As your organization looks to the future, adopting a cloud-first strategy may seem like the obvious next step. However, the transition can be complex, with many factors to consider around security, compliance, costs, and more. With our expertise and tailored guidance, you can develop a cloud migration plan customized for your unique needs. We’ll help you determine the right pace, optimize spending, ensure continuity of operations, and provide ongoing support. You’ll gain the benefits of the cloud while avoiding common pitfalls. Partnering with us smooths your path to becoming a cloud-first enterprise.
Assessing Your Infrastructure for a Cloud-Only Migration
To successfully transition to a cloud-first strategy, you must evaluate your existing infrastructure. Conducting a thorough assessment will determine if a full migration to the cloud is feasible and identify any roadblocks.
Review Your Servers and Storage
Take inventory of all physical and virtual servers, storage devices, and networking equipment currently in use. Document their specifications, configurations, and connectivity to map your infrastructure. Determine each component’s role and criticality to operations. Decide which resources can migrate as-is, which need reconfiguration, and which may require replacement in the cloud.
Analyze Application Dependencies
Your applications and services rely on resources and each other to function. Map all application dependencies in your infrastructure to understand how they interact. Some may require re-architecting to work in a cloud environment. Others can migrate with minimal changes. Identifying dependencies upfront prevents service disruptions during migration.
Evaluate Security and Compliance Needs
Cloud services must satisfy all security, governance, and compliance requirements for your data and applications. Review current controls and policies to determine what protections you need in the cloud. Options like firewalls, encryption, identity management, and more are available but may need configuration. Work with your cloud provider to implement necessary safeguards before migrating sensitive resources.
Test and Validate Migration Strategy
Once you complete your assessment, develop a migration strategy and test it. Start by migrating non-critical workloads to verify your approach. Then migrate increasingly critical resources in phases. Monitor performance and make adjustments as needed before fully cutting over to the cloud.
Migrating infrastructure to the cloud requires in-depth planning and testing. Conducting a comprehensive assessment of your existing environment and needs ensures you develop an effective cloud-first strategy with minimal disruptions. With the right preparation, you can transition fully to the cloud and reap its benefits.
Developing a Cloud-First Strategy With SHIERTECH
Assess Your Existing Infrastructure
The first step is to evaluate your current IT infrastructure and applications. Determine which resources are suited for the cloud and which need to remain on-premises. Legacy systems not optimized for the cloud may need to stay put. Work with SHIERTECH cloud experts to analyze your infrastructure and map out a custom cloud adoption strategy based on your unique needs.
Choose a Cloud Platform
SHIERTECH offers consulting and managed services for the major cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, and GCP. We will help you select the right cloud(s) based on factors like cost, compliance, storage needs, and more. For many businesses, a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud approach works well. We can design an optimal solution using services from multiple providers.
Determine Migration Strategy
With a full assessment in hand, decide which resources should move to the cloud immediately, remain on-premises for now, or be retired altogether. Develop a phased migration plan to move workloads to the cloud in an orderly fashion while minimizing disruption. Some good candidates for early migration include:
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Development and testing environments
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Non-sensitive storage and archives
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Web servers and content delivery networks
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Collaboration tools like email and office productivity suites
A carefully planned migration to an all-cloud architecture can help future-proof your infrastructure while unlocking new business value. But a rushed or haphazard move to the cloud risks security, compliance, and operational issues that end up costing you more in the long run. Take time to fully assess your needs and prepare a migration strategy tailored to your unique situation. The cloud may be calling, but make sure you’re ready to answer.
Application Migration
Migrating applications to the cloud also requires planning and testing. Begin by evaluating which applications are suitable to move to the cloud and in what order based on factors like dependencies, usage, and impact. Next, choose a migration strategy for each application:
- Rehosting – Move the application to the cloud as-is. This is the simplest approach but does not optimize the application for the cloud.
- Replatforming – Make minor cloud optimizations to the application like using cloud databases or queues. This balances speed of migration with some cloud benefits.
- Refactoring – Perform more significant changes to optimize the application for the cloud. This requires the most effort but allows the application to take full advantage of cloud capabilities.
- Rebuilding – Reconstruct the application from the ground up using cloud-native features. This is time-consuming but results in an application built for the cloud.
Test the migrated applications thoroughly to ensure all functionality works as expected before decommissioning on-premises systems. You may need to migrate supporting resources like databases, storage, and networking components as well for the application to operate properly in the cloud.
With planning and patience, migrating data, applications and services to the cloud can unlock greater business value, resiliency and efficiency. Our experts can help make your cloud migration seamless through discovery, planning, and execution services tailored to your unique needs.
