Today, when every second spent offline matters, organizations of all sizes rely heavily on the quality of services their provider offers. IT infrastructure maintenance and technical support are crucial to performance and business success, and the lack of good support can hinder growth. Consequently, there can be plenty of reasons behind an organization’s decision to go for an IT migration; still, the hesitation before taking the leap is understandable.
An IT migration can be quite complex, and the risk of downtime can prevent organizations from committing to the change. Despite the promise of improvements in performance, organizations often have second thoughts because of the risks involved. The fears are real and understandable, however, IT needs do change and evolve, and providers sometimes lack the resources to meet your needs as well as they did earlier in your business’s journey.
When the change becomes necessary, it’s time to ditch the fears and let go of things that no longer serve your organization’s best interests. Performance is just as important as the safety of familiarity, and it all comes down to minimizing downtime and preparing for future needs.
In this article, we’ll explore the complexity of IT migration, how to choose a new provider, and how to make the switch smooth, like a pro.
Preparing Your IT Migration
An IT migration can affect business operations, and without the proper precautions, it can come with unplanned downtime, too. Here are a few crucial steps for a well-prepared, secure, and smooth migration.
Plan Your Migration
A robust and secure IT migration requires thorough planning. The tasks and responsibilities involved require a pre-established outline to be successful. Depending on the size and complexity of your infrastructure, the timeline of a full transition can be anywhere between weeks and months, so considering all aspects is crucial to shortening the critical period.
Notify Your Current Provider
When you’ve committed to the switch, first notify your current provider that you will be leaving the partnership. Inform them of the reasons, and make sure to transfer all the necessary documentation to your new provider. Communicate with your current provider during the whole process to make sure that all the data and systems are transferred without issues.
Communicate the Transition
Make an official company announcement that informs employees and stakeholders about the transition. Transparent communication is crucial to prepare employees for the changes happening soon.
Conduct Risk Assessment and Testing
Before diving into the practical execution of the IT migration, it’s important to carry out comprehensive audits and a risk assessment to reveal potential vulnerabilities. All systems and processes should be tested before migrating to the new provider. This can include removing old and outdated hardware and software to clear the way for the new systems that will replace them. This can help reduce the risks associated with these during the transition process.
Network modernization can also make it easier to migrate data and applications to the new provider and integrate with their infrastructure seamlessly.
Monitor Everything
Unaddressed issues with the new environment can cause unplanned downtime and unexpected losses. Monitoring the whole process throughout the IT migration helps to identify potential issues and fix them before they cause more serious problems. After the migration is complete, an evaluation can help uncover any remaining issues in the health of the infrastructure.
Ensure Your Safety With Backups
Contingency planning is another crucial element in planning a secure IT migration. A contingency response plan prepares your organization to respond quickly and effectively in case of an emergency that can appear during the migration. Unexpected downtime can occur, and having a backup system in place can be all it takes to save the situation. Backups offer protection against data loss, and allows to go back to a pre-incident state in case something goes wrong.
The Data Migration
Transferring your business data to your new provider is one of the most critical steps of IT migration. Data migration can become a security concern, and valuable information can be corrupted or lost. To prevent this, communicate with your providers and find the most suitable and secure approach. Depending on the circumstances, data migration can happen through a physical transfer (hard drives) or cloud services. Keep in mind that the data migration process takes time, so plan it carefully and choose a time when it doesn’t interfere with your business operations. In case it does interfere with business hours, inform your customers to avoid misunderstandings.
Ensure That Your Employees Recieve Adequate Training
Familiarizing with the new situation and the new provider’s environments can require some time and training for employees. This can have an impact on productivity, however, training sessions can make this period shorter and less stressful for your team. Technical issues and questions may arise after an IT migration, and ideally, your new provider should ensure support and help with any emerging issues. A good training offers the necessary information to handle novel challenges with confidence.
So, When is The Right Time to Switch Providers?
An IT migration is a complex procedure, and the decision whether to switch providers or not is not always obvious. Before deciding to break up with the old and look forward to the new, consider the following criteria.
Reliability
Reliability is one of the most important things to consider when choosing to work with someone. Lasting partnerships need a solid basis, and when your business’s performance is at risk, you must consider your choices thoroughly. Will the provider offer help and support when needed with infrastructure management? Will the service be satisfactory and capable of replacing the efforts and resources of an on-premises team? Can the provider fulfill present and future IT needs? These are important considerations, so make sure to ask the right questions to reveal if the partnership will be right for your needs.
Uptime
Another major consideration is protecting the IT infrastructure that sustains your business in the face of cyberattacks, outages, and hardware failures. Look for a provider that’s certified as fully fault-tolerant, can prove high resiliency, and can guarantee a high uptime (99.9 %). Your future provider should also include downtime compensation in their Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Security
Robust security measures are non-negotiable today. Your service provider should engage the necessary security measures and protocols to protect your business’s IT backbone and your customers’ personal information. An extensive security strategy and patch management protocol are key to finding and fixing security vulnerabilities and bugs. Good security management not only offers resiliency against threats but also contributes to overall performance and keeping your data safe.
Scalability
Switching providers often happens because of growth considerations. Scaling a business can come with new needs and challenges, which require new solutions – and a certain degree of flexibility on the provider’s part. When considering an IT migration, it’s essential to consider whether the new provider can provide the storage and bandwidth needs your business is expecting in the future. For smooth scaling, make sure that your future partner can sustain your growth objectives.
Switch Like a Pro With Volico
Migrating is not an easy decision to make. The dilemma is real, and the fears are legitimate. However, sooner or later elbow room becomes more important than the fear of downtime. Switching providers can bring the desired performance and results necessary for future growth.
Not sure where to start? IT migration is complex but not impossible with the right service provider. Volico Data Centers’ robust, reliable, highly secure, and scalable solutions can offer future-proof results that are key to performance.
If you want to make the switch smooth like a pro, contact us at Volico! Your assets are in good hands with our certified technicians and professional team. Our migration services ensure the secure transition of servers, databases, applications, and email. For more information, call (305) 735-8098 or leave us a message in chat.
