Migrating to the cloud is stressful yet necessary for many businesses. The advantages are numerous for many enterprises and it makes remote working easier. That said there are several reasons cloud systems may not be right for your venture and there are plenty of reasons why cloud migration projects go off the rails.  

With this in mind, let’s take a deep dive into cloud systems and the right and wrong way to implement hybrid cloud migration.

What is a Hybrid Cloud Migration?

Hybrid cloud migration is where part of your IT infrastructure is managed by the business on its servers, and the other part is outsourced to a cloud provider. It is a halfway house that businesses increasingly adopt as when correctly implemented the benefits of both systems can be leveraged for enterprise advantage.

The Wrong Way to Implement Hybrid Cloud Migration

When you come to implement your hybrid cloud migration it is best to avoid these scenarios:

  • Do You Need a Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure – The cloud does bring down infrastructure costs and expands with the business it’s true, but all too often it is the case that you have a perfectly sound IT infrastructure. As such, the time, expense, and expertise could well be better spent on improving your existing data center operations rather than investing in cloud technology you don’t need.
  • Lack of Organisation – Although the cloud is outsourced and as such responsibility for a significant chunk of the infrastructure is with a third party, this can be hard to get a handle on. When it was all under one roof the IT department had an eye on all of it. Now, it controls part of it and this can throw spanners in the works.
  • Lack of Cloud Knowledge – To implement a successful hybrid cloud model and ensure that the hybrid cloud migration works takes particular skillsets and demands an understanding of how the cloud works. When you consider the moving parts to the cloud and then how it communicates with your existing infrastructure it becomes easy to see why projects like this can come off the rails.

The Right Way to Implement Hybrid Cloud Migration

Once you’ve decided that a hybrid cloud system is a way to go, it is time to start thinking seriously about implementation. By far the best way to implement a cloud migration is to bring in specialists that can not only implement the cloud successfully but help your own IT people handle infrastructure at the data center end.

With this in mind, always do:

  • Assign Roles and Responsibilities – As a hybrid cloud is a joint venture between your business and the provider, it is important that responsibilities on your side are nailed down. This makes it easier to sort out teething problems and to ensure mission-critical aspects are up and running.
  • Consulting and Design – Ensure that your provider aligns strategic goals and industry-specific requirements to your hybrid cloud architecture. Scaling is important here to ensure the cloud expands with your business.
  • Support – Ensure that your provider offers ongoing support. This can be invaluable not just to sort out teething problems but later on down the line when business demands change.

The hybrid cloud can be a great thing providing implementation is on point.