Optimizing Cloud Security and Compliance
Focus on Security
When transitioning to the cloud, security should be a top priority. Work with your cloud provider to enable security features like encryption,multi-factor authentication, and identity and access management. These will help protect your data and resources. You should also consider using tools like firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software for an added layer of protection. Regularly review security policies and permissions to ensure proper controls are in place.
Maintain Compliance
If your organization must comply with regulations like HIPAA or PCI DSS, make sure you understand how to properly configure your cloud environment. Work with your provider to determine which compliance certifications they have and how you can leverage built-in features to support compliance in your own architecture. You may need to adjust some of your processes to align with compliance standards for the cloud.
Supporting Your Cloud Environment With Managed IT Services
24/7 Monitoring and Management
Opting for managed IT services to support your cloud infrastructure means round-the-clock monitoring and management of your environment. Our team of certified cloud experts will continually assess the health and performance of your cloud resources and workloads. We utilize advanced monitoring tools to detect anomalies, identify resource constraints, and address security risks. Should any issues arise, we will promptly notify you and work to resolve them.
Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
As your organization becomes increasingly reliant on cloud services, data protection is paramount. We will implement a comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery plan tailored to your unique needs. Regular data backups will be performed and securely stored in multiple locations. In the event of a disaster, we have the skills and experience to quickly restore your systems and data to minimize downtime. Our disaster recovery plans are frequently tested to ensure high reliability.
Forming a Backup Strategy
When migrating your business to the cloud, implementing a comprehensive data backup plan is crucial. Without reliable backups, you risk losing critical information in the event of system failures or cyberattacks.
Determine Backup Needs
The first step is determining what data needs to be backed up and how often. Focus on sensitive information like customer records, financial documents, and proprietary files. For maximum protection, back up all business-critical data daily.
Choose a Backup Solution
Select a backup solution that suits your needs and risk tolerance. Options include:
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Cloud storage: Back up to cloud services. Low cost but less control.
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Network attached storage (NAS) devices: Store backups on an on-site NAS. Requires initial hardware investment but provides more control.
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Backup software: Install software to automatically back up servers and workstations to cloud storage, NAS, or external drives. Provides flexibility at a lower cost.
Test and Monitor Regularly
Simply implementing a backup solution is not enough. You must test it regularly to ensure backups are functioning properly and data can be recovered when needed. Check that:
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Backups are completing successfully according to the schedule.
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Backup data can be restored completely and accurately.
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Backups include all the necessary data.
It is also a good idea to perform test restores of backups periodically to confirm the data is intact and compatible with current systems. Monitoring and testing your backup solution guarantees maximum effectiveness and peace of mind that critical business data will remain accessible even after migrating infrastructure to the cloud. With the right strategy and tools in place, you can elevate your business to new heights with SHIERTECH’s seamless cloud solutions.
Cost Optimization
The public cloud offers tremendous scalability and elasticity, but costs can easily spiral out of control without proper oversight and governance. Our cloud experts will analyze your resource utilization and spending to identify opportunities for cost savings. We help streamline resource allocation, eliminate unused resources, choose appropriate service levels, and leverage discounts and special offers from cloud providers. Ongoing cost monitoring and budgeting will help avoid surprise charges and keep your cloud spending aligned with business needs.
Enhanced Security
Migrating critical systems and data to the public cloud requires stringent safeguards to protect against an evolving array of cyber threats. We follow industry best practices for cloud security, including multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, data encryption, vulnerability scanning, and penetration testing. Security policies and procedures are continuously reviewed and updated to mitigate new risks. Our security operations team monitors your environment around the clock to detect suspicious activity and respond rapidly to security events. With managed IT services, you can have confidence in the security of your cloud environment.
Conclusion
As you consider transitioning your IT infrastructure to the cloud, our consultative approach aims to provide tailored guidance based on your unique needs and circumstances. With our expertise helping companies determine the right cloud solutions and migration strategies for their business, we can support you in realizing the potential benefits while mitigating risks. By partnering with us, you gain a trusted advisor who will collaborate with you at every step, from assessing your current environment to planning and executing a successful cloud transition. Though moving fully to the cloud represents a major shift, our individualized support strives to make the process seamless. Reach out to learn more about how we can help lead you into a cloud-first future.
You have reached an inflection point with your business. The servers on which your operations depend are aging, maintenance costs are rising, and capacity limits constrain growth. Migrating fully to the cloud could transform your capabilities, but the path forward seems unclear. With SHIERTECH as your guide, elevating your business to the cloud need not be daunting. Their experts make seamless migration achievable, taking the time to understand your unique needs and crafting a transition plan tailored for you. With their support, you can retire legacy infrastructure, gain robust scalability, and position your company for the future—all while minimizing disruption. The cloud awaits, and SHIERTECH can get you there.