Want to migrate to cloud?

A lot of hype on the issues like security, accessibility etc. are surrounding cloud computing, however, the process and risks associated with the migration usually come only in the small print. Customers get presentations, that detail how the platform is scalable and Mn$ cost savings they can achieve, how their process efficiency will shoot up and how flexible their applications will be. There is no fault in all this, and it could be completely true.

The crux of the matter, however, is that all these benefits are entirely dependent on a successful migration. The keyword here is successful, because you can do everything the Cloud provider tells you to do and still end up with a big mess on your hands. The difference arises because of your choices, from the cloud environment to data security, identity providers and vendor lock-in.

How we migrate to cloud?

CIONNE experts take time to understand your software/business/application and recommend you with the kind of Cloud environment that will be an ideal fit to your organization and processes. Like; SaaS works great if you are migrating large shared applications like CRM. PaaS provides greatest benefits when you are migrating web-based applications from a managed host to the Cloud, but you do not really have any major control over the security or operating system being used. IaaS will give you a lot more control, but it also means retaining IT staff to handle the servers.

Then, there is the question of private, public and hybrid clouds. It is not as hard or expensive to set up private clouds, given the increasing number of open source cloud operating systems available. We help you to set up a private cloud customized to your needs and add-on services with the support you need, with no user licensing fees involved. But what most companies are moving towards is a hybrid model, where sensitive data and applications requiring legal and regulatory compliance utilize private cloud services while the rest is on a public cloud.

Pitfalls -migrate to cloud

More importantly, the mistake many companies make is to abandon their carefully built-up security profile and allow Cloud providers to make decisions about data security. Your security policies have been tweaked and shored up in specific areas based on real threats faced over the years. Replacing this with the kind of uniform security from Cloud providers can be the biggest mistake of all times.

At CIONNE, we start by being your own identity provider.  Provide access to the Cloud application in the same way you did before through directory services like LDAP or active directory. Develop a tool that bridges your identity store with your Cloud application, so that you get the best of both worlds. You could sync identities on the cloud, but that beats the purpose since the identity store is no longer in your immediate control.

This is also in line with another basic principle of moving to the cloud – start small. If you rush headlong into a full-blown migration, you leave no exit strategy – for when things do not go exactly as planned. There are myriad things that are affected, from software licenses to your legacy hardware investments, and many decisions will be painful to reverse, like porting active directory to the Cloud and giving up your own firewall, VPN, etc.

There is again the question of accessibility. When you migrate to cloud, be prepared for some amount of latency and outage issues where the internet is involved, even if you do have an iron-clad SLA from the Cloud provider.

And here CIONNE is different from other Cloud providers. We help our customers throughout the process of migration by providing them the ability, support, tools & resources that actually make them more comfortable in migrating business/application to cloud.

If you wish to access our detailed framework on how to migrate to cloud, please contact us.