Few technologies have been hyped over the past few years, and cloud computing is the one. The early adopters and the pundits called the cloud as the transforming face of corporate IT at the same time delivering value-added benefits to businesses.

Basically, Cloud is a suite of enterprise-level technologies, allowing businesses to draw their computing power and data from a centrally managed pool of computing resources, including software licenses and servers. By leveraging its benefits, companies are able to reduce IT operating costs with increased server utilization. It aligns IT to business requirements (reducing new product time to market) by providing a more agile and scalable computing infrastructure.

From messaging and collaboration (Google Apps) to CRM (salesforce.com) and high-performance computing (Amazon Web Services), many functions are delivered through the cloud. Not to surprise, many IT heavyweights like IBM, and HP have committed dollars to market a bulk of services and products. Gartner, declared cloud computing as the second focused area in 2010.

But many companies still face a number of challenges when it comes to of migration and security.

Knowing about the cloud will not answer the question whether you should migrate to the cloud or not. I have compiled five questions that will clear your doubts for the same.

1. Are you struggling to budget for technology purchases?

Businesses can achieve significantly lower cost of ownership for their IT resources by turning to the cloud. It saves you from purchasing of expensive servers and software licenses. As cloud service provider maintains the hardware and software, maintenance issues such as servers that are down or outdated servers get reduced. Further, you pay for what you use according to the usage of software or storage.

2. Is it tough for you to manage the network infrastructure?

It is usual for a business to run the website, email, file storage, backup, finance, accounting programs, and security management, all on one server with its control and management by an overworked IT manager.

Now if you get an application with the latest equipment that works securely over the Internet with hosting on a server farm, and managed by IT experts around the clock. The result will be an unexpected rise in traffic to your website will not crash your entire network as it might, with on-premise, server-based applications.

The service providers are available 24/7 responds with the higher service levels and functional expertise to solve multiple issues. The main benefit of the cloud infrastructure is computers require less software that results in fewer conflicts.

3. Are you not able to keep up with current trends like mobility, or to implement changes?

In the cloud, a vendor manages the majority of hardware, software, security, and maintenance; a cloud-based infrastructure is scalable and responsive, and you can leverage new capabilities and implement all changes quickly.

Mobile workforce accommodation becomes a cinch when all applications and resources of your company are hosted online. The users simply connect through a Web browser (desktop, remote laptop, or mobile device) to access the complete power of the online network.

Integration tools and Robust Application Programming Interface (API) bring different online software together. For example, Salesforce CRM™ software to interact on different social media platforms or connect billing services to bookkeeping software.

4. Do you have other essential operations to cater?

You will be able to focus on your core business with the cloud computing infrastructure. There will be fewer servers to manage and fewer computer failures, and you will get time to develop strategies to grow while giving your company the required tools and processes.

According to many companies, an efficient IT department is one that provides securing networks and ensures the working of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone system. However, it is the one that helps businesses to use technology to achieve goals strategically.

5. Do you want to secure company’s digital assets?

There are many cloud solution providers like AWS that provides secure computing services and effective management. Many small businesses consider hybrid as the best solution, where they use a part of data in the cloud and leave remaining on company premises.

Still, viruses can attack your local computers and can destroy your network by spreading malware. The solution is the secure backup that protects your computers, local data, on-premise servers, overall network, and applications.

I hope you have got all the answers regarding cloud benefits and its migration.

The following steps will help you to plan and make your business ready to enter the next phase of cloud computing.

a) Guide your team

Your team needs to understand that migrating to the cloud is not outsourcing and not even a way to cut jobs, but it’s an opportunity to grow. Your IT professionals will be able to participate in other strategic work as most of the grunt work of maintenance and infrastructure deployment will be performed by a cloud provider. You can even provide training from experts and get their skills certified like AWS certification that proves your acumen in the cloud computing.

b) Every project should be “Cloud first.”

If you are going to launch a new application, then start with cloud-based solutions and make the cloud base of it. Corporate developers become masters of strategy with a cloud-first policy and can outpace competitors.

c) Development to the public cloud.

Cloud grants on-demand access to scalable resources and pay as you go service has helped developers to test, tweak, replicate and retest in an environment that replicates the environment of production. Your cloud migration will save several hours of IT operational resources while allowing to work on other important projects.

d) Review of IT maintenance schedule.

It is essential to keep a check on planned hardware and software upgrades. It can be disruptive when it comes to major upgrades and even can be time-consuming to implement and costly to buy. Try to sync planned upgrades with your cloud project in possible situations. You may even decide to keep specific workloads in your on-site data center for some time.

e) Organize a cross-functional team

Find out workloads to migrate. You will be able to build trust of line of business executives who consider IT a major roadblock to work. Your audience is likely to get attracted with the term “fast solutions.”

f) Hire an expert provider

A lack of knowledge and few resources to spare are two problems that businesses face while developing their cloud strategies. The third-party service provider which carries expertise in risk assessment and strategy development can help from planning to management of a project. Choose that service provider that not only focuses on a tech flash cut but also on the successful business outcome.

g) Plan your cloud needs

Prior to moving strategic workloads, take out some time to consider how you will manage your cloud. It may sound time-consuming to you but look forward to the inevitable time when most of the work will be delivered by cloud. There are many cloud service providers; you can go for the one which provides the managed service options.

h) Create your migration project plan

It is the crucial on-ramp to the cloud journey of your company. Identify low-risk workloads with the help of your experts and cross-functional team and move them to cloud. It will be a good start. The best bets are web-based workloads that are not critical to the working of business, and that do not require much interaction with data sources from outside.

“This article is written by Danish Wadhwa of Simplilearn. It is one of the leading certification training providers. Danish Wadhwa is a strategic thinker and an IT Pro. With more than six years of expertise in the digital marketing industry, he is more than a results-driven individual. He is well-versed in providing high-end technical support, optimizing sales and automating tools to stimulate productivity for businesses.”