As companies everywhere embrace the many wonderful benefits of cloud computing, the prospect of data protection in an increasingly digital business landscape begs an important question: How is sensitive data being handled?
Cybersecurity concerns are extremely prominent in the minds of many diligent business owners, and for a good reason, a successful data breach can spell disaster for a brand.
Moving your business to the cloud, or even moving part of your business to the cloud, should be a carefully considered process, complete with an understanding of potential compliance issues.
Here are some important points to consider on your journey towards success.
Recognizing Cloud Compliance Necessities
Cloud compliance regulations exist to protect data and make sure companies are handling sensitive digital information following local and international law, so as you might imagine, failing to comply with industry standards can lead your business into some extremely hot water.
This is why choosing a reliable provider that can cater to your company’s individual needs and requirements are so vital.
You may want to take a look at an expert and in-depth explanation for what cloud compliance consists of from Proofpoint, as this can give you some greater insight into which direction is best for your business.
Assessing Your Infrastructure
Conducting an audit on your current infrastructure is a must if you aim to create a migration strategy of any kind.
This means taking inventory of all your current software and hardware implementations while ensuring that your data and every aspect of your legacy system (including your employees that need to maintain it) are accounted for.
Calculating Cost
Sometimes, migrating a business to the cloud can prove to be more expensive than owners initially thought, particularly if steps are not taken to fully assess what it is that needs to be moved over in the first place.
Although the subscription cost of the cloud itself may be fairly low to start off with, there are some pitfalls to consider, such as:
- Potential loss of income flow while the move takes place.
- The logistics and possible disruption of moving an entire operation to the cloud
- Having to retrain employees to work with the new system
- Licensing fees
- Testing fees
Thankfully, many of the most well-known cloud service providers have their own price calculators to help you get an idea of the final cost, so it is worth revisiting this feature at various points in your migration timeline.
A Staggered Approach
Rather than moving your entire company in one go or migrating your most intrinsic applications first, it might be worth taking a staggered approach and opting to take your fewer essential elements of business to the cloud first.
This can help you understand what to expect from the service, how your employees will interact with it, and how effective the new setup is.
Testing
Before your new setup goes live, testing should be carried out to ensure that all of your processes actually work in the first place, as this can help you get off to the best start possible.
