What is a cloud migration service and do I need one?

Everyday, organizations face challenges that require:

• Cost reduction

• Scalability

• Tighter security

• Latest Technology

• Improved reliability

• More support

And more and more often, the solution is the cloud.

Cloud migration services simplify the complex process of moving business data and applications to a cloud computing environment. In order transition to the cloud successfully, your cloud migration service should ask the following questions before the move:

• How large and complex are your data?

• How important are regulatory considerations?

• Are our current business applications cloud ready?

• What would the cost of downtime be and what service level agreement do we require for a cloud environment?

• If we decide to change cloud providers in the future, can our data and application migrate with us?

Once these questions are answered, your cloud migration service can recommend a customized solution and provide a cloud migration plan.

An IaaS cloud solution will lift your burden of operating an in-house data center and enable you to quickly ramp up IT and data center capabilities all while substantially reducing costs. It’s like renting a perpetually new car with all the latest features.

By teaming with your cloud migration service through co-location, you can choose just the right amount of dedicated hardware needed such as servers or racks that are regularly upgraded ensuring 24/7 system redundancy, security, and reliability.

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Attempting to migrate IT infrastructure into the cloud without a proper cloud migration service that is fully versed and capable in the aforementioned aspects can result in a situation where you endure extra costs due to downtime, performance issues, and a negative experience.

When looking at cloud migration services, be sure to choose one that creates customized cloud solutions and migration plans for a seamless transition to the cloud.

How can RackWare help?

RackWare helps organizations speed up and automate data and application migrations across all cloud environments. RackWare’s file-level replication technology, cloud and hypervisor support matrix, and flexible architecture have helped over 400 organizations migrate complex workloads to the cloud.

RackWare Management Module handles the cloud migration process outlined below:

* Available with RackWare Hybrid Cloud Management

For more information regarding how a cloud migration solution can help you, visit our cloud migration page or contact us.

Software Agents and Cloud Migration

Agents are little pieces of software, usually small, that are installed on servers so that another piece of software can extract information from, or control some aspect of the server.  Although software agents are often required in certain application they can come with certain disadvantages:

Security & Compliance

Many enterprises require a strict adherence to rules when it comes to installing software on servers.  This is because software agents may open up the company to unknown security issues, such as opening unauthorized network ports, or causing conflicts with other pieces of software.

Resource usage

Every piece of software has processes that take up resources, be it CPU, Disk, Memory or Network.  If left unchecked, they can begin to affect the workload’s primary applications, including its responsiveness and ability to serve customers or end users.

Compatibility

Sometimes applications have compatibility issues and conflict with one another for resources.  For this reason data centers often test new software rigorously before putting them in a production environment.

Installation effort and downtime

Installing agents on a few workloads isn’t usually that big of a deal.  However in production environments this can be an issue, especially if the agent requires a reboot.  When environments get large, installing agents on hundreds or even thousands of workloads now becomes a cumbersome and tedious effort.  If a one-time migration is being done, then uninstalling the agents also becomes an issue.

Software agents should only be used when there is no other choice.  In the case of workload migration and DR, it is best to go with software that is agentless, where no software needs to be installed on the source or target infrastructure.

How To Ensure An Effective Healthcare Cloud Migration

As the demands of IT infrastructure associated with healthcare organizations continue to grow, so too does the need to securely store vast amounts of data in a flexible and cost-effective manner. For healthcare organizations looking to adopt a new approach for storing and accessing digital assets, cloud migration can be a great option.

Cloud migration, which typically involves the movement of data from on-site data storage onto a cloud-based storage solution, present many enticing benefits for growing organizations. Within the healthcare field, cloud migration is becoming increasingly popular, especially as electronic health records (EHR) continue to grow in popularity throughout the industry.

However, deciding how to move all of the data utilized by a healthcare organization from onsite storage to the cloud, or from one cloud provider to another, is no small undertaking. Due in large part to the strict data privacy regulations surrounding healthcare-related data (i.e. HIPAA) and the realities of today’s computing resources, all of a firm’s data cannot be moved from one place to another instantaneously.

With such realities in mind, planning and executing a healthcare cloud migration requires lots of due diligence. To help your organization effectively implement its next healthcare cloud migration, we’ve prepared the following three steps to help guide your organization’s cloud migration process.

1- Determine Why Your Organization Wants To Move To The Cloud

Whenever a firm is contemplating a large-scale healthcare cloud migration, the first question to ask is why your data needs to move to the cloud. Believe it or not, in many instances a company’s on-site data storage infrastructure is sufficient and will continue to be for years to come.

2- Select The Right Cloud Service Provider Partnership

While some healthcare organizations have the in-house technical expertise required to execute a cloud migration, most will have to look towards outside partners to facilitate this highly demanding transition. When searching for the right cloud partner, consider their past experience on similar projects, which clients they have worked with in the past, and their willingness to address questions or concerns specific to your cloud migration.

3- Execute Your Company’s Plan

Assuming that your organization already has a plan in place, expecting it in concert with your cloud service provider is the real key to successful cloud migration. However, before executing your plan, it is of paramount importance to backup all of the data that will be transferred to the cloud. While they are rare, mistakes happen, and catastrophic data loss has occurred. Ensuring that your organization’s data is backed up will allow for the process to be tested and tweaked as needed, which in turn will allow for a more effective migration.

Once your organization’s healthcare cloud migration is completed successfully, it is essential to continually monitor your cloud to ensure that critical data is both readily available and highly secure. At the end of the day, cloud migration offers healthcare organizations the opportunity to offload intensive IT tasks to a third-party, which in turn allows for your team to focus on delivering the highest possible quality of care to patients.