Many organisations in the United Kingdom are moving all or part of their IT network to the cloud. But what are the advantages? What are the risks? And what measures should you take before making the switch to a cloud environment?

Organisations which have already moved their data and infrastructure to the cloud have seen the following benefits:

• Lower Costs 
  Many organisations have reduced their IT expenses by no longer needing to maintain costly and inconvenient on-premises servers.
• Improved Ability to Collaborate 
  In a cloud environment, and with the right security and access policies in place; employees can now work on documents and folders from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection. This makes cloud services ideal for organisations with several offices or who have team members who regularly work from home.
• Easier To Implement Disaster Recovery 
  When you use cloud technology, recovering from a disaster is considerably easier. Some companies have migrated their whole network to the cloud, ensuring that even a catastrophic event like a fire or flood in the office does not prevent them from accessing their systems or data in its aftermath.
• Improved Cybersecurity 
  When using public cloud providers like Amazon’s AWS or Microsoft’s Azure platform, the cloud provider handles all backend security. You are still in charge of safeguarding your access to your preferred cloud platform, but the cloud infrastructure and its security is the responsibility of a third party. This means you can be assured that your data is being safeguarded by some of the world’s largest and most secure corporations. As a managed IT provider, Carden IT Services can help you secure access to your cloud services through implementing user access controls and 2-factor authentication.

Which Cloud Service Should I Choose?

Any company considering transferring its network or data to the cloud must first decide whether to utilise a public or private cloud. Public clouds (such as those supplied by Amazon or Microsoft) are easier to use since all you need is an internet connection, but they lack the flexibility and privacy choices that come with constructing your own private cloud from the ground up. As a result, some companies may use a “hybrid cloud” solution, in which a portion of their infrastructure is hosted on public cloud and other parts are hosted in a private cloud. 

If you are partnered with Carden IT Services, we can help you figure out which cloud platform is best for you and, if necessary, construct your own private cloud. Attempting to construct your own private cloud without considerable IT expertise or professional assistance is not recommended since you will unlikely to do so in an efficient or secure way.
 
Planning Your Cloud Environment and Transition Carefully
The goal is to strike a balance between the services your company wishes to move to the cloud and the actual jobs for which the cloud is most suited. Carden IT Services’ cloud computing experts can help you evaluate your business and its data to see if a cloud migration makes sense, and then work with you to plan and implement a cloud migration. 

This is where we help you determine what to migrate, where it should be stored, and how to achieve this. We help you to define your aims and goals, then determine which cloud solutions can best assist you in achieving them.

Understand Any Regulatory Issues Which May Apply
While transferring your company’s IT to the cloud might simplify many parts of your operation, it can also make regulatory compliance more difficult. Regulatory limitations may hinder certain firms from hosting some of their data in the public cloud. This can be particularly important if your company handles sensitive consumer information (such as with healthcare providers). 

Cloud services are still relatively new and as such the regulations around them can be confusing and are subject to change. Before transferring any sensitive or customer data to the public cloud, it is important to be sure you are doing so in a way which conforms to regulatory standards.

Embrace a Cloud First Perspective
When you commit to a cloud-first environment, all your apps and data should be stored in the cloud where possible, whether it’s in a public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid cloud.

A cloud-first strategy ensures that your business will commit the necessary resources to make the required changes and upgrades. Partnering with a managed IT services provider like Carden IT Services who are cloud computing specialists gives you the best chance for success. This is crucial since migrating your data to the cloud is a major undertaking that should not be carried out as a side project by your existing team.

Start Your Journey To The Cloud Today

We hope this has been a helpful overview of some of the critical first steps that any company must take before migrating its data to the cloud. Unless you already have your own in-house IT team that is comfortable with cloud services, we strongly advise that you talk with Carden IT Services’ cloud computing specialists first. This will give you the benefit of our experience providing cloud services support to businesses of all sizes, and it guarantees that the process of migrating to the cloud is completed in a timely and well-documented manner.