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Cloud Migration Strategy
The Comprehensive Guide
Enterprise Cloud Migration:
Is It Time To make The Leap
Is It Time to Make the Leap?
Every enterprise-level organization has, at some point in its history, made a significant investment in on-premises data storage, networking hardware, and communications solutions.
To compete and provide top-level service, companies had no other choice. They had to invest a lot in hardware and software licenses.
This Cloud Migration is often less work and expense than anticipated. Cloud solution providers do a masterful job of easing the pain of this move, and many organizations have significant value in their legacy hardware that can be used to fund the new cloud-based solutions.
Does your legacy infrastructure have value that can be leveraged to enable your digital transformation?
There are some amazing tools available that automatically discover all the technology assets connected with your network (regardless of manufacturer) and provide a current market value of each individual asset.
Many organizations are driven to consider Cloud Migration based upon the expiration of their legacy technologies. Often referred to as End of Life (EoL), this translates to an asset that is no longer supported by the manufacturer, where replacement is highly recommended.
If you have significant technologies reaching End of Life (EOL), it’s now vital to ask:
- Is replacement hardware the best way forward?
- Will our purchase integrate with what we already have?
- Will it support the speed at which our business is changing?
- Do we have to make a Capital Investment (CapEx), or can this become an Operational Expense (OpEx)?
- Should we move this to the Cloud?
- How do we evaluate the Cloud as a viable alternative?
In this Guide…
In this guide, we’ll provide a step-by-step strategy for identifying and understanding your current needs. Then, we’ll show you how to implement a plan customized to your unique situation.
What is Enterprise Cloud?
What is Eneterprise Cloud?
Enterprise Cloud is a bundle of IT services that can be stored, managed, and accessed over an Internet connection. The associated Cloud storage can be an on-premises data center, a Cloud Services Provider (CSP), or a combination of two or more providers (known as MultiCloud).
Implementation depends on the organization, its security concerns, and its ability to manage complexity.
An Enterprise Cloud solution can provide a wide range of core infrastructure technology services including:
- Collaboration
- Contact Center
- Data Center
- Network
- Security
- Managed Services
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Enterprise Cloud components are mainly delivered “as a service,” or through software licenses, and require minimal or no investment in hardware.
Ultimately, Enterprise Cloud enables organizations a new paradigm of organizational focus, efficiency and productivity often referred to as Digital Transformation.
With the Cloud, enterprise solutions can move at the speed of innovation
Key Benefits of Cloud-Based Technologies
CapEx vs
OpEx
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Integrated
Security
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Available
Features
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Flexible &
Scalable
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Reduced
Maintenance
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Anytime /
Anywhere
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Enterprise Cloud: How to Assess Organizational Needs
Enterprise Cloud: How to Assess Organizational Needs
Migrating your current infrastructure to the Cloud is not a technology decision. It is a business decision.
Before jumping in, organizations would do well to:
- Assemble a team from every relevant discipline within the organization.
- Identify a Project Manager that understands your business and has the experience to lead a large-scale, multi-disciplined team in a technology project.
- Assess their Cloud Strategy as they would any Strategic Business Growth Opportunity.
- Create a holistic plan viewed from every possible angle: finance, staffing, operations, business goals, and technology.
Then, this team needs to conduct a thorough assessment to see if Enterprise Cloud makes sense for the organization.
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Here’s how to conduct your assessment
Here’s how to conduct your assessment
STEP 1: Inventory Your Current Solution
- Identify every piece of technology you own. (We’ll show you how to accomplish this).
- Detail how you support it.
- Research and define its ongoing value to the organization.
- Identify its life-expectancy and replacement cost.
This can be a scary proposition for organizations that don’t have the proper tools, and most don’t. You’ll need to identify a robust asset management tool that:
- Makes all of your hardware, software, and maintenance agreements visible at a glance.
- Covers all your manufacturers (Cisco, Avaya, HP, Dell, IBM, Polycom, Palo Alto, EMC, etc.).
- Can identify what is at End-of-Life or End-of-Support.
- Can check maintenance status, tech specs, and buy back or trade-in.
All of these features and more are available through Vox Lifesigns, an asset management tool that is uniquely powerful and available today! (Read on for more information, or click here for our downloadable PDF.)
STEP 2: Identify the “Who” and the “How” (Users and Consumption)
- Define who uses what
- Discover how each team member engages with that piece of technology.
- Have users help assess its current effectiveness.
With this data, you’ll identify your current pain points along with opportunities for improvement.
STEP 3: Compare the Economics of Cloud Migration to Fixing the Current Solution
A move to Enterprise Cloud creates many areas (Direct and Indirect) of potential cost-savings.
Direct Cost Savings:
- Subscription pricing means you can scale your services to your needs. You’ll eliminate excess inventory without losing the ability to add users as you grow.
- The integration of managed services may allow for a leaner staff.
- Off-premises infrastructure will reduce needed facilities.
