Planning on taking your data to new places? That’s great news. But moving data from your company’s internal servers to your cloud software vendor’s remote servers is no small task—and you might even say it’s a little scary. That’s why it’s essential to take a deep breath and follow these three steps.
1. Know Why You’re Doing It
Remind yourself (and your team) why you’re transitioning from on-premise to cloud computing. Your decision probably has something to do with needing to boost your productivity, affordably scale your business, and streamline your IT resources. But at the heart of it, really, is the marriage between process automation and big data. Your business data is invaluable—and the power of the cloud makes it unstoppable.
Consider the benefits of hosting your data in the cloud:
- Data expands with you. Data storage and management is easier and more cost-efficient, especially as you grow and your data output gets more voluminous and complex.
- Data “optimization.” Your data is removed from silos and can be seamlessly connected via integrations with other business software programs.
- Anytime, anywhere data crunching. Users can access their data and software tools around-the-clock from any connected device.
2. Trust That It’s Safe
Natural disasters, compliance risk, cyber attacks, data corruption…there are so many reasons to fear for your data, no matter where it lives. When you store your business data on an external server, you certainly expose your business to new risks. But your cloud software vendor’s computing environment is probably much safer than yours. That is, your data tends to be much safer on your vendor’s system than when it’s conventionally stored and processed.
Why? Because cloud vendors offer various security features across their systems and software, such as:
- Data centers that are monitored 24/7 and equipped with power supply back-ups and redundant network components.
- Secure applications that follow stringent user verification, login, and session length rules.
- System security that’s SSAE 16 SOC1 Type II and PCI DSS Level 1 certified and designed to protect against unrestricted access to data and networks.
- Minimum 128-bit encryption of data while it’s in transit and “at rest” on the vendor servers.
- Continuous data backups across network machines and locations, including data recovery centers.
3. Rely on Your Software Implementation Partner
When you set up any new business software, it’s important to work with an implementation team with the know-how and experience to understand your goals and how to get you there—with safe, secure, powerful data in tow! Make sure you select a partner who can take the data migration work and organize the details from beginning to end. This requires knowledge of your existing IT environment and expertise with the technology and software you’ve chosen to introduce.
And aside from getting your system up and running—and all of the data moved—your partner needs to show your users how to leverage your new software tools effectively so they can make the most of your data. For additional insights, don’t miss: Recommended Policies and Procedures for Financial Data Migration.
Contact us to learn more!
