7 Questions to Ask Internally Before Cloud Migration Project

Finally, you’ve decided to move to the cloud. There are several reasons to switch — the promise of cost-savings, scalability, flexibility, etc. — but you must have an efficient strategy in place that sets you up for cloud success. Here’s a list of questions that can help you plan well before you step into the cloud environment.

Many times, cloud migration can feel like at a standstill or going too slow, but with a well-defined migration project plan, you can determine the right pace for your organization. There are several things to consider in the project, such as your budget, business requirements, your personnel, etc.

Here in this blog, we’ve compiled a list of questions that you should answer internally sometime before you begin the project. Acknowledging these questions first will ensure that cloud migration provides value to your business — rather than becoming a cost center. 

 

1. What is driving your cloud strategy?

Before you start your cloud migration project, you should determine your reasons for moving to the cloud and what benefits you expect from it. Examine the fundamental strategic motivations for the cloud initiative and ensure that the answers come collectively from all the key stakeholders within the business — operations, I.T., finance, sales/marketing, H.R., and so on.

 

2. What digital experience do you envision from this migration?

It’s great to question what’s on each stakeholder’s wish list. The kind of experience they envisage both customers facing and back-office helps in defining the parameters of a cloud-initiative.

 

3. Should you move all the applications to the cloud?

Some applications can help to distinguish your business from your competitors, while others are relatively common. Having a clear delineation between the two enables you to determine which applications should be migrated early on. For instance, office support systems like email, messaging, calendars etc. are essential, but you can ignore them for some time.

You should inquire within teams which applications would make a significant difference, in case you’re not able to use them for a while and if there’re any third-party solutions available.

 

4. What are your network’s biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Your initial considerations should include how you can build on your strengths and shore upon your weaknesses. You need to also give thought to what will happen if the network goes down when your POS resides in the cloud.

 

5. Which workloads will have varying demands?

Public cloud solutions allow for increased server support, especially when your business needs it the most. You’ll need to identify applications that have highly variable demand, and which don’t. Also, make sure that you’re running workloads with rapidly changing demand in the cloud. It will help to improve efficiency and ease the economic commitment of the 24×7 cloud service.

 

5. How do you envision your changing security needs?

Moving your network infrastructure and apps to the cloud can foster several cyber vulnerabilities — including ransomware, united data exfiltration, breaches, etc. Before you begin the migration process, discuss what security measures you will need to incorporate into your network to protect users, their data and your assets.

 

7. Which internal stakeholders and departments will be engaged in the cloud initiative?

To succeed, the right people should always head the transition. The company’s key stakeholders should have the first right to present their knowledge. The project head may hold a meeting to discuss the length and breadth of the project. It can streamline the process through departments without any chaos or disorder. 

 

Are you interested in talking to an experienced team to address subjects like cloud migrations and provide solutions and use cases for it? Get in touch with our team today.