Migrating to the cloud

The cloud has quickly become central to the way many organisations operate, with new software solutions enabling companies to operate with far more flexibility than previously imagined. Compared to legacy systems, the cloud offers greater responsiveness, more flexibility, reduced infrastructure charges and great new ways of working to engage staff and increase productivity.

Upgrading to cloud software is an important process for businesses to consider. Small migrations, for example from desktop to cloud word processing for your staff can be pretty simple and pain free. But sometimes a cloud migration can turn into a really expensive and complicated headache, for example if you want to take your current enterprise/legacy products into the cloud.

Regardless of whether businesses are looking to migrate their own applications, upgrade their existing locally hosted software, or want to move from paper-based systems into a digital alternative, understanding the process for migrating to the cloud is very important. Some considerations include:

• The needs and requirements of your organisation and customers
• The level of complexity of the product you’re wanting use or migrate
• Your organisation’s appetite for change and innovation
• Determining your return on investment
• The expense of the migration
• Ongoing cloud charges
• The skill level of your current staff

Choosing cloud software for your business

Choosing any new piece of software requires careful consideration of how existing internal processes might be improved. Any implementation of a cloud solution has to be structured around the specific business objectives a company has in order to deliver a project that truly adds value.

This was underscored by a study published last year by Research and Markets into the state of SME cloud uptake. According to the research, small business investment in cloud technology will grow 20 per cent a year between now and 2019. However, the report stated that SMEs in particular are proving sensitive to the return on investment from these services, choosing those that fit within their existing business strategies.