Ok now that your company has decided to embark on the Cloud journey in the near future (and all statistics suggest that you are definitely in the majority)…what next? Apart from selecting the appropriate Cloud platform, how would you migrate your applications, users and data ensuring that none of this is compromised whilst ensuring that there is no downtime suffered during the migration. As simplistic as the Cloud model appears there are real considerations and challenges to overcome before an organisation can realise its benefits… “As for the future, your task is not to forsee it, but to enable it.”- Antoine de Saint Exupery, poet and pilot (1900-1944). And enable it you shall with some meticulous planning!
And planning for Cloud enablement (or Onboarding as the industry refers to it) is essential for success. Certainly the task is made easier if your environment is already virtualised as it will generally allow for easy porting. However where it’s not, it’s important to consider how your backup methodology can complement the Onboarding process.
Another important consideration is the area of application compatibility. Often the Cloud means more current systems than presently in use in your organisation including newer versions of Windows Server and Microsoft Office so application compatibility supported by some comprehensive test plans can save the nightmare of Monday morning cutover issues!
Other considerations like security and sharing of administration tasks will present your internal IT resource with the opportunity to divest these tasks in favour for more time on the business and technology alignment strategy.
Onboarding methodology also needs to encompass some sort of user training and often needs to be carried out well before the “go live” date. This has certainly proven to be the case and for our clients has resulted in a better adoption of the change.
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