Leveraging Tailored Migration for Cloud Consolidation: 5 Points

With a faster pace in digital evolution, businesses have their workloads and data distributed among several cloud and on-premises applications and infrastructure. According to a recent study, around 87% of the global respondents in the survey agreed that their organization uses a multi-cloud strategy, and 66% of them found it challenging to manage their multi-cloud environments.

Though multi-cloud usage has been a norm in many companies, why do they find it difficult to manage it? Discover why having a multi-cloud approach is challenging and how to overcome it with tailored migration strategies for cloud consolidation.

What Are the Current Challenges in a Distributed Data Environment?

When the data is available across various cloud platforms, it increases the occurrence of data silos, making management complicated. The analytics feature varies between each cloud platform, leaving no uniformity in the insights derived. Also, when you try moving data across multi-cloud environments, it can result in an additional problem of data duplication. With increased data complexity, the cost and risks of maintaining it also grow multifold.

How Can Cloud Consolidation Help?

Organizations have multiple cloud licenses for varied purposes like email, chat, word processing, data storage, video conferencing, etc. Too many cloud platforms means your team must spend additional time integrating the data whenever required.

However, with the cloud consolidation approach, your organization can adopt a robust cloud office suite such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and consolidate all the needed cloud apps under a single cloud environment. This approach helps let go of the complexities that come with managing various cloud apps individually.

One such example would be moving data from the existing email platform, Slack, and Box, to Google Workspace or Microosft 365 for higher efficiency, better collaboration, and enhanced productivity.

Tailored Data Migration Strategies to Execute Cloud Consolidation

It is important to follow specific migration strategies to overcome the challenges of distributed data when it comes to consolidation under a single cloud suite.

We have listed some of the top tried and tested migration strategies that can help achieve seamless cloud storage consolidation.

Define Clear Objectives as Per the Use Case 

Define clear objectives for performing the migration as per the use case of your company. What do you plan to achieve from the cloud consolidation – Is it reduced license costs, better cloud governance, improved user productivity, or more?

After finalizing the use case/reasons to consolidate, plan the migration to align it with your organization’s goals.

Pre-Migration Assessment and Data Audit

Conduct a thorough assessment of your existing data distributed across several cloud storages. Understanding the data types, volume, and sensitivity of the information lets you frame a solid strategy for the upcoming migration.

Data Prioritization and Filtering

Categorize your data based on the business priority. Identify redundant and obsolete data and filter them before transferring. Check whether you need to move historical data or archive them. With these steps, your team can prepare a scope of work that is neither an underkill nor an overkill. Taking this approach will also help your company avoid under spending or over spending on the consolidation migration project.

Choose the Right Migration Service Provider

A DIY migration approach can burden your internal IT team with complicated migration scenarios, restricting them from focusing on their everyday task.

Therefore, partnering with a reliable migration service provider like CloudFuze is critical to strategizing and executing the migration in ways that align with your organization’s cloud consolidation goals through and through.

Perform Delta Migration Following One-Time Migration

Apart from the first phase of migration your company plans to perform, it is also crucial to perform a secondary migration (delta migration) to transfer all the incremental changes that end-users make during the first phase of migration (one-time migration)

Monitor The Migration

Track the progress of the migration in real-time. This enables your team to estimate the completion time and plan the relevant business operations accordingly. It can also help identify any potential misalignments from the optimal migration outcomes and address them at the earliest.

Validate Post-Migration Data

Once you move the data from your current source clouds to a consolidated cloud suite, it is important to validate the migrated data. Use migration reports to perform the data validation by checking various metrics, such as the total number of users migrated, the total size of the content (files and folders) migrated, the total time taken for the migration batch, and statuses of errors if any.

Get end-user feedback after the migration and incorporate any necessary changes if required.

A tailored migration strategy combined with a well-informed approach ensures a seamless cloud storage consolidation without any disruption.

Get in touch with our migration experts at CloudFuze to understand how your team can strategize the migration for cloud consolidation.