Cloud enablement Archives

Cloud enablement strategy: five steps to supercharge your business

by Estuate | Dec 6, 2022 | Cloud enablement, Digital Transformation

Today’s IT lives in the cloud. With its range of diverse, on-demand services, the cloud is modernizing businesses remarkably. Though ‘cloud enablement’ sounds engaging at present, the concept of cloud computing actually dates back to the 1960s when Remote Job Entry (RJE) was first practiced. From then on, the cloud has covered wide terrains to account for modern application cloud enablement and beyond. It even snowballed with time to create modern digital transformation solutions.

According to recent research, cybercrime damage is expected to reach $8 trillion USD by 2023. Is your organization part of this pool or does it stand aside?

Ever since cloud computing has bloomed and thrived in the tech world and become a huge game changer. Today, businesses of all sizes are adopting the cloud either partially or fully. But why is cloud enablement becoming so popular? What business benefits does it offer; and most importantly, do you need it yet?

Why should businesses opt for cloud computing?

Stores voluminous data
Improves productivity
Ensures security
Reduces costs

Stores voluminous data

As data grows exponentially, you need a platform with massive storage capabilities. Cloud storage solves this problem without you having to worry about developing a data center or maintaining it.

Improves productivity

Since cloud computing is all about a third party offering virtualization solutions, it saves a great deal of time and effort involved in IT maintenance. A cloud enablement strategy allows you to concentrate on your core operations.

Ensures security

One of the key drawbacks of mainframe data centers and applications is their vulnerability to cybersecurity incidents. Cloud computing strengthens information security and minimizes your cyber risk by keeping your data safe in a virtual, virus-free environment.

Reduces costs

A major benefit of a cloud enablement strategy is its cost-effectiveness. As everything is hosted over the internet by a third party, you can save huge sums of money, otherwise spent on hardware equipment, software installation, and maintenance.

With the right cloud enablement strategy, you bulk up on efficiency

Because of its multiple benefits, diverse offerings and agile features, businesses are switching from traditional systems and adopting the cloud to optimize operations. However, cloud enablement is a huge business change and should be carried out with the right strategy and implementation method.

What does a cloud enablement strategy involve?

Here is a five-step strategy for successful cloud migration:

Determine your cloud needs
Plan your cloud environment
Select your cloud partner
Execute the migration
Monitor and maintain

Step 1: Determine your cloud needs

The first step to successful cloud enablement is to understand your readiness to adapt to the cloud and determine the areas or applications that need to be migrated. This would include a thorough assessment of your business operations, current applications and IT infrastructure, and a SWOT analysis of how the cloud can help optimize your business processes. It will help you build a clear roadmap for cloud migration, allocate resources appropriately, and implement the cloud effectively.

Businesses have been aware of cloud enablement’s vantage point for quite some time now.

Step 2: Plan your cloud environment

The world of cloud is vast, and selecting the ideal solution or mix of solutions is critical. Cloud services are classified on the basis of location as public, private, hybrid, or community cloud. Similarly, based on the service being offered, cloud is categorized into Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), Platform as a Service (Paas), Software as a Service (Saas), cloud database, cloud ERP, etc. The nature of your operations and your business assessment will help you determine the right mix of cloud solutions to go for.

Read: Four compelling reasons to switch to cloud ERP

Step 3: Select your cloud partner

Once you’re all set to move to cloud, you need the right cloud service provider to help you migrate. With numerous options available in the market, it could be overwhelming and tricky to select the right cloud implementation partner. The most suitable cloud service provider will have the right expertise, technical know-how, implementation experience and the exact mix of cloud-based solutions you’re looking for.

The steps behind a successful cloud enablement strategy

A successful cloud enablement strategy needs smart planning

Step 4: Execute the migration

Now comes the real deal, the execution. Your cloud partner will offer you a range of solutions, design an implementation roadmap, and allocate resources accordingly. Before migrating an application or data center to cloud, create a reliable backup of all the data that exists within. The next step is to create the cloud environment with the right tools, connections, and networks. Once you have successfully set up the cloud, the next step is to migrate your data or application to the cloud without hampering regular business activities. Lastly, test the cloud performance and ensure that everything works as expected.

