Migrating to the cloud is something that every business is either thinking about or has already done. Mike Weaver, Director of Enterprise Migrations at Quadrotech, a company specializing in powerful, highly scalable Office 365 migration and management solutions, explores 3 reasons why having a solid network infrastructure plays a vital role in the success of cloud migration, and offers 3 practical tips to ensure network infrastructure related issues don’t hamper a successful migration effort .
Migrating to the cloud is something businesses across all niches must think about. Forbes shared a recent predictionOpens a new window where it claimed that 83% of enterprise workloads would be hosted in the cloud by the end of 2020. If you haven’t yet moved to a cloud-based or even a hybrid cloud framework, chances are, you will be soon.
It’s critical to get your cloud migration correct. You need to reduce any downtime. At the same time, you must also maintain seamless operations while making the transition. That means handling a vast number of diverse tasks. Everything from having to migrate PST to Office 365 to maintain access to old email files to moving sensitive data must get considered.
There are many aspects of cloud migration that can impact its success. One that doesn’t always get the attention it needs, is your network infrastructure. Let’s drill down into the ways that infrastructure matters to a cloud migration programOpens a new window .
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Why Network Infrastructure Matters
Your network underpins the success of any cloud Opens a new window migration. It’s your network that end users rely upon when it comes to accessing or using cloud-hosted resources. If you don’t have a robust enough system, your cloud-hosted solutions won’t be as efficient as you need. What’s more, the actual process of migrating to the cloud will be so much harder.
Here are three reasons why network infrastructure is crucial to cloud migration.
1. Bandwidth
All cloud migrations are different. The data and applications you need to move to the cloud will differ from those another organization requires. You might want to migrate Enterprise Vault to Office 365. You may need to put in place a full suite of cloud-based applicationsOpens a new window to replace on-site versions. Whatever the ins and outs, your cloud migration will need bandwidth.
Many companies undertaking migration underestimate the bandwidth requirements. During the process, you’ll often operate a combination of on-premises and cloud services. You’re not going to be able to migrate everything all in one go. That means you need sufficient bandwidthOpens a new window for communication between those services. Even with some on-site and some in the cloud, the communication must be seamless while you don’t want to interrupt day-to-day business activity.
Your ultimate cloud-based infrastructure must also outperform your legacy system. There’s no point in undertaking the migration if it doesn’t. Cloud-hosted applications require enough bandwidth from your network to perform. Without it, you’ll suffer from latency or other issues that impact user experience.
The new split-tunnel items from Microsoft can be implemented in order to reduce the strain on your network infrastructure when using a remote workforceOpens a new window too. This is because traffic is sent directly out of the user’s local internet connection rather than via a VPNOpens a new window tunnel to the corporate network.
2. Managing Legacy Networks & Resources
If you’re moving to a cloud-hosted IT infrastructure, the setup you’re leaving behind is going to be past its best. Some legacy networks are built in such a way that it can slow down your cloud migrationOpens a new window .
It can take months to unpick the elements of the legacy network that you still need and those you don’t. Opening and maintaining network paths for applications is also a challenge. You need these to meet your many different user and business requirements. Often, a full upgrade of your network infrastructure is required. It can be the only way to achieve the utmost success for your cloud migration.
3. Security
CybersecuritOpens a new window y is paramount in the modern world. We all know how damaging data breachesOpens a new window or cyber-attacks can be to any organization. When undertaking cloud migration, security is often a central concern of those in charge.
The way to approach securityOpens a new window changes in the cloud-first world. A company’s services and devices are no longer all behind an enterprise firewall. As such, cybersecurityOpens a new window has to get implemented at the end-user and device level. This necessitates a change to your network infrastructure.
You must incorporate security considerations into your network design. That may mean implementing different frameworks and processes. For instance, you might log and monitor all activity on the network, whether remote or on-site. You may also choose to encrypt data and always enforce authentication.
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Tips for Managing Cloud Migration
You should now understand why network infrastructure matters during cloud migration. The state of your network can profoundly impact the success of your migration. What, then, can you do to mitigate that impact?
Here are 3 practical and useful tips to better manage cloud migrations:
1. Continuously Monitor Your Network
Knowledge is power. We’ve all heard the adage. In the case of cloud migrations, it couldn’t be more accurate. You need to stay across your cloud migration Opens a new window at every stage. That means understanding your existing infrastructure. It also involves overseeing all changes and monitoring any resulting cloud environments.
Only through continuous monitoring can you have the correct insights. Those that you need to keep things running smoothly. You must understand the state of your network and its performance. That means tracking bandwidth utilization, network latency, and other vital metrics. By doing so, you can proactively ID and resolve any issues.
2. Properly Manage Resources
Some elements of cloud migration can require vast swathes of network resources. Moving legacy applications, such as on-premises email systems, is a prime example. It involves transferring enormous amounts of dataOpens a new window . As such, those processes take lots of time, networking resources, or often both.
It’s vital, therefore, to efficiently manage the resources available to you. Seek to properly allocate resources at the outset of any migration. That way, you can ensure each process gets completed as fast as possible. What’s more, you can plan ahead for any downtime Opens a new window you may need. That can help aid particularly resource-hungry tasks.
3. Consider a Cross-Organizational Migration Team
Enterprise-wide cloud migrationOpens a new window will impact all aspects of your network. Not to mention your wider business. Assigning team members in separate departments with their own tasks may not be the best way to go.
Instead, you might want to consider building a dedicated team. A cross-organizational migration Opens a new window team can help keep everything on track. Include members who understand each networking, security, and application function. You want a range of knowledge extending across your IT environment. That way, all functions and how they relate can get accounted for throughout the process.
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Ensure Network Infrastructure Doesn’t Hamper Your Cloud Migration
Migrating to the cloud is about improving the interaction between IT functions and users. That communication gets underpinned by your network infrastructureOpens a new window . The strength or otherwise of that infrastructure can have a profound impact. It can define the effectiveness of the entire process. That’s why you must do all you can to consider and monitor network infrastructure. And do so throughout any migration.
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