The Right Approach to Integrating Cloud Computing into your Organization

In today's arena, it has become significantly important to be a cloud troupe. Cloud Computing helps the organization to create new revenue opportunities and to implement new business services much faster. This technology has widened computing efficiencies by consolidating memory, processing, storage, and bandwidth.

To successfully move your current organization to cloud, a right approach and a thorough research are required. Your company can benefit enormously from shifting to cloud computing environment, if done correctly, in terms of efficiency, speed, and cost. Although the bulk of today's organization already uses the cloud in some form or the other, many still do not have a clear approach on how to integrate it the right way.

So, here are some steps that can provide you the right approach on how to integrate cloud computing into your organizations successfully.

Step 1: Create an Assessment

The first and foremost step in shifting your current IT infrastructure to cloud is to assess your needs. Evaluate what you exactly need in order to move forward, and what you already have currently in place. Start figuring out what all skills and knowledge you require and whether you have them or not.

Decide which apps you should migrate to the cloud and which you should leave on the server. If new roles are required to maintain cloud computing for small business, you will need to take care of that too. Addressing and evaluating these questions will ensure you a successful cloud migration.

Integrating your organization to the cloud first requires selecting a potential service provider. Selecting a cloud-computing provider might look simple but a plenty of things are there that may require your attention. There are several types of cloud-based providers, delivery models (like SaaS, PaaS, IaaS etc), and services persist, which address explicit business requirements.

Possessing a strong knowledge of the services available when selecting the potential cloud partner will help you choose the right one.

Step 2: Choose the Right Cloud Environment

Once you have determined the right cloud computing partner, the next step comes is to identify the correct cloud environment. Choose an environment that will help you accomplish your goals. Identify which type of cloud is best suited for your applications.

Step 3: Decide the Cloud Computing Architecture

After deciding the type of cloud you will use, it's time to determine your cloud computing architecture. Your architecture should include several important components depending on your requirements. This may contain storage, bandwidth, computing power, and network.

Step 4: Select the Right Cloud Computing Provider

Once you have determined the architecture, you will now require choosing the right cloud-computing provider. This expert will help you realize your architecture needs. Also, try to look for some other factors like timely service, great feedback, promised SLA etc while choosing your cloud service provider.

Step 5: Make a Risk Mitigation Strategy

No matter which provider you choose, migration challenges hold certain risk. To allay risk, decide the most suitable cloud solutions for small business to move ahead with your provider. Whether in the cloud or on-premise, security is the main concern for infrastructure. Try to set right strategies and provide the essential security tools. Guard your entire venture in spite of where your data is stored.

Step 6: Make a Plan for Migration

Now that everything is ready for migration, the next thing is to plan how it will actually take place. It's vital to take following considerations while executing the plan:

•  Order of applications while migrating

•  Least disruption time

•  Any alterations to end-user processes because of migration

•  Tracking of key metrics and deadlines for an effective migration

Step 7: Execute your Computing Plans

The time has come to implement your computing architecture plans. But, the most important thing before migration is backup your existing data and servers to ensure you do not lose anything. Make sure your data is secure and easily regained.

Now, set up the cloud environment by testing all the components individually. Once the deployment is performed, it is time to migrate the existing data into this new environment. Initially, it will take some time to load the data into a completely new environment and it may require some changes too.

Once the data is moved completely, it is vitally important to test all the connections. Make sure everything is secured and correct. End users should not face any kind of changes while using the application.

Step 8: Examine the Implementation

The last step is to monitor the whole environment after migration. Check if there are any issues regarding the whole cloud setup. If any, fix it immediately.

The Verdict

That's all. The right approach to incorporating cloud computing into your organization is revealed. Clearly, there are myriad benefits to migrating applications to cloud. A few noteworthy benefits of them are:

•  More Scalability: Users can easily scale services according to their requirements. It helps to support fluctuating workloads

•  Faster business improvement: Cloud-based services give the enterprise a chance to take their business to a next level by providing many competitive advantages.

 •  Security: Cloud computing provides greater security in cases you lose your laptop that contains sensitive data. As your data is stored in the cloud, you can access it anytime no matter what happens to your laptop.

 •  Higher Availability: The data and applications that are cloud-based are available from almost any device that is connected to the internet.

 •  Automatic Software Updates: The cloud service provider takes care of your regular software updates – including security updates. So, there's no need to worry about wasting time by maintaining the system yourself.

"Cloud computing has completely changed the way businesses and their consumers store and access their data." An increased number of organizations are implementing cloud-computing models to sustain and promote their business. To gain a competitive advantage, it is important to stay connected and access information quickly. Cloud computing technology helps you to install any app without hassle and access files from any location remotely.