Adopting any new technology introduces risks. No matter how much training you provide your team, there are simply things that have to be learned through experience. The bigger the change in your technology, the bigger the risk and the less likely you can give your team enough training to be ready on Day One.

That’s why, when planning your migration to the cloud, you should work with IT consultants who have significant experience and insight into your chosen cloud platform. The consultants can partner with your team to make sure the transition works smoothly and mentor them to make sure they’re ready to support your cloud.

IT consultants can help your cloud migration run more smoothly at every step of the way:

1. Cloud selection. The consultants can help you evaluate cloud platforms and provide a realistic assessment of how the cloud will impact your application performance and your computing costs.
2. Cloud migration planning. Migrating applications to the cloud begins with evaluating your applications to determine which are suited for the cloud. Once applications to be migrated are selected, your IT consultants can help you size your cloud instances appropriately, select a strategy for migrating data, and determine how to protect your data in the cloud.
3. Cloud migration execution. The consultants work with your team to ensure that all necessary migration steps are properly executed and that the migrated applications are validated. The consultants can work with you to ensure that all configurations are correct, appropriate security measures are taken, and identity and access management controls are in place to ensure your cloud resources are safe.
4. Cloud monitoring and support. Although the cloud is robust, applications can experience problems running there just as they can when they run internally. Experienced cloud consultants can set up cloud monitoring services to keep an eye on systems that make alert you when problems occur. The cloud experts on your consulting team can also help you respond to any problems.
5. Managed cloud services. Go beyond short-term consulting support and receive ongoing assistance with managed cloud services. With managed cloud, the team takes over responsibility for the day-to-day oversight of your cloud. This includes making sure your cloud is prepared to support your business as it changes in the future, in addition to responding to any problems that arise today. With managed cloud services, your cloud is not just monitored and supported, it’s optimized.

Prescient Solutions has provided IT consulting and managed services in Chicago and Schaumburg for 20 years. Our team is comprised of certified experts in the technologies that underlie today’s data center operations. Through a partnership with Microsoft, we have intensive knowledge in all aspects of the Microsoft Azure platform. Contact us to learn how our team can support you during your transition to the cloud and beyond.