You are one of a rising number of companies striving to stay competitive and remain agile if you have chosen to migrate your systems and data to the cloud. But there are three crucial aspects of cloud connectivity you must take into account before making the switch if you want to reach your business goals without going overboard with your budget or your workforce: Cost, capacity, and capability.
Which cloud(s) and carrier(s) can handle the job?
1. Capability: Which cloud(s) can deliver the appropriate degree of performance for your workloads? Which transport provider(s) can provide you with the connection(s) you require?
There are many well-known cloud service providers, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Microsoft Azure (Azure), Oracle Cloud, and numerous others. You need to have a very clear understanding of the applications and workloads that fuel your organization to decide which cloud providers will meet your needs.
The following action is to think about how your company will connect to the cloud. Not all transportation choices are the same. Several businesses use their free public internet access because they think it is quick and simple. The cost of cloud configuration and egress fees were not considered in this scenario. Also, not all cloud service providers plan for ideal internet access, despite the fact that the most well-liked SaaS products, like Office 365, do.
The latency and data security of some private transport links, notably point-to-point layer 2 connectivity, will be increased. Others offer a more open or shared connection, such as OTT (over-the-top) public internet and some IP VPN services that terminate service at the edge of the cloud. If you require a redundant connection or need to retrieve data less regularly, using the public internet might be a good alternative.
The ideal cloud and transport carrier selection can provide the performance you require without breaking the bank. Due to poor architecture, the structure typically observes clients paying 60–70% more than necessary.
Do you have the resources—staff and time—to manage the migration?
2. Capacity: Do you have the personnel and time necessary to oversee your cloud migration?
If you've ever moved, you know that if you don't hire the correct moving company, you run the danger of losing heirlooms and breaking dishes. Like shifting to the cloud, doing so involves more than just putting your data in a box and delivering it to the data center.
Every cloud migration must begin with preparation, planning, and confirmation; these processes take a lot of time and careful consideration.
Many businesses lack the manpower and funding necessary to manage to compete, in high-priority tasks like cloud migration, corporate security, end-user experience, and on-premises infrastructure management, let alone be able to respond to regular "emergencies."
Here Structured can be of assistance. We can handle all aspects of your transfer to the cloud, from planning to making sure everything is up and working as it should. Along the journey, we keep you updated as we work with transport carriers, SDN network providers, and cloud providers.
How will you quantify and control the total cost of ownership?
Cost should be your final factor because, according to Gartner, public cloud spending will reach around $4 billion in 2022. Your total cost of ownership (TCO) could be three times as costly as your lowest connectivity transport quote if you don't have the appropriate level of capability and capacity.
The overall cost of switching to the cloud and managing your cloud infrastructure over time will depend on a variety of factors. It's critical to know up front how your total cost of ownership will be impacted by dependencies like licensing, application accessibility, consumption, and downtime. For instance, if you connect to Azure via the internet as opposed to a private Azure ExpressRoute connection, the egress charges from Azure change. I would strongly advise watching John Savill's YouTube tutorial to learn how to use the Azure calculator.
Thankfully, Structured is knowledgeable about the nuances of cloud computing platforms and is ready to assist you in selecting the best option for your business requirements and your budget.
Cloud Strategy Requires Strong Cloud Connections
Without a question, cloud computing, whether it be public, hybrid, or multi-cloud, can improve employee and customer experience while fostering more effective and efficient operations across the company. Yet, if you don't first consider the three Cs of cloud computing—capability, capacity, and cost—you can end up with subpar performance and miss out on the chance for a reliable return on investment from your cloud strategy.
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