When is it time for an upgrade?
To be competitive, your organization needs to have a robust IT infrastructure that adapts to changing business needs. A poorly designed IT environment not aligned to business needs can result in high operational costs, inflexibility and poor resource utilization.
Technical change to facilitate organization growth can bring great benefits when the system is properly designed and well delivered. However, where the implementation is poorly executed of where the technology fails to meet the company's goals, it can spell disaster.
LIST OF UPGRADE SERVICES WE DO
Our highly skilled team is known for implementing well-executed upgrades. Our aim is to ensure a smooth transition from old to new. Below is a list of most commonly used upgrade services we conduct for our customers:
- Server hardware upgrade: a stand-alone or as a part of a rack
- Network switches upgrade
- Firewall upgrade
- SAN and NAS devices upgrade
- Firmware upgrades on devices or servers
- Windows Server platfrom upgrade: physical to physical, physical to virtual
- Microsoft Exchange Server upgrade
- Backup software upgrades
- Workstations hardware upgrade
- Workstations platform upgrade
- MS OFFICE upgrades
MIGRATION to cloud instead of AN UPGRADE?
When the time for an upgrade comes, business owners should decide (with our help) whether it is smart move to migrate either some or the whole infrastructure. There is no a simple answer to this question, but generally speaking migrating the entire infrastructure to the cloud will cost considerably more than migrating only a portion, such as an email system. However, there is no 'one-size-fits-all' model - every solution is unique and dependant on the particular SBS's needs.
Common challenges to cloud migration include:
- finding the right cloud vendor
- migrating the infrastructure of services to the cloud
- determining how best to manage the cloud resources
Customers should be aware that there are 10 known pitfalls of cloud migration. We detail these below.
1. Are all clouds created equal?
All clouds offerings are pretty much equal … right? Nope, not even close. Each cloud setup or provider brings its unique set of strengths and shortcomings. A private cloud, for instance, may offer greater flexibility but less scalability. And with a public cloud, if you're already invested in a particular vendor you'll have an easier migration journey by sticking with the same vendor's public cloud offering.
2. Junking your old I.T. hardware
After migrating to the cloud, what should you do with your hardware? A common mistake that companies make is to either throw out their old hardware or pay someone to remove it. Considering that the market for used IT computers is worth around $300 billion, we recommend that companies try a hardware exchange to recoup some IT budget cash.
3. Migrating all applications to the cloud
Not all business applications should migrate to the cloud, and companies must determine which applications are best suited to a cloud environment. Of course, these considerations are often very industry-specific. For example, Healthcare or legal organizations should carefully study how a cloud-based operation might impact their applications' ability to meet stringent compliance, governance, and security issues.
4. Not tuning your applications for the cloud
Here's another app-related misstep: When businesses migrate their most essential applications to the cloud, they often fail to check how those apps will perform in their new environment. For instance, apps running on an in-house hardware can access the company's full computing power: server CPU, memory, storage, and so on. But those apps in the cloud must share computing resources with other apps hosted on the cloud provider's servers. It's important for companies to tweak their apps to run optimally in the cloud.
5. Not doing your due diligence
Do your homework! Organizations often fail to thoroughly research a cloud technology or provider before embracing it. It's important to carefully study your IT infrastructure, needs, and usage to best determine which cloud service is right for you.
6. Lacking in-house expertise
Your cloud service provider has an experienced team of cloud technology experts. But you should have cloud expertise in-house as well in order to deal with those niggling day-to-day issues and to understand how the cloud system fits into your overall business.
7. Not starting small
It's wiser to dip your toe in the cloud service pool than to cannonball into the deep end. Start by migrating modest services that will have limited negative impact should something go haywire. A company should pick "the low-hanging fruit" for early migration to the cloud -- for example, batch processing systems, big data analytics platforms, collaborative tools, or Web applications.
8. Ignoring cloud geography
Applications may run within a single geographic region , from multiple locations, or across the globe. Consumer-focused apps are often used in multiple geographic regions -and sometimes unpredictably. Companies may want to block certain apps - often for regulatory or security purposes - to run in specific region only.
9. Ignoring big data
Some companies often find themselves facing a data-transfer dilemma: What's the best way to migrate massive applications and terabytes of data to the cloud? Another thorny issue is finding the most affordable way to sync on-premises and cloud environments. The bottom line: pre-move preparation is the best way to achieve smooth cloud migration.
10. Not keeping a scorecard
Companies are increasingly recognising that every application has its own unique cloud migration path. It is recommended to use "scorecard" approach to prioritising their application portfolios. This requires evaluating each workload's economic, security, and risk profile.
HOW can we help?
Our upgrade services are highly prized by our customers as they are well planned. We will ensure a smooth transition from your old system and into the new.
Importantly, we will work around the clock to ensure that your business and day-to-day operations are not impacted by the upgrade.
Don't take it from us! Ask our friendly staff to give you referral from customers who have undergone upgrades.
