What is Cloud Data Migration?

What is Cloud Data Migration? 

Companies who have seamlessly migrated to the cloud are often known for their tech-savvy moves that save their company countless stacks of cash on data management and computing costs. Moving your information to the cloud is an intelligent move that streamlines data management and improves your overall performance.   So, how do you make this a reality for your company?  You start by moving your enterprise data, workloads, IT resources, desktop environments, and apps to the cloud through a cloud data migration. But, you can’t go into a data transfer blind. It would help if you had a plan; otherwise, you can negatively impact your business.  Utilizing cloud-based services to power your organization’s computing and data management needs provides a path to securing data, unlocking high-performing remote work environments, and eliminating IT costs.  In this article, we explore moving your data to the cloud through cloud data migration. Once you’ve finally got your information in the cloud, start hosting your software with Summit Hosting, hosting designed for any industry!   

What are the Benefits of Cloud Data Migration?

As more business is happening in the cloud, it’s essential to understand how a cloud data migration can benefit your organization. From scalability to cost reduction, there are some tangible benefits of cloud computing, including: 

• More data in less time – Adjusting to business needs doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking. Your business can expand on-demand with cloud infrastructure, allowing more use cases when needed. Gone are the days of waiting for upgraded equipment. And, you don’t have to rely on IT to install and configure new machines or software, meaning you can do more in less time!  
• Flexible foundation for businesses – Investing in a cloud platform provides businesses a level of flexibility impossible with a traditional data center. That flexibility allows for more efficient data management in locations with data lakes or lake houses that facilitate app integration. Creating additional pliability is also helpful when moving buildings where you would have to disassemble an entire data warehouse.  
• Improved security – A common misconception is that cloud platforms are not as secure as on-premises data centers. Advances in technology make cloud services more secure in many cases than their traditional counterparts. For example, Summit Hosting provides users with a robust security package that includes EV SSL encryption, VPNs, and multi-factor authentication, a tech stack that’s firmly out of many budgets. 

• Cost-effective IT solutions – Computer support specialists add an average of $58,000 to your payroll costs. Cloud-based computing solutions have built-in IT support, which can reduce the number of IT professionals you have on staff, lowering costs. In addition to personnel, cloud service providers regularly upgrade their equipment, meaning you don’t have to invest in costly equipment or maintenance. 
• Access anytime, anywhere – Cloud environments allow employees to work from anywhere and access sensitive data from any compatible device. After the cloud-migration process, workloads are free from the confines of physical locations. Your capability to run cloud-native and API-based applications optimizes workflows and creates larger talent pools through more remote hires.

Investing in cloud migration helps you automate your IT departments, passing the high-level requirements such as machine learning, refactoring, or rehosting to the service provider. Even the most tech-heavy programs, like Sage, run smoothly in virtual environments thanks to cloud-based infrastructure! Host your most demanding software with Summit Hosting and see the benefits for yourself.  

How To Use Cloud Data Migration

Although you can take advantage of many benefits when you invest in a cloud provider, you need a cloud migration strategy to avoid excess cost and potential downtime. That’s why Summit Hosting recommends following some essential steps to ensure the migration process is successful. 

Determine End Goal

Before jumping into a cloud data migration, you must evaluate your business needs realistically. Ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish by migrating to the cloud. Are you looking to improve messaging between departments? How about increasing your work-from-home workforce? Establishing the cloud resources you want early in the migration process can save you from bloated expenses and useless microservices.  When establishing an end goal, you should also keep in mind the types of data and data storage requirements you’ll need. Large corporations may want to think about multi-cloud solutions and even weigh the benefits of a public cloud versus a private cloud. Regardless, write everything out on paper and weigh the pros and cons. Nothing’s worse than investing vast amounts of money, only to discover you’ll need thousands more to get everything you need! 

Research Cloud Platforms

Once you know what cloud services you’re looking for, you can start the research process. Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure provide SaaS services through cloud-based and hybrid cloud configurations. However, pricing, security, bandwidth, downtime, and support should be significant factors during your decision-making process.  While relying on big-name providers is easy, many fail to live up to the hype. Summit Hosting set the bar high regarding performance and support, providing hosting services for many critical applications, like Quickbooks. Partnering with Summit Hosting means limited downtime and latency, unparalleled security, and 24/7 live support.

Seamlessly Migrate Data

Data transfers of any kind can be disruptive to business operations. Should data become inaccessible during migration, synchronization, or updates, you risk impacting business. That’s why you want to identify when the migration process will be least disruptive for seamless data integration and migration.  To further reduce risk during the migration process, you want to have your DevOps team test every workload element using migration tools to ensure everything functions correctly. Something as simple as an outdated operating system can cause total network failure, and during peak times, that means countless lost data. 

Continuous Data Monitoring 

After the cloud data migration process, continuous data monitoring ensures your cloud resources remain optimized, secure, and easily accessible. Real-time reporting makes identifying changes in critical systems simple allowing you to react. However, a cloud-based system allows for rapid disaster recovery if something goes wrong, like a stolen device, data breach, or other unforeseen events.  Stakeholders love Summit Hosting’s nightly backups stored in remote data centers behind state-of-the-art end-to-end encryption. These backups are available for at least 15 days, and Summit Hosting never charges for restoring your files.   

Migrate to the Cloud with Summit Hosting

Constantly pouring money into physical data centers is creating a drought in budgets worldwide. New technology hits the market every year, promising twice the capability of last year at a healthy price increase. It’s time to migrate to the cloud and enjoy the rain of benefits. Migrating to the cloud helps virtualize your company’s workflow, eliminates unnecessary IT maintenance, and allows for on-demand expansion.  However, it does pose a risk of interrupting business operations if you don’t implement a sound cloud migration strategy.  Don’t trust your sensitive data and computing operations to just anyone. Trust the industry standard—Summit Hosting. Summit Hosting provides a robust hosting solution with dedicated servers, world-class security, professional IT maintenance, and 24/7 support.