If moving to the cloud, here's what you need to consider when making changes.
If you move even just a small part of your company to the Cloud, you could be making a big impact on your organization.
If you want to move to the cloud, you need to be able to manage cloud security, too. There are plenty of ways to get started without incurring massive costs, but if you’re looking for an easy path to cloud computing that doesn’t cost you anything extra, look no further than managed services.
Just one mistake and you could jeopardize the whole thing, or even worse, your clients’ trust. So let’s take a look at some of the most important things you need to think about before moving from an on-premises environment to the public cloud.
Write down all of your goals.
After deciding what your overall strategy is going to be, you then need to determine what you’re going to do differently than before. Your new strategy needs to take into account both your current situation/situations, as well as the future trends that could occur.
Start by defining your business objectives. Do you need to provide better access to data and applications from anywhere? Do you have high-volume transaction processing that must occur 24/7? Can you consolidate multiple servers into one virtual machine? Does your organization need a single location where all the key components reside together so that if one goes down, everything else remains functional? These are just a few examples of how organizations are moving toward the cloud. You may already know the answers to these questions, but it’s important to ask them anyway because no matter what kind of business you run, chances are good that you need to be on the cloud.
You may want to use some questionnaires to help you figure out where to go next. Ask yourself a lot of hard-hitting, detailed, and open-ended question, and give yourself enough space to think things through before committing to anything. Doing so helps save both your own efforts and the company’s resources down the line.
Data storage and data security analysis
Cloud computing means moving applications and data to remote computers maintained by third parties instead of using expensive hardware owned by an organization.
It’s important for you to be able to move things back to the cloud if they don’t seem to operate properly after doing so. Changes could potentially affect how something functions, how safe it is when operating via the cloud, and whether or not it actually continues to function correctly once stored there.
When performing an audit of your organization’s current cybersecurity posture, you want to get a sense of where you stand now so you can establish a plan for improvement; after all, tightening up regulatory requirements for storing sensitive company information in the cloud isn’t something you can control without first understanding where you stand right now.
Security concerns that arise when migrating to the cloud
Your database should include only the information you absolutely require to perform your business function(s), and nothing else. Ideally, you’ll have an architecture that allows you to completely separate the system into discrete databases so each component can easily be replaced independently. For instance, if you wanted to replace any given piece of hardware such as a CPU or memory stick, then you’d simply swap out the whole physical unit rather than attempting to replace every single file stored within it.
- When you’re moving your data through public networks (such as email), you run the potential risks of things being lost or stolen. Security measures must be taken to prevent either from happening.
- It shouldn’t come as a surprise that when trying to migrate large amounts of data from one system to another, there is always some chance of having an issue somewhere. If you aren’t completely sure of everything, then you could face issues ranging from loss of data to exposure to theft.
- Lack of internal IT staff. Cybersecurity pros aren’t easy to come by these days, especially when you consider just how important they are to any cloud deployment. Ensure that you have the right people available for this project during the initial phases of your cloud rollout. If not, consult with an outside vendor (or bring someone in from within).
- You may be surprised to learn that unintended regulatory compliance issues arise when moving from on-premises environments to cloud-based solutions. If you aren’t careful, these issues could cause serious problems.
- Migration can be a daunting task, especially if you haven’t done it before. However, migrating all of your data at once is not something anyone should ever do. In fact, it’s probably illegal to migrate everything at once unless you’ve got a good reason and plan ahead and test things out thoroughly. Not only does migration tend to take longer than expected, but depending on what you’re migrating it may also leave you open to security vulnerabilities. For example, consider how difficult it was for Microsoft to find a hole in Windows 7; imagine if they tried to patch every single program and application? That wouldn’t be possible. Additionally, migrating everything at once means that any problems that arise during the process could cause you to lose access to your entire data set.
Before starting the move, make sure you take measures to secure your data.
If you want any of these things not to happen, you must be careful and thorough during every step of your migration plan. You should begin planning for your move before you even leave for your new location.
Before migrating your database from one instance to another, establish a secure baseline.
In order to avoid being taken advantage of by unscrupulous people, we strongly recommend you assess your own personal information and take steps to ensure that no one else gets access to it either. When you are migrating to the new service, it is vital that you capture all of your data, because if you don’t, you risk losing it permanently or having it stolen. So make sure you have a complete inventory of all of your information before you start migrating and capture every piece of evidence you might need to prove later that it was not compromised.
You must use the right security during the cloud migration period.
During the transition period between migrating your old file system and moving to a new one, it’s best to contact experienced data recovery specialists for assistance. They have the proper tools and technology at their disposal so you don’t have to worry about anything.
You should use anything you can get your hands on to protect against threats, including encryption, making sure that your data is not being sent through unprotected APIs, and ensuring that your data isn’t being moved without adequate protection.
Don't forget, it's important to be compliant with the law.
Compliance isn’t just for regulated industries; even if you’re not subject to regulations, you need to be sure that you know what they are so you don’t fall into any holes and hurt yourself. If there are gaps in your knowledge about regulations, you may end up suffering from fines or losing customer trust.
Monitoring in the right way
Before you begin migrating, consider monitoring the move to ensure that nothing goes wrong during the transition period. You may discover that you need to adjust certain settings in order to prevent downtime. In addition to the possible technical difficulties, you may have legal concerns about data ownership, or privacy regulations concerning how much personal information you collect and store. Once you’ve taken care of all those details, you can safely start migrating your assets to another site.
Back up your data before migration
Make sure you have a backup plan; if anything goes wrong, you can just restore your files from a previous version. If you’re not sure how to approach this technique, don’t worry—we’ve got an easy guide for you.
Do the migration in phases
We’ve said this before – don’t rush into moving your entire site from one host to another. It would be best if you migrate your sites in stages to avoid major errors and serious repercussions.
Get help with your migration
One of the best ways to migrate your business online is through the use of managed services providers (MSPs), like ours. For years, we’ve helped companies keep their data safe by keeping them secure, compliant, private, available, and protected. We’re expert at cloud migration.
Intech Hawaii can help with your data plan and migration to the cloud. Contact our team today for an assessment.
