Moving your infrastructure to the cloud – Is it the right move for you?

 

One of the newer challenges that companies face is to continue to keep infrastructure on-site or to look into moving it to the cloud.

Years ago moving to the cloud was an option, but it could be an expensive one. Now with the big push from Amazon, Microsoft and other major tech players making it easier and more affordable, the questions is – does it make sense to make the jump? I think it comes down to whether or not keeping your systems on-site makes more financial sense than making the move to the cloud.

We are currently in the process of making that exact decision. We are a small/medium business, but in this instance I think it makes sense for productivity sake to make the move from an on-site mail server to looking into making the move to Office 365 for a hosted exchange environment. The reasoning comes down to not having to worry about equipment upkeep, storage, and also the ability to also integrate Microsoft’s Office suite along with it as well. This gives us the ability to be productive whether we’re in the office, or if Mother Nature stops us from being able to come in. Either way, we can continue to do what we need to without the loss of productivity. [optinlocker]

Making that decision isn’t as easy as just getting the go ahead from management. It also has a lot of planning that has to go into making such a big move. When we finally start the process the biggest worry is downtime. Will there be any, and how do we go about making sure that the company continues to run without any significant loss? Having a migration team in place to help with such upgrades I think is a must. Unless you been through this process multiple times before, you can’t take the chance of just winging it. Having a team that has been through the process can be the difference between your down vs. uptime.

Taking the time to look at whether or not it makes sense for the company, your team members and for productivity down the road should be part of your decision making. Also, having a plan in place when that time comes can be what makes the process of making the move an easier one.

Brian Easley | People Science Director of IT

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