In Part I of our series, we did list some tips to follow before transferring data to the cloud. Below, in Part II, we will further discuss additional points:
5 – Move First and then Renovate
It is critical to test the migration first and then make a thorough plan. Cloud users are capable of controlling the economies of scale of the cloud, reduce capital spending and save time through selecting cloud just like an application design centre, instead of re-architecting the existing applications and to make it suitable for the cloud. Therefore, it is recommended to refine and improve cloud applications after developing the necessary basic constituents of the cloud.
6 – Crunch the Numbers to Understand Costs
The primary reason to transfer data to the cloud is to save money. It is quite simple to get costs of infrastructure by calculating the used money on vendor support, servers and licenses. However, it is challenging to get an estimate of time spent by the most expensive members of the team. How much time does it take to carry on the legacy systems, solving problems, deleting HR records manually, double entering payroll information, troubleshooting and fixing the application errors on various desktops, and restoring data from backups? If a company has a clear sense of all these types of associated costs, then it is possible to make an assessment of SaaS and hosted solutions; and as a result, the path to the cloud will be very clear.
7 – Security Should be Considered
Security is a huge concern while considering a move to the cloud. In order to stay compliant, you need to look into industry standards. Use third-party sources, such as the Cloud Security Alliance Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire [1] to guide you through the process of understanding potential security pitfalls.
In addition, you need to select cloud storage services that are certified by standards, such as FIPS-140. These solutions offer multiple layers of security and are impossible to hack. Choose a service provider that is well known and respected in the industry, that enforces audit policies on apps and all data stored in its cloud.
8 – Secure your Management Console
The cloud computing console is the life-line of your entire data centre. This means, the management console must always be protected at all times, or else it could be hacked for ransom, as in the case of Code Spaces, which was forced to close after the hackers deleted all of its data when the ransom was not paid.
