How does Azure Virtual Desktop benefit your business?

How does Azure Virtual Desktop benefit your business?

Cloud migration is essential for businesses pursuing a digital transformation. It allows you to scale your resources and better manage your digital infrastructure. Getting your cloud migration strategy right is important. A bad migration strategy could, at best, slow your processes down. At worst, you risk irreversible data loss or opening your business up to security vulnerabilities.

Why do businesses migrate to the cloud?

Businesses today require infrastructure that can rapidly scale according to any changes to the business and its demands.The Cloud is replacing legacy, on-prem technology with flexible, scalable, and cost-effective computing power around the world. Here are five common challenges to avoid so you can speed up the process and ensure a successful migration.

1. Businesses lack a comprehensive cloud migration plan

Cloud migration is an involved and delicate process. Unfortunately, many businesses fail to develop a comprehensive strategy, preferring to adopt the so-called lift and shift strategy. In reality, on-prem applications and services may not be ready, out-of-the-box, to be cloud-native. Migrating these workloads onto cloud servers without due consideration and planning, may lead to compatibility issues, slowdowns or even data loss.

The solution to this challenge is simple – develop a plan before pulling the trigger. Any cloud migration strategy should:

• Take into account the business value of moving to the Cloud. What areas of the business would benefit the most from migration?
• Examine which applications and workflows best translate to a cloud-based environment. Some processes may migrate perfectly. Others may not. A plan should outline cloud-native replacements – such as Microsoft 365 apps.
• Consider what timeline your migration should follow. Which applications should be migrated first?

1. Not modernising services and workflows for the Cloud

As mentioned, not all applications and services are best suited for the Cloud. In fact, cloud-native services can look very different to their on-prem counterparts. How? Cloud services benefit from a modular software architecture – such as microservices. Monolithic applications limit your ability to customise frontend experiences. Some workloads aren’t designed to take advantage of your cloud resources – whereas older applications may be quite resource-inefficient.

There are two approaches to modernising workflows:

• Tinker with applications to make them more cloud friendly. Some applications may need to be refreshed to ensure compatibility.
• Replace workflows with cloud-native platforms.

1. Data Security and Compliance Risks

Cloud migration presents many preventable risks for data loss and leakage. Many businesses are hesitant to migrate to the cloud due to these concerns – with 56% citing security as a considerable concern. A large part of this perceived risk is handing data to third-party companies in the form of cloud vendors. Intuitively, this makes sense – wouldn’t on-prem solutions provide better security?

In reality, Cloud providers take security and compliance very seriously – and have numerous safeguards in place to protect your data.  In many cases, it’s actually easier for criminals to breach your on-premises servers than launching an attack on a cloud service provider like Azure.

Moreover, cloud services have tools to automate compliance procedures and ensure tight access permissions to minimise insider threats.

So, is the cloud migration process risk-free? No. The major threat is indeed in the migration phase – as any of your data may be intercepted if your migration process is insecure.

How can you avoid this? A managed service provider (MSP) will check your migration procedure before you go ahead. They will ensure that your sensitive data is protected from attackers and that you have data redundancies in place to prevent loss.

1. Lack of in-house expertise

Cloud migration is more complicated than you might think. Sure, vendors have developed intuitive migration tools to simplify the process such as Azure Migrate. However, if anything does go wrong, your in-house IT staff may lack the expertise to quickly and effectively troubleshoot. The risks of this are operational downtime and potential data loss.

Luckily, the solution is simple. Outsourcing to an MSP is the best way to ensure your migration process is handled by technicians with the correct level of expertise for the job. An MSP can handle this responsibility for you, easing your workload and ensuring a smooth transition. Because, trust us, cloud migration isn’t a process you should wing’ and hope for the best!

1. Unexpected Cloud migration costs

Many companies choose to migrate on their own as a cost-saving exercise. However, it can end up costing more in the long run.

What are some hidden costs associated with the migration procedure?

• The most pressing is the cost of operational downtime and its impact on productivity. You’re likely to spend more time troubleshooting and configuring your cloud platform without a migration partner. They can also advise how to get the most out of your cloud services from day one.  Lack of data recovery solutions and data redundancy. If anything goes wrong with your migration process, you may lose important data. MSPs operate with a strict data hygiene approach and will always insist on backing up important information. Lost data is very expensive to recover.
• Compatibility issues will present further challenges post-migration, contributing to lost productivity. Incompatible software will also still have to be altered or replaced – presenting another cost.

Tapping into the expertise of a cloud migration specialist can help avoid these unexpected costs and boost your ROI.

Let’s get your cloud migration right!

The theme is clear. Challenges can be avoided by working with a specialist IT and Cloud migration consultant. Costs can be minimised by developing and following a comprehensive and realistic migration strategy. Working with a trusted and experienced MSP, such as Extech Cloud, will eliminate compatibility issues and data security risks, ensuring a successful migration. We can also develop your migration strategy and budget more effectively to bring down your total cost of ownership (TCO). Get in touch with us today to see how we can support your digital transformation.

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