Could a move to the cloud be in your future? Last year, enterprise spending on IT infrastructure saw a 13% jump while overall cloud infrastructure spending saw an even bigger increase. We’ll break down the true advantages of cloud migration.
The cloud delivers distinct value. Value is often perceived simply as cost savings, but there's more to it than that. While you may see a reduction in IT spend after migrating to the cloud, there are likely other benefits you may not have considered. Take a look at this latest segment of Cloud Adoption 101.
Benefits of the Cloud
Moving to the cloud can provide certain noticeable advantages. The obvious benefits include availability, productivity and security in the cloud environment. But there are also less obvious gains from migrating the cloud. Here are a few advantages of cloud computing that you may not have thought about as you embark upon a cloud computing revolution.
1. Scalability and Elasticity
Adaptability in a cloud environment gives you the ability to increase or decrease workloads. When your volume increases, you can easily expand resources while re-allocating or removing resources when the need decreases, whether due to seasonality or sales cycles.
That’s where enterprise cloud computing's scalability comes into play. You can control which resources are added or removed, while keeping your cloud infrastructure intact. If you have a predictable workload, then this will be the best option for you. Employing autoscaling can automate this process. Choose what resources you want to scale, optimize, automate and track your progress using a tool offered by most public cloud providers.
Cloud elasticity is similar but allows you to dynamically grow or shrink infrastructure resources, including your cloud applications. This option works well for e-commerce businesses where sales spike throughout the year. This is often a more affordable option for small or growing businesses because many cloud providers charge you only for the resources you use.
2. Dev-Test Work Environment
Testing in the cloud saves your team time. This is why building a test lab in the cloud is a good idea. Not only will your team save time, but you will likely save money by reducing the cost and effort it takes to build the infrastructure yourself. Instead of building your infrastructure from the ground up, building in the cloud creates an agile environment. If something doesn’t work in the process, you can easily and quickly launch another version.
Creating a test lab in the cloud provides a faster alternative because you save the extra costs associated with hardware and labor once you move from your on-prem environment. And since most cloud providers offer a pay-as-you-go pricing model, you will pay only for what you need. This allows you to test and launch paying for only essential services and resources that cloud providers offer.
3. Efficiency Gains through DevOps
In a cloud environment, continuous development is often an automated process. Through the use of DevOps — a set of practices that combine software development (Dev) and information technology operations (Ops), you can significantly reduce the time it takes to make a system change while maintaining a high standard.
DevOps allows you to create efficiency gains as you roll out changes faster than before. With automated workflows in the cloud, your team can work on the continuous development of applications. Using DevOps in the cloud is easier for developers to streamline processes — and make them repeatable, whether in code or configuration of resources and applications. This advanced automation can reduce system maintenance, saving time and money.
Are You Ready for a Move to the Cloud?
A collaborative intelligence tool can give you an accurate look into the specific ways the cloud can benefit your organization. When mapping your entire VMware infrastructure, it will determine how you should allocate your resources. By rightsizing your virtual machines — CPU, memory and storage footprint — you will gain an accurate view of your needs, before you migrate.
Your results will include a list of servers and their compatibility when running them on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Amazon Web Services (AWS), public cloud providers. This will indicate your cloud readiness. The information will be presented in a clear and easily understood dashboard.
Compare your current on-prem infrastructure to a cloud environment. With this information, you can confidently make storage and availability decisions. By weighing your current infrastructure costs against GCP models, you can determine if a move to the cloud is the best option for your organization.
Next Steps for Moving to the Cloud
Once you decide the cloud is right for you, it’s time to develop your cloud roadmap and strategy. Working with a cloud solutions provider will enable your IT team to establish governance and oversight of your cloud environment. They can also help with cost management and security.
Begin your cloud migration plan by figuring out what can be moved, remediated, is immovable — and what simply needs to be replaced. These answers will dictate how you move to the cloud.
Will you move your existing infrastructure, or do you need to first upgrade your resources? Your overall cost savings will vary, depending on how much space you need. Remember that in a cloud environment, you pay only for what you need. Compare that to your current on-prem environment where you pay for personnel to manage your data center, along with hardware upgrades and electricity. With those costs eliminated, you can reallocate them to more critical business activities.
