Migrating to the cloud? Make sure you have a plan first

The cloud has enormous potential to transform any business, large or small. It can drive growth, foster innovation and, quite simply, lift your business to new heights. Better technology means a better business – it’s as simple as that.

But while the logic might be simple, the process isn’t necessarily easy. Many companies make the mistake of running to the cloud too fast instead of stopping to map out a plan ahead of time. It’s only natural to be drawn in by the prospect of rapid innovation – but a poorly planned cloud migration can backfire, resulting in unexpected costs and bottlenecks in workflow.

That’s why, at Zones, we work to understand the challenges that organizations face and address them head on. We do this by emphasizing the four functional areas – or “pillars” – of cloud governance.

1. Security and compliance: Every company has the same goals when it comes to security – they want to build a clear access management infrastructure, minimize risk, and maintain data sovereignty compliance.
2. Provisioning: Many companies look for strategies that will help them use automation to increase employee productivity.
3. Cost: Everyone wants to move to the cloud, but no one wants it to eat into their profits. The best cloud strategies use analytics to optimize the process and keep costs to a minimum.
4. Visibility: When IT administrators are able to keep an eye on their operations, they can implement reporting processes to ensure everything is running smoothly.

All of the above pillars are important, but every organization weighs them differently. Some see security as their top priority when they make the cloud transition; others value cost above all else. No two companies are the same.

That’s exactly why we believe a personalized approach is so important. We don’t try to force our clients down a “one size fits all” path to the cloud – instead, we realize that our clients are unique and they face unique challenges, and we work closely with each of them to develop solutions tailored to their needs.

We don’t just tell our clients to move to the cloud – we work to understand their business drivers first, and from there, we can assess their environment and show them ways to optimize it using effective governance. We understand the factors motivating companies to move their infrastructure to the cloud, and we’re able to customize a migration path for each and every one of them.

In the long run, this kind of migration will set your business down the fast track to success. For some clients, the best way to do this is with a hands-off approach – we simply give them the cloud infrastructure and allow them to handle it on their own, scaling up or down as necessary without any assistance. For other clients, we offer managed services to help them every step of the way. Whatever approach works best for you, we can make it work – and ultimately, your bottom line will be better off.

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