Every blog about cloud migration you’ve read probably talked about the same standard benefits: agility, flexibility, cloud scalability and cost savings. Zzzzzz.
And while those are all legitimate and important factors, we wanted to explore some benefits you might not have thought of as you assess whether cloud migration is right for you.
Simply put, cloud migration is the movement of your compute resources from legacy on-premise infrastructure to a hosted cloud environment.
When migrating to the cloud, you can choose between bare metal, private or public cloud or even a hybrid cloud solution. Whatever you choose, migrating to the cloud will enable you to manage some or all of your IT infrastructure remotely and access large amounts of computing power on demand. This can liberate you (partially or fully) from the constraints and maintenance costs of traditional on-premise hardware.
The benefits of migrating to the cloud are indisputable (remember those earlier, frequently written about advantages of cloud migration?), and migrating to the cloud, in whole or in part, is worth considering if you want to keep pace with the speed of change in the digital economy.
Here’s why…
The continuing intensification and reliance on applications, digital media, real-time data and connected devices is accelerating, and it’s unlikely to slow down. As you’ve perhaps already experienced, this increases complexity and pressure on modern-day IT infrastructure. Cloud scalability offers a remedy.
This rapid increase in connections and complexity is what Robert Metcalfe, co-inventor of Ethernet in the eighties, described as the “network effect” when he conceived what is now known as Metcalfe’s Law.
While Metcalfe’s Law was written long before migrating to the cloud and cloud scalability were conversation topics, we can absolutely apply the principles when considering cloud migration.
Metcalfe’s Law represents the value of a network being proportional to the square of the number of users. So as more users (or nodes) are added to a network, the number of connections between those nodes exponentially increases owing to the number of possible connections and combinations each node adds. Like this…
Cool as it is, exponential growth creates a world of pain for technical teams who are yet to conquer cloud migration and are therefore trying to expand their infrastructure to keep pace without the advantage of cloud scalability.
Challenges such as an increase in connected edge devices, large amounts of decentralized data and fluctuating bandwidth demands can cause headaches for IT teams. Day-to-day, this puts a large burden on IT teams to:
Ensure further reaching, faster and reliable connectivity at the edge.
Shift to everything-as-a-service.
Plan resilience and faster scaling, for stable app performance.
Maintain tight access and security policies across distributed teams and devices without slowing down business.
Either retire, upgrade or integrate legacy, on-premises equipment into more suitable network architectures that support innovation, increase competitiveness and deliver immediate business benefits.
Find ways to simplify IT and optimize spiraling IT costs.
So, migrating to the cloud is a must, right? When considering what the modern IT environment requires, cloud scalability, being able to use as much compute resources and power as you need, and pay-as-you-go pricing, all make cloud migration very appealing.
If you’re passionate about IT, or you’ve heard about the benefits of migrating to the cloud and want in on the action, you’ll no doubt want access to the latest tech toys.
Cloud migration enables application modernization and innovation, since most cloud providers have extensive networks and reach with infinite cloud scalability and cutting-edge technologies. Migrating to the cloud can turn you into a tech hero overnight, by giving you the ability to:
Accelerate the pace of experimentation and development of new features and apps - speeding up time to market.
Easily, regularly upgrade and test out tech.
One up the competition with the most up-to-date technology.
Attract the best and most ambitious talent with a culture of innovation.
Automate more and speed up DevOps.
Enable your team to do more, on-demand and from anywhere.
Improve customer experience when consuming your apps and content.
Cloud migration will give you back hours in your day by reducing IT requests and issues, by enabling you to:
Simplify IT and shift to a subscription model.
Quickly develop, test and launch new applications and respond to changing requirements quickly, with little fuss.
Reduce maintenance of aging computer hardware and software.
Free up your team to work on your products and IT needs that directly contribute to business objectives.
Add or remove resources (e.g. processing, storage, memory) instantaneously without needing to plan capacity or buy more equipment yourself.
Meet data privacy and regulatory obligations - cloud providers in many cases can manage compliance better than on-premise servers. However, in regions where public cloud providers cannot support, or your data is too sensitive to put in a public cloud, you may consider setting up your own private cloud or Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) for more certainty and control.
Migrating to the cloud frees IT teams from maintenance burdens such as installing updates or troubleshooting faulty applications. A cloud migration will gift your IT team more time and budget to dedicate towards your bottom line.
The benefits of working from home (WFH) are numerous for both businesses and employees: less time commuting, increased productivity; an increase in job satisfaction; a working culture that supports a healthy work-life balance; increased pool of candidates; and more. As a result, a lot of businesses have made permanent changes to their WFH policies, preferring a hybrid approach, or even getting rid of their offices altogether. Remote working is frequently cited as a primary driver in the recent cloud migration uptake and one of the many benefits of migrating to the cloud.
Cloud migration can support this shift in working culture, by:
Enabling access to corporate networks, systems and applications outside of the office, with edge device cloud scalability.
Increasing capabilities for adding more cloud applications (e.g. collaboration and conferencing tools, ERPs etc.).
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, data centers consume approximately 1.8% of the overall energy consumption in the US each year—that’s about 70 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
Migrating to the cloud can help reduce these numbers. According to Accenture cloud migration to the public cloud can reduce global carbon (CO2) emissions by 59 million tons of CO2 per year. This represents a 5.9% reduction in total IT emissions and equates to taking 22 million cars off the road.
The cloud scalability that migrating to the cloud provides increases your utilization rate—you’ll no longer need to buy more equipment in anticipation of traffic spikes. Other environmental benefits of migrating to the cloud include:
A decreased need to cycle through legacy hardware and dispose of components.
Reduced power consumption and lower energy costs.
Newer servers consume less power, so leveraging your cloud provider’s capabilities will be more efficient overall.
Yes, the hyperscale cloud providers need a lot of physical infrastructure to run cloud computing services, but they usually operate more efficient infrastructure than a single business would.
Their data centers are typically closer to power sources, reducing large losses during the transmission of electricity and many data centers are now prioritizing sustainability with innovative solutions to power and cooling.
Migrating to the cloud can give organization’s an easy win to kick start their environmental goals.
We’d be happy to talk through your options when considering migrating to the cloud. Find out more about our cloud servers and speak to one of our experts.
