT consultants ensure that your own internal staff is there when you need them.
IT consultants are continuously researching new and innovative solutions to their client’s unique issues. Many times, they are engaged to provide these solutions, such as:
- Software-defined storage and networking for streaming, storing, and processing a vast amount of data.
- Migration of existing apps and infrastructure to the cloud from anywhere
- Deployment of new apps and on-premises IT infrastructure.
- Advanced planning and strategy development of cloud migration or expansion of existing cloud deployment.
- Development of cloud-native applications and update applications.
- Use the latest tools to automate your cloud architecture, such as AWS, Chef, and Ansible.
- Provides security and governance to ensure compliance requirements.
- Provides custom solutions and assists with infrastructure optimization using diverse resources.
IT consultants help businesses to reach new heights with the possibilities of the well-architected cloud infrastructure; by providing the best cloud environment for safeguarding data and streamlined workflows. You can design, validate, and execute a planned cloud migration strategy that causes little to no disruption to your workflows and brings a fast payoff.
Without IT Consultants
Cloud Migration with an IT consultant helps save you money on internal data solutions and provides flexibility and scalability to your business without a strain on your budget. Moreover, it can be frustrating, too, without IT consultants. Sometimes, your internal IT staff can quickly transfer your workload and applications to the cloud through tools and services that Cloud providers themselves offer. Many businesses that lack the technical skills prefer to recruit IT consultants because of these tools’ complexity. IT consultants handle the timescale and budget required in cloud migration without disruption to your business.
IT consultants determine your current issues with your current IT infrastructure and what a migration might look like. They study about the dynamics of your workplace to find the right strategy to execute the migration with minimum business disruption.
A Right IT Consultant for Your Business
Are you considering bringing on an IT consultant? You need to know what your business needs are and how IT consultants are going to fulfil them? You can have a messy cloud deployment if you are unable to screen IT consultants’ capabilities as per your business needs.
Cloud migration can help your business become more flexible and cost-effective, but it can be a disaster without a competent IT consultant. An expert’s knowledge always makes a difference. When you’re ready to embark on a cloud migration journey, please consider the advantages of hiring an IT consultant or cloud consulting partner. The skills and expertise can steer your entire migration process in the right direction, from pre-migration planning to updates and applications maintenance.
REFERENCES
- Fleece, J. (n.d.). Blue Sentry. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from 3 Reasons You Need a Consulting Partner : bluesentryit.com
- www.cisco.com
- www.acloudguru.com
- www.clearscale.com
