When you move to the cloud, you move your applications and data to the cloud. So that’s probably where you focus your planning. You’re probably relieved to hand over the responsibility for your servers and data.

Your network is left behind, though; you don’t get to turn over responsibility for that to the cloud provider. That doesn’t mean it isn’t affected by the migration to the cloud, however—in fact, your network is very affected by the move to the cloud.

You need to make sure you have enough network capacity in the right places to handle your new cloud configuration. If your WAN is based on T1 lines, your network design may not handle the new usage patterns that come with cloud.

New Traffic Patterns, New Latency Issues

When your applications and data run in a local data center, you have complete control over how the data travels to the end user. That total control vanishes when the applications and data reside outside the data center. In order to make sure users experience acceptable performance, you should take snapshots of traffic and usage prior to migrating an application in order to understand how the application is being accessed and how the cloud will affect it. You may need to use load balancers, increase your guaranteed bandwidth, or arrange flexible bandwidth to support peak loads now that data is in the cloud. You should make sure to implement ongoing monitoring after deploying to the cloud to make sure you keep up with demand.

Intensified Network Security Issues

Moving applications and data to the cloud doesn’t so much introduce new network security issues as intensify the existing concerns. Now your endpoints are outside the corporate network perimeter. You need to investigate how this affects your network security concerns, particularly regarding the usage of firewalls and data loss prevention software.

Network Support for the Cloud Migration

The network issues aren’t only important once you’ve migrated to the cloud and have the applications running. Your network capacity is a critical factor in how you’ll transition to the cloud. If you’re moving very large data volumes as part of your initial cloud set up, you may not have the capacity to complete that migration within a reasonable time period. In some cases, migrating data to the cloud may require backing up to a spare drive and sending the physical device to the cloud provider so the data can be loaded locally, without needing to transfer via the network.

Prescient Solutions has been helping organizations solve their technology issues for 20 years. As experts in Microsoft Azure, we can help you plan your cloud migration and incorporate the cloud into your technology strategy. With certified expertise in network and security technology from top vendors like Cisco and Fortinet, we can design a secure network that will support your data and transaction volumes now and grow with you as your business expands. Our network management services include provisioning and maintaining all elements of your network to support local, hybrid, and cloud data needs. Contact us for a free infrastructure assessment to make sure your network connects your business with success.