When it comes to large-scale cloud migration, the ability to move and achieve business value fast is a critical differentiator. Organizations begin to lose momentum, and executive buy-in declines if progress falters. If results are realized too slowly or are not properly quantified from the outset, the business case for migration weakens. Managing expectations and effective communication can prevent the risk of jeopardizing the project’s financing and support.
Those who have successfully migrated some or all of their digital assets to AWS Cloud achieve transformational results: reduced costs, improved operational resilience, business agility, and a foundation for rapid innovation. In this blog, we look at the 8 business drivers that have emerged as the most prevalent motivators for migration.
Why is Migration Important?
In the business world, where digital transformation has rapidly accelerated over the last two years, the trend is set to continue. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2025, 51% of IT budgets will shift from traditional solutions to the public cloud, compared to 41% in 2022.
Whether it’s transitioning to the cloud or migrating between cloud providers, large-scale cloud migration is rarely a ‘one-strategy-fits-all’ approach. The good news is that businesses that have migrated to the cloud found it easier and faster than they at first thought possible.
The 8 AWS Cloud Migration Drivers
1. Cost Reduction
Cost reduction is a major migration motivator, as retiring legacy infrastructure in favor of more efficient AWS solutions is virtually certain to bring costs down.
Five year IT infrastructure costs using AWS shows a 31% decrease*:
2. Agility & Staff Productivity
Flexible AWS architecture improves business agility, while automation allows staff to increase the pace of innovation and dedicate more time to important tasks.
62%
more efficient IT infrastructure management*
3x
more features delivered per year*
*Source: IDC 2018
3. Improved Security & Operational Resilience
Strengthening security to protect against cyber-attacks and preventing unauthorized access is a key driver. Cloud migration helps to ensure resiliency, providing high availability with virtually unlimited failover capacity.
69%
reduction in unplanned downtime**
43%
fever security incidents per year**
*Source: Nucleus Research
4. Hardware/Software End-of-Life (EOL)
Many organizations migrate to the cloud due to the EOL of their hardware/software licensing and/or support. The opportunity to improve declining capabilities and to end or shorten refresh cycles is especially attractive for organizations running Windows workloads and applications.
56%
lower 5-year cost of operations
442%
5-year ROI
98%
reduction in unplanned downtime
*Source: IDC, 2020
5. Data Center Consolidation
Organizations are looking for large-scale cloud migration opportunities that enable them to spend less time managing data centers and more time running their businesses.
6. Digital Transformation
Digital transformation helps businesses to boost agility, which enables the broader use of advanced technologies and facilitates culture change.
7. Going Global Quickly, Mergers & Acquisitions
Gaining access to a global AWS network of data centers enables rapid, strategic scalability. It is also easier to integrate digital assets, shortening and streamlining M&A procedures. AWS global infrastructure consists of:
| 26 | 84 | 245 |
| launched regions | availability zones | countries and territories |
8. New Technologies (AI/ML IoT)
Migrating to AWS is a more economical and practical solution for meeting the data storage and computational requirements of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Summary
Often, the decision to migrate workloads to the cloud starts with a desire to reduce costs. However, the strategic business value goes well beyond. No matter what motivates businesses to migrate to the cloud – one or a combination of the 8 cloud migration drivers described, or something else entirely – SourceFuse, AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, can help.
With access to the best software, services, and support, SourceFuse can accelerate smart, strategic large-scale cloud migrations to achieve business objectives quickly and efficiently.
