Doing business in the cloud era – or migrating to the cloud from a CIO perspective

How should you approach the challenge of cloud migration—and what to do about it?

We’re not there (in the Cloud) yet

If that’s the case, you likely operate your own on-premises infrastructure and are considering, planning, or looking for a way to adapt your current IT setup—into which you’ve invested significant funds—to your company’s current needs and broader IT trends.

First things first: keep current systems running

Next comes planning the following steps. You’ll mainly need to:

• review your architecture
• select suitable cloud services
• decide what to migrate to the cloud and what to keep “at home”
• prepare management for upcoming organizational changes, including shifts in costs from CapEx to OpEx

Whatever your personal stance on the cloud, we live in a digital era—and we can’t ignore it. Like it or not, we operate in a cloud-first world. If you’re not in the cloud yet, chances are you will be soon. For most companies and their IT leaders, that means they’re either already there—or it’s right around the corner.

Cloud migration: how to prepare

Approach cloud migration responsibly and with a carefully crafted strategy. Don’t see it as an overwhelming task, but as an opportunity to reassess your organization’s needs, IT architecture, and overall IT strategy. To help, we’ve summarized several key aspects to consider:

• Analysis and planning: The IT director should thoroughly analyze the current infrastructure and evaluate which services or applications are suitable for the cloud. Assess the benefits and risks of migration and create a detailed migration plan.

• Vendor evaluation: Review different cloud providers and choose the one that best fits the organization’s needs. Consider performance, availability, security, and cost—and don’t overlook the quality of offered IT support.

• Security and data protection: Consider the cloud’s security aspects and ensure organizational requirements will be met. Focus on appropriate security controls, data backup, privacy, and regulatory compliance.

• Costs and financial planning: Moving to the cloud has financial implications. Perform a careful cost–benefit analysis including operating costs, licensing, and management. Finally, verify that the organization can fund both the migration and ongoing cloud operations.

• Migration and operations: Develop a migration plan that phases services and apps into the cloud with minimal business disruption. Ensure effective post-migration management and monitoring.

• Training and staff readiness: Cloud migration usually requires proper training for employees on the changes it brings. Ensure training is delivered so people can work effectively in the cloud and use new tools and technologies.

• Monitoring and optimization: After migrating, continuously monitor and optimize resource usage and costs. Keep close ties with the cloud provider, track performance and security, and run regular audits.

What’s the payoff?

What should you expect from such a change? The rewards for migrating your IT infrastructure to the cloud should include cost reduction, greater flexibility, higher availability, improved security, and easier adoption of innovation.

• Flexibility and scalability: Cloud services let you quickly and easily adapt capacity and performance to organizational needs. The IT director can scale resources up or down as demand changes.

• Cost reduction: Compared to operating your own on-premises infrastructure, cloud services can cut costs. There’s no need to invest in hardware and data centers, and maintenance/management costs drop. You pay only for what you actually use.

• High availability and resilience: Cloud providers typically offer strong availability and resilience. In practice, this means near-continuous access to data and services with minimal downtime—boosting reliability and business continuity.

• Rapid deployment and updates: The cloud enables fast rollout of new applications and updates. IT can leverage built-in tools and platforms for efficient software deployment and management.

• Security and data backup: Cloud providers invest heavily in security and backup mechanisms, improving data protection and reducing the risk of loss in case of failure.

• Innovative technologies: Clouds often provide advanced capabilities like AI, machine learning, big data, and IoT. IT can integrate these innovations into business processes and applications.

Alongside the positives, cloud migration brings challenges the IT director must address: migration planning and management, data security, coexistence with on-premises systems, vendor and contract management, staff training, and more. Prepare thoroughly and secure expert support to ensure your strategy fits organizational needs.

We’re already there (in the Cloud)—partly or fully

The cloud changes how IT operates. Even if migration is done, don’t rest on your laurels—stay engaged. Above all, measure the benefits your current cloud setup delivers and optimize run-rate costs wherever possible.

If you run a hybrid environment, choose a strategy that evaluates and ensures optimal cloud usage while maintaining control over the combined estate. This can include:

• monitoring
• an incident and request-handling strategy

Operating a cloud environment comes with several key tasks:

Before we wrap up, note that cloud migration introduces a lot that’s new. Perhaps the biggest shift for CIOs and IT owners is a stronger focus on two areas:

• ongoing cost tracking and optimization
• monitoring cloud-service innovations and adopting them—both to optimize spend and to capture business value for growth.

Conclusion

Cloud migration brings both benefits and challenges. Whether you’re just planning it or you’re already in the cloud, recognize the central role IT leadership plays. Strategy planning, cost management, staff training, and performance monitoring are just a few of the responsibilities ahead. Success depends not only on watching and optimizing costs, but also on staying current with new trends and cloud innovations. To thrive in today’s digital economy, approach cloud migration responsibly and with a well-prepared strategy.