Cloud Migration: How moving to the cloud can benefit your business

As a society, we’ve been talking about and using the cloud for years now. So if you’ve not incorporated cloud migration into your business strategy, you’re missing out on a whole host of benefits. 

For business owners, the advantages of moving systems into the cloud are huge. However, taking the leap and migrating complex systems over to the cloud can be an intimidating prospect. This is especially true for companies that have built up large, convoluted legacy systems over a number of years.

What risks are associated with cloud migration?

We’d be lying if we said cloud migration is risk-free. If you have a complex ecosystem of developed software and mobile apps, you’re going to need a solid cloud migration strategy.

Delays or issues that arise during the migration could mean downtime for your network. And depending on your business, this could be (potentially) very costly. 

Fortunately, you can mitigate these risks as long as you work with an experienced cloud migration partner. And — even more importantly — the benefits of cloud migration actually outweigh the risks. 

In case you’re not sold already, let’s take a more in-depth look at what the cloud has to offer and why it can benefit your business.

Why should you move to the cloud?

From more innovation through to faster delivery time and a reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO) — cloud migration comes with an array of perks. 

The most general benefits (which both hold a lot of intrinsic value, despite being general) are agility and flexibility. When it comes to meeting changing consumer and market demands, agility and flexibility are exactly what you need. 

But let’s look in a bit more detail. 

Here’s what you can expect:

Increased agility and flexibility

We’ve mentioned this but what does it mean? IT assets in the cloud are inherently more flexible for multiple reasons. Firstly, from a user perspective, it means your people have more flexible access to their cloud-based tools. Also, the cloud allows you to only pay for what you need in terms of servers, so you can scale up and down with demand. This increased flexibility means your business is more agile and able to deal with change.

Faster innovation

This is linked to the idea of agility but goes a step further. The importance of the ability to innovate faster can't be overstated. It’s directly linked to how competitive you are in your chosen market as well as how your business can respond to change in a positive and productive way. The cloud fosters this quick innovation by helping you be more flexible and more agile.

Reduced costs

When it comes to benefits, is there anything a business wants to read more than “reduction in costs”? Well, if you’re looking to reduce costs, then migrating to the cloud is a great investment. The upfront costs are low, as often with the cloud you’ll pay as you go, and you can increase or decrease costs depending on what you need. Also moving to the cloud often means your business will become more efficient and productive, which can also reduce costs.

Improved performance

Business performance can gain a real boost from the agility, flexibility and productivity that you’ll find in the cloud. Your users will be able to work faster and be more productive. You can cut inefficiencies out of legacy software that’s slowing you down. And you can run at faster server speeds, regardless of the stresses and strains your users are putting it under. 

When’s the best time to migrate?

Now is the best time to migrate to the cloud. But before you do, make sure you talk with an expert partner to discuss the risks you might face with your unique migration, and how those can be mitigated. 

You’ll also need to consider the management of your cloud infrastructure once the migration has finished as this is another important factor in how successful your business can be once in the cloud. 

We’re always open for a chat about cloud migration. It’s something we’re experts in, with years of experience in software development, agile architecture and UX design and innovation workshops, and many happy clients now taking advantage of everything the cloud has to offer.

Why not get in touch at a time that suits you? Book a call with Mark today at a time that suits you.