Move to cloud easier: how to do it?

The transition to the Cloud is happening at all levels and for companies of all industries and sizes. However, migration to the cloud, or Move to Cloud is an activity that goes far beyond moving corporate data to remote storage. For this reason, in addition to requiring an ad hoc strategy, it can originate some challenges that need to be addressed in the right way.

How to make the Move to Cloud easier, then? What is needed is experience, an initial detailed assessment of infrastructure and business needs, and the right tools.

Companies that have already chosen to move, however, in many cases find themselves without an adequate Cloud Strategy that would enable them to make the move with the best efficiency.

But how specifically to implement it? Here are some pointers.

Move to Cloud: strategy and continuity are needed

To make the reasoning easier and to better focus on the operational aspects, we assume here that the choice of migration was made according to good practice, starting with an initial assessment to identify needs and then we can focus on the next steps.

In the first instance, a Cloud Migration Strategy is needed , a methodical and as holistic an approach as possible that gives visibility to business objectives in the short, medium and long term. In constructing it, one must first take into account the business continuity needs of the company, but also the expected timeline for finishing the process. In this context, the ideal approach is a progressive one, in which the move to Cloud is not seen as a kind of evolution of the old migrations of legacy systems, but as a continuous and ongoing process. There will certainly be times of deployment and switch off, but ideally these should be done in a progressive manner.

From a strictly economic point of view , it is possible, for example, to coincide the displacement of each service with the expiration of current licenses, with the end-of-life achievement of the solutions used, and so on. Ultimately, the more continuity is given to the process, the less it is likely to impact business continuity.

With our long and proven track record on Cloud platforms, we at Regesta support companies in this process, helping them find the right pace for an efficient but lean enough Cloud migration that is not disruptive.

The basic steps for a simple Move to Cloud

As we have mentioned, it is essential that the migration strategy includes an assessment phase, which is necessary, above all, to understand the state of the art of the company in terms of the infrastructure, equipment, services and processes used. Thereafter, the following steps can be taken:

• Shared management of priorities. After thoroughly understanding how the company operates, a plan can be created that takes into account current operations and any new requirements and to a prioritization of items to be migrated.
• Moving services, applications, and infrastructure according to identified priorities
• Application of any upgrades or updates, implementation of new features. Once the essential services have been migrated and their operation has been ascertained, the new implementations can proceed. In some cases, if the company agrees on a Greenfield approach to some services, this phase can be put before the previous one.
• Functional testing, optimization, and analysis.

This simple workflow (in which each macro scope will actually then be broken down into strategic and operational points), allows the Move to Cloud process to be simplified through the construction of a defined and shared plan.

SAP SIGNAVIO: an ally for the Move To Cloud

In the context of migration to the Cloud, SAP provides companies that choose Public or Private solutions with a powerful support tool, SAP SIGNAVIO. Its strength lies primarily in its ability to thoroughly analyze the current state of the company’s management and infrastructure, facilitating the transition to the SAP Cloud and to standardization, a key element in the Move to Cloud process.

With coverage that currently extends to many standard processes, and the ability to analyze their metrics, SAP SIGNAVIO demonstrates its versatility, which is also aided by a process of continuous evolution. Since it is a Cloud-based product, in fact, it offers regular updates and continuous improvements, which results in ever greater effectiveness and accuracy.

In addition, SIGNAVIO can also continuously support companies in the later stages by offering metrics and monitoring tools to check the effectiveness of the new infrastructure.

Note ¹: Insight into Digital World Italy

Moving to the cloud has never been easier

We have seen how a good strategy makes it possible to manage the migration to the Cloud effectively. With the support of the right tools and the insight that an experienced partner like Regesta can give, every company can find the right strategy for its needs.