The journey to the cloud can be complicated, expensive, and risky – especially if you’re doing it for the first time. Here are five ways that partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) makes migration to Azure a smooth process:
1. Save Time and Costs
A proper cloud migration requires a dedicated cloud team to manage all the moving parts, which may cause a strain on resources. Partnering with an MSP opens access to a team of cloud, security, and DevOps experts with certifications and experience. Atmosera takes that a step further with 24x7x365 support before, during, and after the migration process. Finding that caliber of talent to build an internal cloud team is a difficult, expensive, and long process. An internal IT team shouldn’t shift its focus to conduct a cloud migration on top of its day-to-day IT functions that keep the company running.
Trying to migrate to the cloud alone without the right support is likely to lengthen the timeline and increase costs. It’s best to build the initial cloud environment properly the first time, to build the right foundation for a company’s critical infrastructure, rather than going back and trying to and fix a poorly implemented environment. Making changes and fixes to an Azure environment certainly isn’t impossible – and a reliable MSP can do so – but that increases costs and time. Ensure a proper set up by leaving infrastructure development and workload migration to the experts.
One of the major benefits of the Azure cloud is scalability. In order for an Azure environment to scale sustainably with business growth, it needs to be structured properly from the ground up by an MSP. If an environment is not built that way, an organization’s cloud spend will get out of hand as its business expands and its Azure environment grows unsustainably.
2. Added Peace of Mind
The foundation of the entire cloud migration process is a fully developed plan. This starts with a detailed assessment of each workload and associated asset – including infrastructure, applications, and data. It should determine the number of assets and complexity. An MSP will run a thorough assessment to identify dependencies and compatibility with the Azure platform. The MSP will then develop a migration plan based on the assessment, as well as proven migration strategies from its wealth of experience.
There are four primary methods for migrating workloads to the cloud: rehost, refactor, rearchitect, and rebuild.
Rehost or Lift & Shift Migration
Rehost – also known as “lift and shift” – is for existing apps architected for Azure IaaS VMs. This is the fastest way to migrate assets from a datacenter to the cloud because they are migrated as-is without any code changes.
Refactor or Repackage Migration
Refactor – also known as “repackage” – is an efficient way to modernize apps to leverage IaaS and PaaS services including Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database Managed Instance, as well as containers and DevOps. The process involves changes to the application design without major changes to the code.
Rearchitect Migration
Rearchitect is a method that modernizes existing apps to benefit from new Azure capabilities, DevOps, and highly scalable architecture. It requires modification and/or extension of an existing app’s code base to optimize it for the cloud.
Rebuild Migration
Rebuild is the primary method used to build cloud-native apps from scratch. Rebuild is also required when an existing app has limited functionality or lifespan and requires rapid development to rebuild it from the ground up with cloud-native technologies. Apps are managed by the organization, but Azure PaaS manages everything else. It provides complete development and deployment in the cloud. Use rebuild to use AI, blockchain, and IoT in your apps.
How do you choose the right migration strategy? Choosing the right mix of strategies to migrate workloads and applications to maximize efficiency requires expertise, and an MSP will choose the right method for each workload to achieve the desired results. An MSP will move assets and workloads in the correct order to prevent data loss and long downtime, using data backup best practices.
3. Strengthen Security and Compliance
Does the organization have any industrial or regional compliance regulations to meet? For example, a healthcare organization may need to comply with HIPAA, or a financial services company may have a PCI-DSS requirement. It’s best to build an infrastructure with compliance needs in mind, to mitigate the need for time-consuming and expensive remediation. Work with a certified MSP to ensure the environment meets the needed compliance requirements on an ongoing basis and for support to prepare for audits.
Fortify the security of an Azure environment with the help of an MSP to protect your assets and provide continuous 24x7x365 monitoring to ensure that the implementation is secure throughout the migration process. Atmosera also offers award-winning security services like vulnerability scanning, advanced threat detection and data protection that can be added on post-migration for even more protection.
Shift risk and liability by partnering with an MSP. A good MSP can provide guidance for establishing security controls and will also handle remediation whenever required. Security and data protection become a shared responsibility between the organization and MSP.
4. Access the Latest Technologies and Vendor Support
Benefit from cutting edge cloud technologies by partnering with an MSP. MSPs are up to date on the latest Azure product updates and announcements; plus, they get access to new cloud technologies sooner for research and beta testing. Their cloud experts are equipped with the skills to implement the best features for optimal migration and performance.
In addition to support from an MSP’s team, working with an MSP opens access to deeper cloud vendor support. Gain access to Microsoft’s engineering team and expedited support throughout your cloud journey.
5. Continuous Cloud Optimization
The journey to the cloud doesn’t end after migration. Get peace of mind not only for the cloud migration process, but also for management of the environment. An MSP like Atmosera has Microsoft-certified cloud experts to monitor and optimize the environment 24x7x365. Without continuous management, costs are likely to spike and performance will suffer – even if the infrastructure has a reliable foundation with a cloud migration conducted by an MSP. Leveraging Azure management services ensures your cloud investment will be protected. It also frees up internal resources, enabling the organization to focus on the strategic areas of its business. As business grows, an MSP will continuously optimize costs, performance, security, and scalability of the environment to meet the organization’s changing needs.
Partner with a reliable, Microsoft-certified Azure Expert MSP like Atmosera for a secure Azure migration that will meet your budget, timeline, and business objectives. Ready to embark on your cloud journey to Azure? Contact us to get started today.