If you’re an online business owner, you must have heard of Azure – the Microsoft PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service). If you haven’t, then there is a good chance that you’ll hear this name when you decide to switch to a cloud hosting platform.
Cloud hosting has recently become quite popular thanks to its many lucrative qualities compared to traditional dedicated servers. However, getting all your data to the cloud isn’t exactly an easy task.
Azure Migration has some challenges just like any other data transferring process. In this post, we’ll discuss the top three challenges most companies encounter with Azure Migration.
But before we get into that, let’s get some facts straight.
What are Azure Cloud Services?
Azure is a cloud services platform that is located in Microsoft data centers. The platform has a pay-as-you-go approach and contains four main components:
- Microsoft. Net Services
- Live Services
- Microsoft SQL Services
- Microsoft Azure
To sum it up, Microsoft Azure gives you developer services and an operating system.
The platform can be used for scalable applications with several users and it runs all applications locally. This is because it has unlimited data storage and servers. In simple words, part of the applications runs on-site, while other components of the application will be located in the cloud.
Keeping this in mind, let’s look at the top three challenges you need to be aware of if you are considering Azure migration.
The Platform Requires Careful App Integration and Compliance
Before you move to Azure, you need to conduct thorough impact analysis. The most important fact that your analysis should include and foresee is that every app you have will have some integration points:
- Web services
- Third-party vendors
- External storage
- SMTP servers
- Payment gateways
Make sure to take the above list into consideration to ensure that the apps are scalable. Scalability is simply the capacity of an app or hardware product to function properly when it has been moved to another context.
During the Azure migration, usually, hundreds of applications are relocated from your current data center to the cloud, which is why the process can easily get complicated.
It is crucial to conduct a proof of concept (POC) before the process. This will allow you to get a detailed look into where your current system stands and how relocation friendly it is. Make sure to look at:
- Cloud provider support evaluation
- Existing applications
- Network challenges you’ll most likely face
You also need to make sure that your operating system (OS) is compatible with Microsoft Azure. Most cloud providers like Microsoft offer full migration support, so make sure to see what the company can help you with.
An Azure migration services provider will easily help you understand every outcome and phase of the migration process. This is something you can do on your own too, but why get into complicate things when you have good alternatives at hand?
You can entrust it to our team and we’ll provide all the support you’ll need.
Another misconception is the thought that Azure migration will solve all the ongoing issues automatically for a business. In reality, there is a good chance data loss and service disruptions will take place if your applications go through performance lags.
Apart from these technical issues, don’t look past the regulatory aspects, especially if you are an online business located in U.S, Europe, or Canada. For example, you will likely have to comply with Control Objective for Information and Related Technologies and Safe Harbor.
You may even require Cloud Licensing.
Planning Problems
A recent survey by CloudEndure says that 52{1f0cc4060f4fe9fc982bbd4bbe2778698630254e28c6e7cd32c637f8f4aaee17} of companies in 2019 are opting for cloud adoption. However, a lot of these companies do not think about the planning part in detail.
Most companies are aware of the benefits cloud migration has to offer. They move ahead with the process thinking that it will be a walk in the park only to find out that the process takes longer than they had thought. Sometimes the costs can also exceed beyond their expectations.
A lot of the times a company usually faces difficulties in handling the tech aspects of the process. Thus they tend to face performance lags and high risks.
It is quite tempting for a company to consider that it can handle the process on their own, but usually, they are not aware that migration is more than just data replication.
Even the smallest mistake can lead to unnecessary complications that can result in time and financial loss. Moving your entire infrastructure from your in-house servers to the cloud can easily result in a complete data disaster – unless of course, you let the experts handle it.
One of the most common mistakes is transferring all the available business systems to the cloud at once. Remember, anything that sounds easy can result in problems that can be time-consuming to fix.
If you want to steer clear of the issues mentioned above, you should be planning the migration process beforehand. Your plan should include the following.
● Single out any main data components that need to be moved to the cloud
● Make sure to set up a clear outline of the steps involved
● Approach any risks directly
Communication and training your IT department is key for a smoother process. The best thing you can do is conduct a meeting where everyone from your tech department is informed about the process and the specific roles they will be taking while unfolding this complex operation.
Keeping in mind the obstacles that you may face is a crucial step in the planning before the migration process.
Difficulties in Managing the Staff
When a significant change takes place within the company, one of the first challenges getting all the departments adjusted. For example, some of your employees will have to master new management techniques.
You need to be aware that both on-premises and cloud-based storage needs to be handled equally. Your company’s web developers will have to get used to operating changes in applications, drivers, and images.
In some cases, the entire business process has to be remodeled when you migrate. After all, you want to make the best of the cloud technology.
Post-migration phase, you may have to pay attention to the maintenance costs and processes that will likely result in service downtime. Re-architecturing is not easy and the tasks involved are complex in nature.
You’ll likely face server management problems especially if you have a small team of web developers who have limited time and other issues on hand to address.
Hiring an army of web developers isn’t going to keep everything in control either. So why not let the entire process be handled by experts?
At Henson Group, our committed team at the Applied Innovations is ever ready to prove how we can make things a lot easier for you even after post-Azure migration.
So don’t wait and take a look at our Azure Monitoring & Administration services.