Today, more than ever, businesses are turning their attention to the cloud in order to increase agility and improve efficiency. Despite the benefits your company may gain from migrating to the cloud, without a clear transition plan and IT experts to establish an IT strategy for you and your business, you could actually end up making mistakes that could negatively affect your company.
We have compiled a list of 5 cloud mistakes to keep in mind when migrating your business to cloud computing.
1. Staff Training
Assuming existing staff can immediately handle a leap to the cloud is often the biggest mistake many businesses fall foul of. Change is not easy, particularly when new technologies have to be learned by staff who may find it challenging to adapt to a new way of working. Businesses need to invest in their employees, ensuring training staff is at the forefront of any cloud migration strategy, in order for it to be successful.
Remember, cloud migration allows you to increase the efficiency of your business if its processes only so much as your staff understand how to leverage the technology for business moving forward. By focusing on adequate training, your business will be able to reach success much faster.
2. Moving to cloud without a roadmap
It’s easy to get lost in the sea of information that comes with any infrastructure change. One of the most common mistakes when transitioning to a cloud infrastructure is not understanding who within the organisation is responsible for what task and the steps they need to take to be successful.
When dealing with complex changes, like security and data storage, it is imperative to make sure you have a clear plan ahead. This is why we produce easy IT roadmaps that not only tell you what to do and when but will show you in a simple step-by-step document. Remember, we are here to help every step of the way!
3. Failing to monitor service performance
Cloud services can drastically improve your business functions and provide real IT cost savings. Take a look at our blog post on the benefits of migrating to Office 365 here. However, cloud computing is not a one-size-fits-all solution and as your business and industry sector evolves and new technologies are adapted, it is important to look back on your needs to make sure they are still aligned with what the cloud services are providing. If you are not seeing clear and definable benefits from cloud computing, it’s time to re-evaluate your IT strategy.
4. Forgetting about security
For the most part, cloud services offer great security for your business. In general, because cloud service providers work with every possible type of company they think about and solve an extensive range of security problems that your own company may never face.
However, this does not mean that you can forget about security measures altogether. Vulnerability testing is an absolute necessity, no matter whether you’re testing a traditional system or testing the security of a cloud-based system. If you are not performing regular security audits, your systems are more vulnerable, that’s just a fact!
5. Neglecting disaster recovery planning
The idea that everything in the cloud is 100% safe is sadly, not true. The cloud is not immune to hardware or software failure of your IT systems. Remember, you are responsible for securing your own data! Disaster can also strike when moving your business to the cloud if you forget to backup your pre-existing data before the migration. Without a backup, your data may be gone!
Don’t let this happen to your business. Rather, establish a disaster recovery strategy to get savings in time and money by preventing the loss of important information. Once your data is secured through specific backup services, you can have peace of mind.
Contact Us!
Datek can provide your business with expert knowledge and cloud-based IT solutions. Remember, the cloud isn’t right for all businesses, there are scenarios where an on-premise infrastructure or a hybrid cloud solution may be more cost-effective. Either way, Datek will work with you to identify the right cloud-based IT solution to make sure your business is on the right path! Contact us today with any questions about cloud computing or any other IT questions!
