By Jesse A. Millard / 19 Feb 2019 , Updated on 12 Jun 2019 / Topics: Data center Cloud
By moving your workloads to a modernized platform, your organization will be able to:
But getting there isn’t easy. If you're not sure where to start, here are a few tips to plan a data center migration project.
When was the last audit of your organization’s data center performance? You might be surprised by the results.
You may be underusing your infrastructure resources or overspending on a system that isn’t performing to your industry, security and/or compliance standards — or isn’t meeting your business demands. An IDG survey commissioned by Insight revealed many businesses are impeded by their legacy systems.
The report on the survey results, "IT in Transition: How IT Leaders Are Faring," stated 64% of polled IT professionals from large companies see their outdated technology and legacy IT infrastructure as a barrier to IT transformation. In fact, 51% of those businesses stalled or abandoned their transformation efforts as a result of unexpected challenges.
The cost of legacy technology adds up to more than dollars and cents — it involves downtime, slowed productivity and unnecessary stress.
And what about security? How will your business protect aging tools from the growing tide of sophisticated cyberthreats? Verizon's "2018 Data Breach Investigations Report" found that more than 53,000 security incidents and 2,216 data breaches were reported in 2017 alone.1
Cyber vulnerabilities affect the entire organization. Dated systems force your IT team to spend more time protecting aging infrastructure rather than helping the business grow. And, if your systems fall prey to an attack, you’ll face enormous costs, delayed operations and a loss of trust from your customers.
So, is it time for a data center migration?If you’re experiencing or worrying about any of the realities just mentioned, then the answer is yes.
To ensure your company sets itself on the right path to meaningful IT change, you need an understanding of what platforms to move to and how they can impact your organization.
Each data center technology platform has its benefits, and striking the right balance of cost, performance and flexibility is key. Do you migrate completely to the cloud, stay on premises with the latest hyperconverged infrastructure or adopt a hybrid cloud approach?
Choose your solution based on your business’s current and future needs. Depending on your business environment, it might make sense to deploy a cross-platform strategy that pulls from the strengths of multiple infrastructure options.
Here's a breakdown of the data center platforms available to transition to:
Working with an experienced partner can help you determine which IT infrastructure best matches your data and workloads — and help you proceed with confidence knowing you're getting all the support your enterprise needs.
A qualified IT service provider can help you develop a strategy and roadmap that minimizes the potential risk of undergoing a major migration. Such a partnership can ensure a smooth transition with no downtime or negative business impact, protecting your data and processes.
Upgrading your data center isn’t just about adopting the newest technology. It’s about determining your business and workload needs to streamline operations and provide the best customer service possible.
Strategizing and committing to comprehensive change within the business can be difficult. Moving entire processes and workloads takes time, training and buy-in from the entire organization. It isn’t something that happens overnight.
Evaluate your applications, data storage and dependencies to help you decide which workloads should go where. A comprehensive analysis of your existing infrastructure can provide an overview of your systems end to end, giving you clear direction for the project ahead. Again, an IT partner can help with this effort.
In no particular order, here's a list of best practices to help you strategize a successful migration:
Planning your transformation is a team effort. It's important to work together and ensure everyone is on the same page as far as the outcomes you want to achieve through this effort.
