Six reasons why you need Smart Services for your Cloud Transformation

The benefits of cloud technology are well documented: anywhere access, pay-per-use, elastic capacity, disaster recovery, automatic software updates, rapid deployment, and more. While deciding to move to the cloud might be easy, the actual execution can cause serious headaches. Using a Smart Service can be the medicine you need to cure your migraine before it starts.

Before executing your cloud transformation, consider the following:

1.     While it might seem attractive to transfer all your data and applications to a public cloud provider, you should first consider the possible consequences. With a public cloud provider, you hand over control in return for convenience, and you might feel reluctant to lose control over certain data or particular applications. With your own private cloud, you have the benefits of the cloud, while maintaining full ownership and control. This would, however, require a significant investment and a well-trained IT-staff. You could also opt for a hybrid solution, whereby less critical applications are moved to a public cloud and the rest are kept in a private cloud. Which solution is best for you depends on your requirements and restrictions.

2.     A private cloud takes time to plan and build. To start with, a review of the existing data center inventory may reveal which equipment can be re-used for the cloud. You may decide to construct entirely new cloud data centers, so that the legacy environment does not have to be touched. Because every minute lost costs money, disrupting your productivity might be more expensive than trying to re-use some of your old equipment.

 3.     Once the desired end-state is determined, you’ll need to migrate data and applications to the new cloud environment, a task that must be accomplished with minimal impact on productivity and zero data loss. This can be quite complex and may require lots of preparation. Smart tools are needed to duplicate large amounts of data without any loss. The data transfer needs to be aligned with the migration of applications to avoid synchronization problems. The order in which applications are migrated will also have to be carefully considered, as applications often depend on, or interact with, each other.

 4.     One of the benefits of a cloud solution is the ability to dynamically add or remove resources (such as storage, compute power, users) based on the real-time needs of the business. There are different ways to do this, known as Dynamic, Advanced, or User provisioning. With dynamic provisioning, resources are provided in real time and fully automatic. With Advanced provisioning, users get all the available resources in advance, when they sign up; adding resources requires a contract modification or a new contract. User provisioning means users can add or remove a cloud resource by themselves through an online interface. Each of these solutions has different consequences and a different price tag. Making the right choice requires a good understanding of the pros and cons.

 5.     A proper transition to the cloud always takes time, but a transition that takes years to complete means high cost, frustration, and potentially the risk of abandoning the project. With a rapid transition, on the other hand, benefits are realized more quickly and disruptions end sooner. Planning and executing a project seamlessly requires experience, tools and resources that the average enterprise lacks.

 6.     Engaging a specialist firm to manage the cloud transition project requires a financial investment, which makes using internal staff seem more attractive. Why not use the resources you are already paying for instead of hiring an external provider? The reality is that your internal staff probably have never done a cloud migration before. They will need much more time to develop the migration strategy, and will make many mistakes that a professional service provider will know to avoid. Service providers also bring with them a suite of smart tools that allows them to accelerate the transition and migrate with less disruption and no data loss. While using internal resources might seem more cost-effective in the short run, it will undoubtedly result in higher costs in the long term.

Huawei Services can help you through your Cloud Transformation, from design through implementation through operation and optimization. Combining broad and deep experience, smart tools and established processes, Huawei Services is your preferred partner for Cloud Transformation. With 25 years of experience, more than 1,000 experts, and over 1,600 partners worldwide, we can help you achieve your target business outcomes. To learn more about Huawei Service, please visit us during Huawei Connect; go to https://e.huawei.com/en/services; or contact your local Huawei Service representatives or Certified Service Partner.