Got a problem to go to the cloud? 7 tips on how not to mess up


    Companies all over the planet are moving into the clouds - a real “tehtonic” shift. Changes come not only from the need to use software in the clouds, but also due to the fact that companies rethink their corporate strategies, the placement of their internal data and content, privacy policies, systems, security and even culture. Gartner research company, based on market data, estimates the cost of moving to the clouds in the IT sector at 1.3 trillion. dollars by 2020. Most of these costs lead to the achievement of the goals of companies to improve efficiency, increase cash flow and overall savings.

    Despite the statistics, many small, medium and large companies are still not at the cutting edge of the digital transformation and have not yet moved to the clouds. If you are among them, then here are the best practices and tips for moving to the cloud:


    1. Select a project curator


    First of all, you must appoint a person who will lead the project to move to the cloud. He must have the power to make decisions and be technically savvy in order to understand the cloud topic. The whole team that will deal with the transition to the cloud should listen to it. Your project curator will be able to take into account different needs for business units, global implications and long-term goals. At the same time, this person must understand the current infrastructure and technology stack, including ERP, CRM, RPA, a number of business systems and archives. Ultimately, the curator subscribes to a particular type of cloud platform. This will identify all associated suppliers, financial costs, and business goals.

    2. Get ready for a culture change


    Changing a company's culture is often one of the most difficult steps. It does not happen in one day. To begin with, the transition of the company to the cloud covers everything that employees live and breathe. This is a way of thinking. You need to be open to change and a new way of working. A new culture can change your mission and the ultimate goals of the company. Your core values ​​will be updated, which will reflect in a more innovative, futuristic, cloud-centered approach and change the brand. It should be noted that you need to choose the right employees who either openly support cloud technologies or have experience in companies using the cloud.

    3. Define a strike group for the transition


    In product management, there is usually a strike group for large and multifunctional projects spanning multiple departments or business units. In such a group there are often representatives of various fields. So, when moving to the cloud, the strike group is likely to include one or more people from IT, engineering, project management, product management, marketing, finance and support. This is a key team that will often meet and lead all actions and tasks. A commonly used project collaboration tool. Such as Trello, Jira, Asana or others who fix each task with an assignment and a deadline. The team will lead the project to move to the cloud from start to finish. It is crucial for the success of the entire project.

    4. Deploy


    The size of the company will determine the operational deployment. Larger companies often have a lot of data and duplicate systems and departments that do not “communicate” enough with each other. Deployment in the cloud will solve many of these problems due to the ability to centralize data from different departments. A complete inventory of all systems is required. Often several facilities have their own bookkeeping, which require additional steps and processes, and this can be expensive. It is recommended to have a horizontal team to overcome the fact that departments do not share information among themselves. Removing barriers to sharing information is one of the ultimate goals. It can be difficult to find out what kind of data departments are not exchanging, but smart data capture systems can help your company overcome this difficulty.

    Finding the right cloud tool and solution is also important. This requires meeting with the supplier and choosing the right option, which may require an auxiliary strike group. It is especially important to determine the supplier regarding the cloud platform. Will it be a public server or a private cloud? This will affect the guaranteed basic level of availability provided by the supplier, including features of data recovery, disaster recovery and downtime, which may result in fines in accordance with the contract.

    If your company is not ready for a full transition to the cloud, consider a hybrid cloud solution. It uses existing local capabilities for storing and processing company data using web services and open APIs and integrates with other solutions in the cloud. Hybrid cloud solutions can upload a set of resource-intensive microservices to the cloud, and then export the data back to the local system. Hybrid solutions can reduce costs by increasing data processing speed and increasing productivity.

    5. Train and improve your operational team


    Once the cloud architecture is deployed and the systems work, customer interactions become critical to business operations. Services and support should be provided well. This may include training your current operations teams in effective cloud management, or expanding your current operations team with people who are well versed in cloud business operations, from design and IT to product development and customer service. It is important to have certain standards and how to apply them throughout the organization.

    6. Plan and budget for expansion


    Many organizations change both systematically and spontaneously. In both cases, new needs can be easily realized in the cloud. For some companies, the ability to be flexible and scalable at peak times is critical for the convenience of their customers. For example, for those who trade jewelry, customers run into the winter holidays, Valentine's Day and March 8th. Or a mortgage company gives out a lot of loans in the summer months. Cloud systems are flexible and scalable, and therefore are suitable for new business models that provide for both unforeseen and planned growth. By evaluating your business model, you can determine the amount of computing power and storage in the cloud.
    Again, depending on the size of your organization, gradual implementation may make sense. Changing the entire process in a large company may require several small deployments before it covers the entire company. Implementation of the entire enterprise immediately takes a lot of time and can be financially burdensome. If you choose to scale gradually, then you can split the strike group or add new groups in which there will already be experienced employees for successful expansion.

    7. Pay close attention to privacy and protection policies.


    From the very beginning, the privacy policy and the subsequent issues of security and data protection have been the main topic of all discussions on the topic of cloud technologies.

    It is recommended to hire an information security officer. Businesses around the world have many factors that affect compliance issues and data privacy. In the United States last year, the General Regulation on the Protection of Personal Data was issued, which envisages huge fines, and in 2020, the California Consumer Protection Act is expected to enter into force. According to Gartner, in 2022, 95% of security breaches will be the fault of customers. Analysts note that the difficulty here is not in the security of the cloud itself, but in the privacy policy, security technologies and technology control.

    Companies using private or public clouds must manage their data protection accordingly. Since checks are regularly conducted, data must be accessible, identifiable, and even editable. No exception is made for an unknown data format. Data mining is required to comply with the rules. Some sources report that the cloud may be more secure than on-premises systems. Customers have a greater responsibility for their local systems because they must maintain their performance. The human factor is the cause of most data leaks, and therefore any type of implementation can lead to risk. Keeping track of the latest security and privacy trends is mandatory and should be given the highest priority.

    Ike Kavas, Founder and CEO of Ephesoft,
    Inc.
    Original article .

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