The Case for Cloud Migration

To people of a certain age, digital migration can be confusing. After all, we aren’t so far out from the days when mobile phones were a rarity, and you got confused looks when you mentioned “electronic mail.” 

But even younger people can be confused. For millenials fifteen or so years into their careers, a great deal of their work life may well have been dedicated to converting content from analog hard copies to digital resources. So to them, digital migration has already happened.

When you get to even younger members of your workforce, the confusion can come from the opposite perspective. Everything on their phones is connected to the cloud. Why isn’t the data they need for work there? 

There are so many assumed definitions of digital transformation and cloud migration, and many other terms, so it’s a good idea to clarify what is meant when we talk about the advantages of cloud migration.

Because migrating your content to the cloud does bring along a host of advantages. By utilizing the capabilities of modern tech, you can see a real return on your investment along financial vectors and along vectors that are slightly more intangible.

What Do We Mean by Cloud Migration?

When we look at the advantages and disadvantages of digital migration, we need to be clear about what we are looking at. For example, we are not looking at making PDFs of hard copies of older paperwork in this case. 

The focus of Cloud Migration is taking your digital resources from one centrally located server and bringing them to a more decentralized, cloud based storage system. The benefits of digital migrations of this sort are many, and some of the most relevant advantages will be detailed as you read on.

One thing to note is that migration will not turn your organization on its ear. From Azure to AWS to Oracle and most everything in between, cloud functionality has become a standard part of the content and information management landscape. 

You don’t need to change your software to migrate your data— you just need to be prepared to take better advantage of it.

Advantages of Cloud Migration

Cloud Migration benefits your organization on several fronts. From creating a more versatile and agile operating model to protection from physical damage to localized servers, migrating your information is a smart call. 

Organizational Agility

With the global pandemic, we saw how pressing the need was for public and private organizations to be able to pivot from in-office to remote work quickly. Those businesses that had the infrastructure in place to make that pivot were able to keep their operations flowing far more smoothly than their competitors who weren’t prepared.

Being able to utilize cloud-based functions played a huge role. When you migrate your resources, your team members can access all the data and documents they need wherever they are in the world. 

From access on mobile devices to remote signature applications and more, taking full advantage of the cloud allows you to carry on business operations wherever you or your team finds themselves.

And when your accounts payable, field services, accounting services, human resources, management teams, and beyond can all access the data they need from wherever they are to keep you moving in any circumstances, you’ll find that very little can slow your growth.

Online and Physical Security

Some people fret about cloud security costs, but when you look into the services that TEAM IM offers for Cloud Migration— including Cloud Security— you will see that those costs are worthwhile.

With the knowledge and experience that TEAM IM has gathered for our Cloud Migration Services, your cloud security is sure to be as tight as possible. With permission controls, options for automated redaction, and frequent updates designed to find and strengthen any potential weak points in your defenses, your security in the cloud will rival anything you have now.

Beyond online security, though, one of the often overlooked advantages of cloud migration is physical protection of your data. Keeping all your important information on servers in one location can leave you in danger of unforeseen catastrophe. 

A building fire, a flood, a hurricane or tornado, an earthquake, or any other number of natural disasters could knock your organization flat on its back if your servers get damaged or destroyed. 

Migrating to the cloud not only gives you unique cloud security solutions for the information you’ve uploaded but protects you from the unexpected physical threats that no one sees coming.

Positive ROI

We all want to get the best return on the money we invest, and digital migration is no different. When balancing the costs and benefits of migrating your data from onsite storage to the cloud, you need to be sure the ROI falls in your favor.

To get a complete picture of your ROI, you need to factor in the costs of on-site hardware replacement and the costs of licensing and security vs. the costs associated with the cloud. Additionally, you need to look at what you’re getting out of your information management platforms.

Are there features and functions that you are paying for but aren’t taking full advantage of because you haven’t incorporated the cloud into your infrastructure? Is your team able to do their best work no matter where they are? How much does inefficiency cost you?

Make no mistake, a secure, high quality, cloud-inclusive infrastructure will make your team more efficient. Utilizing the cloud for document management and off-site tasks such as field services or construction inspection speeds up communication and eliminates a great deal of the time that it can take to get signatures and approvals on important documents.

Cloud migration also gives you the opportunity to reexamine your workflows and business processes. Uncovering bottlenecks and problem areas in your workflows and taking steps to fix them improves your teams’ efficiency exponentially. And that effect gets felt across an organization.

By making their jobs easier and eliminating frustrations like long wait-times for signatures and company wide halts whenever there’s a problem with your on-premises servers, you improve the morale of your team. And a worker who feels respected and heard is less likely to move along— reducing your costs of hiring and onboarding replacements.

That’s both financial and emotional ROI from cloud migration. Tangible and intangible. 

What Does Cloud Migration Include?

TEAM IM’s Cloud Migration Services take a full-spectrum look at your processes and software/hardware to provide the most cost-efficient migration possible. Our migrations are software-agnostic, so whether you use MS Azure, AWS, Oracle, or another platform, your migration can be carried out smoothly.

The list of services involved in a Cloud Migration from TEAM IM includes:

• Cloud Architecture
• Cloud Migration Strategy
• Cloud Planning
• Cloud Implementation
• Cloud Security
• Cloud Managed Services
• Cloud Cost Optimization
• Cloud Performance Testing and Tuning

We have improved our migration process over the years to give our clients the best possible experience. We keep migration simple for our clients so that their work experiences as few hiccups as possible. 

Get Your Head in the Cloud

The question of “why move to the cloud” comes down to getting the most bang for your buck. And when you break down the advantages of Cloud Migration, the ROI on taking the steps to move your organization into the cloud is greater than sticking with on-site data storage.

Get the most out of your team, your software, and your tech investment. Talk to one of the experts at TEAM IM today.