A WELL-PREPARED JOURNEY TO THE CLOUD: THREE POINTS OF ATTENTION

Almost every organisation wants to tap into the advantages of the cloud. At the same time, there are often certain demands for customization, because every company is unique. Those needs are for example about costs, privacy, security or wanting to be able to keep using legacy software. In this blog, we share the three most important points of attention with you to start a well-prepared journey to the cloud: the hybrid cloud, to be exact.

When you embark on your route to the hybrid cloud, you have to know where you start and where you want to finish. It’s essential to know what you’re capable of and what you want to do. This might sound obvious, but it actually isn’t. Quite a few organisations feel a real urge to go to “the cloud”, without knowing which one. In other cases, they want to be able to completely rely on the platform and services of a certain provider, only to discover that the public cloud is too standardised to match specific needs. The solution to this problem: the hybrid cloud.

The hybrid cloud is an infrastructure that exists of various components of, for example, your public cloud, your on-premise systems and other legacy IT that you don’t want to replace or simply can’t, and/or a private cloud. The private cloud is normally hosted in your own datacenter, but it can also be managed on another location. A good preparation is an absolute must to let your cloud wishes come true. The following points of attention help you to make a good plan:

1. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO STORE YOUR DATA AND WHO NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO ACCESS THEM?

Almost every company feels the need for a digital transformation, but their bottlenecks and demands can differ strongly. An important point of attention is the location of data. Where are they stored and how can you easily access them? In addition, how do you make sure only the right persons have access? The rise of hybrid work makes it only more important to have a good overview of who is exactly working with which specific data. Flexibly tapping into archived data is often unnecessarily expensive, so take a critical look at whether this is really necessary or not. 

2. WHICH SYSTEMS CAN'T OR WON'T YOU SAY GOODBYE TO?

A lot of companies still use relatively old hardware or software. It’s quite hard to replace them, because legacy systems have a central role in business operations. Often, they also still function well. There’s just one big downside: you can’t take them to the cloud. Luckily, it’s possible to virtualise them and use them as a part of the hybrid cloud. A good preparation is necessary to minimalize downtime and other potential problems.

3. HOW DO YOU MAINTAIN AN OVERVIEW AND WHO'S IN CHARGE OF MANAGEMENT?

The hybrid cloud too has its tricky sides. It often leads to a complex tenant architecture, which makes it hard to maintain an overview. For example, there’s a risk of double accounts, as a result of using multiple SaaS applications. Also, because it’s necessary to purchase quite a few licenses, it can be hard to keep track of the expenses.

In addition, not every organisation has the capacity to manage a hybrid cloud. If you decide to outsource this responsibility, you won’t have to worry about it. It’s rather likely that you collaborate with an expert to prepare and realise your journey to the hybrid cloud. Be sure to ask your partner about the possibilities to outsource the management to them.

AVIT: YOUR HYBRID CLOUD PARTNER

You can rely on Avit Group for consulting, implementation, development and management of your hybrid solutions. We actively think along with you to help get a clear understanding of your cloud wishes. Moreover, we carefully make an overview of the licenses you need, so you can use your resources financially wisely.

Want to know more about how we can help you? Then feel free to get in touch with our experts, Marten Mooi or Adriaan de Koning.