The market for cloud-based services has developed immensely in recent years, and this has enabled businesses to periodically assess whether or not their current provider is best suited to their needs. Any service in this area is only going to be as good as the level of hardware that has been put in place, and this make cloud migration an attractive move for any organisation that wants to expand or improve their overall product. In a similar manner to any other type of transition, there are a number of factors to consider – the biggest concern will always be that any ‘downtime’ needs to be kept to an absolute minimum. Effective planning will always be the best method of avoiding any undesirable knock-on effects.
Carrying out a thorough value assessment is vital at an early stage, and this information can be used to decide whether or not migration is a cost-effective option. Additionally, the same process can also determine the best provider to move across to, and this process takes in a number of different factors. Businesses need to ask themselves how long it will take to recover the costs of migration, and clients need to be assured that the new cloud provider will enhance their own experience.
There will always be some kind of outlay involved, and this assessment will be linked to a study of the potential return on investment. It may be necessary to calculate financial projections for both the current setup and a number of other scenarios that involve migrating to a different provider. If the desired destination for a business also leads to new capabilities, increased client revenues can be factored into this analysis. As an example at the most basic level, an increase in storage capacity could translate into enhanced file backup solutions for existing and new customers – a benefit that could attract a higher monthly/annual fee.
When all of these considerations have been taken into account by key decision makers, the total cost of ownership may be the most influential factor. Although a cloud migration could bring any number of benefits going forward, there also has to be the reassurance that the overall costs of the business will not spiral out of control. Most cloud-based solutions are scalable in nature, and this means that companies can simply increase their capabilities when client numbers increase accordingly. When ‘running before you can walk,’ there is always the potential for financial hardship in the meantime.
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