Having Doubts About Your Cloud Migration?

Are you confident that you will get a strong return on your cloud investment? Do you have a plan, but are unsure of its feasibility and true cost to your organization?

There’s been a lot of discussions this year in “the Cloud” and the promise of rapid solutions, increased efficiency, and decreased costs. That’s great, however, there are several considerations when making the move. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as “flipping a switch.”

Don’t be the company without a plan. Organization and having a clear strategy and detailed plan will make the transition go smoothly. A Cloud Migration Assessment will help businesses complete this process, or ensure your current plans are a sound investment.

Are you experiencing doubts about the success of your cloud migration? Unsure if your strategy will yield the expected benefits or worried about unforeseen expenses? Transitioning to the cloud involves more than just flipping a switch—it requires meticulous planning and foresight. A Cloud Migration Assessment can offer the clarity and assurance you need, addressing potential challenges and aligning your migration strategy with your organizational goals.

Key Points for an Assessment

1. Motivation: What are your key business drivers for moving to the cloud? Cost savings, rapid deployment, enhanced security? An assessment with thoughtful planning will ensure your goals and motivators for making the move are addressed and executed.
2. Options: You will have a better understanding of the current state of your systems and a plan for migration options, with the opportunities and potential obstacles you may face.
3. Cost & Time Savings: A clear understanding of the cost implications, including cost savings, and timing options, depending on your current solutions will guide your decisions on what you will migrate and when your migration will take place. Often, it may make sense to wait or adjust your plan to coincide with other activities in your business. Are you able to get the estimated lofty ROI estimates with your plan?
4. Reduce Errors: A roadmap for your organization’s migration, with an understanding of possible gaps and pitfalls to ensure there are no surprises during the migration journey.
5. Clear Future Plans: Understanding of what you would like to do with your business in the future and how cloud solutions can get you there and prepare for where you want to grow. This also includes understanding gaps in your resourcing and where to strengthen your team and their skillset.

Assessment Insights

At Artic, we really enjoy digging in and learning more about our client’s businesses, and how our expertise can help their organization. Some interesting takeaways from our recent assessments:

• Prepare for growth. A growing transportation firm used an Azure Assessment to ensure they were on the right path for their future to go internationally and expand their business. This gave peace of mind not only to the CIO but also to the CEO, that his expansion plans were on track and according to plan.
• Immense scalability. You may not need it now, but you can scale and have your solutions available from data centers around the world! This also helps account for localized privacy considerations so you can focus on your business.
• Cost Savings, Again! Moving to the cloud does not necessarily mean you will save money immediately. An assessment for a nationwide insurance company calculated the overall savings they could have with the cloud over time, with thoughtful planning and performance tuning. This helped gain the backing from the organization to execute a well-planned migration and ensure their migration costs made business sense.

This list is by no means exhaustive of all that goes into a Cloud Migration Assessment, but some of the initial key considerations of our clients. Overall an assessment will help reduce headaches and gain confidence in your Organization’s cloud migration.

Please check out the Artic Azure Assessment and tell us how we can help you and your business with your journey.

*The Total Economic Impact of Microsoft Azure IaaS, a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Microsoft, August 2019.