Cloud Migration Series Intro

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As businesses continue to grow so does the desire to find the best cloud solution; the one that is the most adaptable and offers the best pricing.

The focus of this series will be to find out what the three big providers of the market offer, on one corner we have Amazon Web Services, the provider which popularized the term cloud with one of the largest market shares.

Another popular provider which holds a fair share of the market is Azure, from Microsoft, which offers easy integrations with your current infrastructure making shifting your environment towards the cloud easier than ever.

Finally, we will look at GCP, Google Cloud Platform, from the company that currently has the largest share of the search engine market as well as streaming, GCP is a part of the repertoire available from Google with some interesting features.

These cloud providers offer you an initial free period, either by credit, time, or requests, which allows for testing to ensure that this is the right provider to tap into when considering performing a partial or total move from on-premises infrastructure towards the cloud.

Note also that we are only speaking about the most important players in the market, there are others to consider such as IBM Cloud, DigitalOcean, and SAP Cloud Platform which have other services and features available, in some instances not as complete as the initial three.

As we move along with every provider, we will point out some of their strongest features, some pointers to investigate when evaluating cost and how billing works in each platform as well as an option that these providers give you to evaluate and perform a migration to the cloud.

One final important note regarding these providers, Polyrific is a holistic provider that is not tied to a single cloud provider, we can help you evaluate your current environment and create an architecture in the provider of your choosing which gives you everything you need.

Contact us now to get a free initial evaluation of your environment and a proposal that will help you push your business towards the cloud and exponential growth.

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Cloud Migration First Steps

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Cloud migration can be performed through different methods, but before we take a deep dive into the matter there are other initial considerations that any business must take.

  • Who will perform the Cloud Migration, who is the Cloud Architect?
    • This may well be the most complicated portion of this list, doing it in-house or choosing an MSP to assist you in this process can make or break the entire situation.
    • The establishment of a role or department for this task must be done before any other considerations are taken, doing this too late during the entire process can reduce the effectiveness and velocity of the implementation.
  • What is the best Cloud provider for me?
    • There may be a need to put a single Cloud provider at the forefront, leveraging all the features and capabilities it offers while ensuring that you do not break the bank in the first month.
    • In other instances, there may be a need to use different Cloud providers due to services or features that are of interest to the business, this consideration can be seen in the following item.
  • What type of integration can be done with the Cloud provider?
    • When a business has come to integrate their business processes with a Cloud provider it may be too complicated or costly to move towards another proposed or chosen provider by the business.
    • In other situations where implementations have not been undertaken with a Cloud provider, it is crucial to identify how applications can be integrated with the services and the benefits of such implementations
  • What type of Cloud migration are you looking into?
    • We have previously spoken about lift and shift, moving all your infrastructure into the cloud without changing the current setup, or performing minimal changes only when needed.
    • Another method of performing a migration is to completely push and integrate everything into the Cloud with a mix of services and features, minimizing the infrastructure footprint by leveraging other methods of interaction.
  • How much must be migrated and how long will it take?
    • Another important question to close this list, how much data and hosts need migration, how fast can these be moved and what is the business reaction time to the changes towards the Cloud environment?
    • Will the changes take days, weeks, or months, can the migration process be done efficiently, or would refactoring of the current environment be involved?

These are some of the most important questions with some of the points and answers to consider when performing the first steps for migration.

Still, have questions or doubts and need help? Contact Polyrific now to get assistance with your migration to the Cloud, obtain a free evaluation of your current environment while providing you a clear timeline on how this process can be achieved without interruptions.

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Advantages of Azure SQL PaaS

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As working in the Cloud becomes more inevitable with every passing moment for businesses looking to grow, some features and services can benefit your business with considerable savings and ease implementation and maintenance times.

One such service is available through Azure with SQL PaaS (Platform as a Service), which takes all the heavy lifting out of managing a database, letting you focus directly on your data and the applications that interact with it.

But what about everything else that is involved with handling a database? You do not have to worry about anything else; Microsoft has you covered on this front so you can concentrate on what matters.

This includes patching and updating the back-end, additionally assisting in identifying, reporting, and taking actions on any potential threats to your business data and databases.

Azure SQL PaaS also allows you to grow as much as you need when you need it, at a fraction of the cost from your on-prem and so large it can easily handle big data without breaking the bank.

The added advantage to this model means that your data will always be available with minimal to no downtime for your applications to work at full speed, wherever you are, cutting the need to synchronize multiple databases around your business units.

One key feature for Azure SQL PaaS is the ability to use it to have it as a redundant backup for your in-house on-prem applications when moving them to the Cloud is not always feasible.

There is also the possibility of migrating all of your data through tools provided directly for Microsoft. There is no need to build special tools or perform complicated migrations that can take a large amount of manpower, money, and months to be completed.

Microsoft also ensures that backups are performed continuously, creating a robust redundancy to assist in rapid recoveries and storing them for extended periods in case you need to roll back through a considerable period of time.

Being part of the Azure services, there is an integration made available with the Azure AD, allowing for Single Sign On (SSO) and faster account handling, avoiding creating additional accounts or handling multiple user databases on-prem.

Are you interested in moving to the Cloud and moving your database information to Azure SQL PaaS? Contact us through the provided method below, and we will get back to you to assist with all your migration and integration needs.

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What is a Cloud ‘Lift and Shift’?

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Everyone is doing it; moving infrastructure and applications to the Cloud has become the new norm for businesses looking for exponential growth while reaping considerable benefits.

Different methodologies are available to do this; some involve slowly transitioning applications and infrastructure to the Cloud, including the integration of new applications or rebuilding current ones to conform to this new norm.

A more efficient method to achieve this is through the Lift and Shift approach.

The Lift and Shift method ensures that with proper planning and evaluation of your current infrastructure, and the one made available by your Cloud provider, your infrastructure can be moved exactly as it is on your premises to this Cloud provider with little to no impact on the availability and business continuity.

There are additional benefits to consider when using this method, such as:

  • Reduction in cost of infrastructures, such as network devices, servers, storage, and backups.

  • Reevaluation of infrastructure to reduce excess use of resources, saving you from additional expenses in your budget.

  • Cloud providers are compliant with the most common compliance standards, such as SOX or HIPAA.

  • Easier access for your business to your applications includes connectivity, load balancing, and business continuity that could be affected otherwise with an on-prem deployment.

  • No additional heavy lifting is required, such as refactoring code, rethinking your infrastructure, or retraining end-users and IT employees

  • Continuous backups and data storage, creating effective redundancy that allows for rapid recovery during an incident

  • Opening the possibility of growth exactly when you need it at a fraction of the cost

  • The possibility of future integrations with the services from your Cloud provider (e.g.: Azure AD or Office365 instead of on-prem Active Directories or Exchange Servers)

Other essential items to consider are the following:

The benefits are apparent, but an IT Department will need an individual or group to perform the maintenance and required tasks through the Cloud provider interface.

In that sense, if the department does not have the knowledge or have doubts, the leverage of a partner to assist or perform this task directly can be incredibly beneficial to ensure that the process and continuity of the Cloud environment are achieved successfully.

Do you have questions or doubts about the Lift and Shift approach? Are you looking to move your on-prem environment to the Cloud and save money, time, and effort? Contact us through the provided method below, and we will contact you to assist you on this matter.

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