The most common challenges for small businesses when moving to the cloud

Adopting The Cloud could be one of the wisest decisions you can make as a business owner: It increases efficiency and productivity, saves you lots of money, and improves your bottom line.

However, this is not a one size fits all solutions. There are a multitude of considerations in order to select the right solution or to determine if a cloud strategy is the correct one for your business. Working with an IT service company that has experience with a variety of scenarios insures that you make the right decision.

Recent studies have noted that the rate of cloud adoption grew three times in the last year, proving that more and more organizations are gradually leaving their legacy systems for the cloud.

At Sabio, we’ve made cloud adoption seamless and cost-efficient for Miami businesses. But some businesses were hesitant to abandon their old systems. For them, the following challenges are what’s causing them to hesitate to adopt cloud-based systems.

Temporary downtime

No one likes downtime during the normal course of operations much less during cloud migration. However, several downtime events throughout the entire process are inevitable.

Migrating large chunks of data and systems to the cloud is often a complex process that requires IT experts’ guidance. Unless you have a fully capable in-house IT staff that could manage the process themselves and fix unexpected issues, it’s essential to work with a reliable IT services provider who can minimize disruptions and bring the process into completion smoothly and on schedule.

System compatibility and conflicting migration schedules also pose an obstacle during the cloud transition. To avoid significant disruptions, set a realistic timeframe for completion, schedule the migration at non-peak periods, increase your network’s bandwidth before migration, and test the new systems before you discard legacy systems.

Interoperability issues

Interoperability refers to your legacy and new cloud-based systems’ ability to work harmoniously during and after the migration process. Some businesses are highly concerned that cloud migration could severely affect staff’s workflow by preventing them from accessing data and applications required for work.

To prevent such issues, cloud migration should be done in phases rather than in one fell swoop. A cloud services provider anticipates these concerns and ensures that all applications and data are accessible throughout the entire migration process. An IT Managed service provider (MSP) like Sabio can help by creating a strategic migration plan that smoothens the kinks of this usually daunting task. The plan must take into consideration of the proper IT support services before, during and after the migration to the cloud.

Security concerns

Businesses that attempt to handle cloud migration could not only end up causing disruptions to operations, but could also fail in keeping their data secure. This is mainly because security protocols for in-house systems differ vastly from cloud security protocols, and some of them may not be aware of it.

Ensuring data privacy requires establishing data governance, which lets you keep an eye on data during the migration process. Effective data governance entails thoroughly examining the integrity of your chosen cloud services provider, and having them keep you fully informed of the entire process.

Migration costs

Although a cloud-based infrastructure helps cut back spending on server maintenance and upkeep and electricity bill, there are exceptional cases where an in-house infrastructure could prove more inexpensive for a business — at least in the short-term. Some business decision-makers might even view cloud adoption as unnecessary cost rather than a worthy long-term investment.

Being a business ourselves, we understand the concerns about the cost of migration. That said, various types of organizations have proven the cloud’s cost-efficiency, including state and local government agencies that have saved around $1-$2 million annually for moving basic applications and systems like email and calendar to the cloud.

To determine whether moving to the cloud could really mean long-term savings for your business, it’s important to factor in the costs incurred by keeping your current infrastructure — including maintenance costs — versus the costs of the cloud services you intend to use. The cost savings of moving to the cloud are well-known, but it’s important for your business to audit the costs of the two setups before you make a decision.

Support Services

Although a cloud solution can reduce some of the ongoing costs you still need an IT support company that can help with proper security, integration and strategy so that your business is always ahead of your competition. The right IT services firm will always be a smart decision for any business regardless of where your servers are located.