Migrating data to new environments is an important operation for your business, from so many perspectives, so it's best to have all the information you need to make the transition go as smoothly and safely as possible.
Transferring from an on-premise system to a cloud-based system allows you to better manage your data and internal work processes while helping your organization increase the performance and uptime of your most important asset, business information.
Migration is nothing more than that procedure which allows you to move data, applications and other resources from one system, environment or infrastructure to another, such as that offered by Google Cloud Platform.
This step can be done in two different ways:
The case of online migration is the most common, as it is easier and faster than the second one, which, on the other hand, is applied only in case of moving a large amount of data, or for special security reasons concerning the company itself or the data to be transferred.
When you choose to move to a cloud infrastructure you can benefit from a range of services beyond simply storing your data. You can use your new platform to keep your information safe, set up backups, give your projects the support they need, and increase the value of your data by increasing its meaning and enhancing its connections.
To be done well, a data migration needs careful planning and a precise strategy.
When you decide that you want to make the move to a cloud platform, you must choose which cloud platform best suits your needs also based on its functionality and cost.
The cloud can be:
You can also decide to start with a single platform and integrate multiple cloud facilities over time as you grow.
There are many reasons why your business can benefit from moving to a cloud platform.
From optimizing costs, to shifting load from on-premise platforms, moving to the cloud allows you to modernize your infrastructure, better distributing data and processes within your organization.
With the move to a cloud platform, data organization and processing is supported and integrated with other systems already in use such as CRM software, ERP, or other type of database.
Also, having a data-driven decision-making approach helps to have a more concrete and solid view of how to move into the future and allows you to adapt more quickly to market changes or to respond to competitor actions.
There is no one right strategy for everyone or better than others, each organization chooses to perform data migration for different reasons and needs.
Nonetheless, there are some more common procedures within the world of data migration.
Rehosting for example allows you to move all your data from one on premise or cloud infrastructure to another without having to make almost any changes during the move. This practice, also called lift and shift, is the optimal solution for a first digital transition from on premise software or simply from an old cloud system to a new and more efficient one.
Another type of migration is replatforming, a strategy that aims to optimize applications that are transferred to the new cloud platform. Although replatforming needs more work to make sure it works properly, once implemented it will allow you to have higher-performing applications that take advantage of all the benefits a cloud platform offers.
If, on the other hand, you need to revise all of your procedures to improve them and make them more in line with your organization, you can use the move to the cloud to do some real restructuring (turning a monolithic app into microservices, for example). This way you can rebuild the new processes directly on the new platform, resulting in an effective and efficient system.
Very similar to the latter procedure is also the strategy of total application recreation. Sometimes it is more cost-effective to create a new app from scratch than to refactor it to run on the new cloud environment, choosing from the outset which cloud-native features and tools to use.
These procedures represent just some of the ways you can use the move to the cloud. Each migration can be customized and adapted based on your organization.
Data or app migration to the platform is not a step that happens all at once, but is a strategy consisting of several steps aimed at the final migration.
In the first step, you need to define what resources and applications your organization needs to work best on the new cloud platform, along with an analysis of the required security and compliance requirements.
Since all cloud infrastructures are not the same, it is crucial to choose a platform that can support your work and that can meet your storage, networking and security needs.
Before starting the migration, it is useful to initiate verification tests, define any changes to be made to applications, and validate security controls.
These steps may seem challenging if done on your own, power2Cloud is here to help you perform the data migration following a tailored strategy, keeping your services active throughout the transition.
Our team consists of multi-certified and experienced technicians ready to support you in any scenario, even the most critical one.
Contact us to start your migration together!