Step 5: Monitor and maintain

Monitoring and maintaining a cloud-based platform is as important as implementing it successfully. You would have to train your workforce to get accustomed to the new platform and manage the change effectively. It is also important that you keep a track of your cloud environment, fix any issues, and maintain the networks throughout to ensure smooth performance.

Challenges in the way of tech transformations are common. And, cloud enablement is no different. An adept cloud partner can help navigate you through these challenges.

Watch: How to neutralize vulnerabilities in a mixed cloud on-premise environment

Cloud adoption and transformation made easy by Estuate

We have end-to-end cloud enablement solutions to meet your specific IT needs and business goals.

Amazon Web Services
Join the cloud with Estuate’s expert AWS cloud implementation services.
Microsoft Azure
We offer Azure consulting, cloud implementation, and support services.
Cisco
Leverage data management, cyber security, and cloud transformation services.
Teradata
We provide end-to-end digitization with Teradata’s cloud and platform modernization solutions.

Cloud computing is the future of modern-day enterprises. It is disrupting the world of IT with immense speed, storage, and computing capabilities. If you too are considering migrating to cloud, we are right here to help!

Digital transformation is the future. Take a look at our digital transformation solutions.

How important do you think cyber resilience is for today’s businesses to survive and thrive? What steps are you taking to protect your company’s data? Let us know on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. We would love to hear from you!

Common Challenges of Private Cloud Implementation

by Estuate | Nov 26, 2019 | Cloud enablement

A growing number of organisations have turned to the cloud as a way to increase flexibility and improve resource utilization. The reason behind opting out for cloud services is its abundance benefits including scalability, growth, agility, cost benefits. Organizations who were previously apprehensive about joining the cloud, it has been reported that 83% of companies will work in the cloud by 2020. Of that 83%, 41% of business workloads will be run on public cloud platforms, while 20% are predicted to be private cloud platforms. But why is the private cloud base developing at such a slow rate?

One of the major pain points many organisations face is that IT professionals and business units see the cloud from entirely different perspectives. This is why many private cloud solutions fail. Leveraging a software services provider can alleviate some of this strain by helping companies align their cloud initiatives with end-user needs.

In relation to corporate cloud deployments, the teams that will be using the technology represent the target audience. The problem is that many IT teams see the private cloud as an expansion of virtualization. While they produce similar benefits, the difference is that private clouds need to be service-driven to operate effectively. For this reason, it is important to move away from purely technological benefits in the planning phase and identify clear business value propositions.

Filling knowledge gaps

Another common point of frustration is that IT teams frequently don’t take the time to spread knowledge of how the cloud service should be used. This scenario leaves uncertainties with regard to how application development processes should operate in the cloud and reduces end-user support for the technology.

Estuate solves this problem by supplementing its IT project implementation services with consulting and knowledge transfer. This ensures users will be on board with new technology deployments without taking valuable time away from internal IT teams.

Cloud or virtualization?

Another problem that is addressed through knowledge transfer is the confusion created by cloud washing – a trend in which vendors label their services as a form of cloud computing when they aren’t true clouds. This leads to the misalignment between business units and technology teams. Without scalability and self-provisioning, end users are more likely to go outside of IT’s solutions to get what they need. Estuate begins its project with a comprehensive planning phase and gathers both end-user and IT feedback to ensure a high level of adoption. This saves internal teams time, which they can allocate to critical business tasks.

Security Breaches

Data security and protection is one of the leading concerns in the private cloud. A private cloud can actually be less secure than a public cloud. Public cloud providers have years of experience and top-notch expertise in security. But whatever happens inside the private cloud becomes your responsibility.

It is crucial to give serious thought to these challenges and the likely ways out before embracing cloud technology. Have you implemented private clouds in your enterprise? What were the most significant challenges, and how did you overcome them?