- The overhead associated with running and maintaining equipment you own may be significantly lower.
Indirect Cost Savings:
- Reduced down-time during routine maintenance and updates.
- Cost-savings associated with purchasing bundled applications and services.
- Improved performance related to ever-evolving Software Defined updates.
If, in the final analysis, migrating to an Enterprise Cloud solution makes sense, you’ll need to execute an effective Cloud Migration Strategy. Such a strategy should be tooled to accomplish both your business and technology goals.
What Is a Cloud Migration Strategy?
What Is a Cloud Migration Strategy?
A Cloud Migration Strategy is a documented plan to move an organization from their legacy on-premises IT solutions to an Enterprise Cloud solution. It must be driven by the organization’s business goals, priorities and objectives to be effective.
An effective Cloud Migration Strategy will clarify what will move to the Cloud based on its goals and requirements: technological and business functions, software applications, and services. It should include a specific timeframe, pace, and approach.
When created expertly, it will minimize downtime and keep operations running as smoothly as possible.
Here’s the process.
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STEP 1: Consolidate, Analyze, and Create
- Consolidate your Assessment for the team to review.
- Analyze the data. Ask: Where are areas for growth and improvement? What’s working, and what’s not?
- Visualize the future of your business based upon your identified business goals, priorities and objectives. What technology decisions can you make today that will maximize your success?
- Create a 1-Page Executive Summary of your Cloud Migration Strategy. Use as few words as possible so every stakeholder can grasp what your goals, intent, and drivers.
STEP 2: Evaluate Solutions
(we’ve included some of the most popular)
- Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)
Unified Communications, which integrates voice, email, chat, video, and presence information, has long been the standard solution for business. When provided as a service, the required hardware becomes simpler, less expensive, and instantly scalable. Most of the related technology becomes software-based, allowing both storage and operations through the Cloud.
For a better understanding of this service, read our article on UCaaS.
- Software Defined Network (SDN)
Your network, when moved to the Cloud, allows organizational flexibility like you’ve never seen before.Deliver your high-quality Wide Area Network (SD WAN) anywhere in the world over any available Internet connection. Manage all employees, their devices, workstations, and Internet of Things (IoT) all from one application. Software updates and security patches occur instantaneously. Configurations can be automated, reducing human error and work time.
For a more detailed description SDN and its business value, read our guide to SD WAN.
- Intelligent Contact Center (ICC)
Providing your customers with consistent brand experience, however they want to communicate with you, is one of the primary ways to win customers for life. Do you already have an omnichannel solution? Moving it to the Cloud will save you time, increase your flexibility, and allow your organization the analytical power it needs to provide first class Customer Experience (CX).
To learn how an ICC can be integrated into your CX strategy, check out this resource.
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The shift to Cloud is happening now. Cloud-based technologies greatly reduce the need for on-premises solutions, reduces cost, and exponentially increases an organization’s ability to compete. However, there is no single right way to make the transition. Every company is unique, demanding a focused strategy, expert planning, and oversite. Since Enterprise Cloud is inherently different from on-premises technologies, your team will need to adjust. Staffing, organizational competency, metrics, and compliance reporting will all need a fresh evaluation.
It is critical to enlist the help of an experienced resource who understands these virtual technologies and the impacts that these solutions have to organizational oversight and risk management. We call these amazing individuals, Transformational Guru’s, and they are worth their weight in gold.
Enterprise Cloud Expertise: The VOX Lifecycle Team
Enterprise Cloud Expertise: The VOX Lifecycle Team
VOX is a Transformational Guru.
We collaborate with enterprise-class customers every day to take them from where they are to where they dream of going.
Our consultative framework, VOX Lifecycle, is a comprehensive methodology that assists and guides organizations as they evaluate various Enterprise Cloud solutions — along with all other aspects of Digital Transformation. We start by getting to know your business goals, objectives, requirements, performance measurements, processes and resources. Then, we help you identify and evaluate the solutions that will best serve you both now and into the future.
Integrated into VOX Lifecycle is our VOX Lifesigns (Asset Management Tool), which delivers comprehensive visibility across more than 3000 manufacturers.
VOX Lifesigns is a Cloud-based solution with a modern user interface (UI) that allows organizations to view and evaluate their hardware and software assets that make up the entire network environment.
Lifesigns leverages the power of big data, data mining, machine learning, and advanced analytics so users can view and analyze:
- Hardware
- Software
- Maintenance Agreements
From there, we help you prosper with our world-class team of:
- Subject matter experts
- Technologists
- Business Analysts
- Financial Analysts
- Project Managers
Get to know…
VOX LIFECYCLE
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High-Touch Partnership
Prescriptive Methodology
Robust Customer Success Plan
Process, Tech & Risk Assessments
Whether you’re seeking guidance assessing your need for a Cloud Migration Strategy, or you’re ready to leap to a robust Enterprise Cloud solution, contact a Transformational Guru today.
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