f you or your IT department have begun feeling data center growing pains, your current data center may not be cutting it anymore. Here are 10 signs it may be time to migrate to the cloud.
If you or your IT department are feeling data center growing pains despite good IT capacity planning, chances are your current data center isn’t cutting it anymore. Here are 10 signs it may be time to migrate to the cloud.
1. You Need More Space
Data centers require physical space, a commodity that may be difficult to come by. As your business grows, so does your need for more servers to keep up with the demand of your customers and workforce. IT capacity planning can only do so much in maximizing space. When your data center needs outgrow the space you have dedicated to it, you should consider moving workloads to the cloud.
2. Poor Connectivity Between Offices
Poor connectivity can leave certain offices in the dark when it comes to accessing particular data and programs. If you’re noticing a lack of information sharing between offices, you may be in need of a better data center solution.
3. Lack of Flexibility
As growth happens, the need for new processes is necessary. If your environment makes it difficult to make the needed changes in processes, it’s time to migrate to the cloud.
4. Too Much Growth Too Quickly
Even after brilliant and ongoing IT capacity planning, unforeseen rapid growth can lead to a variety of problems- including the outgrowing of your IT infrastructure. Growth is good for your business as a whole, but without the right resources it can be unsustainable. As your business grows, any problems within your infrastructure will only be exacerbated, leaving you with ongoing issues.
5. Unable to Complete Backups
Sometimes your backup window is decreasing or has disappeared altogether even after effective IT capacity planning. Sometimes people catch the issue before it reaches this point. But if not, you need to make big changes immediately to accommodate your growing need for capacity.
6. Data Redundancy
Best practices are to have 3 copies of all data: two on site within two different systems with two different operating systems, and one off site. It is often cost prohibitive to add building a second data center off site to your IT capacity planning. If this is true in your case, the cloud is an excellent option.
7. Wasted Resources
Without proper IT capacity planning, you’ll likely find yourself waiting too long to replace servers and other equipment. This leaves you with aging systems and resources that are not able to keep up business needs, requiring more updates and maintenance.
8. Lack of Data Center Skills
One of the number one problems for businesses today is a lack of data center skills. In fact, a study in 2014 showed that 80% of businesses would find growth inhibited by the lack of employees who are capable of managing their data center needs. If you find yourself lacking employees to perform the necessary data center tasks to maintain the performance of daily functions, it’s time to migrate to the cloud.
9. Budgeting Issues
Infrastructure capacity planning is essential to help you remain on budget in your yearly planning. This includes the power and cooling systems needed for maintaining your data center infrastructure and the network that your data center uses. If you’ve found your forecasted budget for maintaining these systems just isn’t cutting it, it’s time to move to the cloud where these systems are included in your monthly costs.
10. Poor System Performance
Perhaps one of the earliest signs of a problem with your current data center is poor system performance. When you see signs of delays in system performance that would be costly to overcome, it’s time to consider the cloud to prevent any downtime and losing money.
Are You Ready to Migrate?
According to an Intuit study, nearly 80% of small businesses in the United States will upgrade their operations to the cloud by 2020. IT capacity planning is still of vital importance, and the cloud can be part of your strategy. Is it time to improve your system? With Logical Front’s eXtensile Hybrid Cloud solution, you can enjoy the security and control benefits of a private cloud, with the price and flexibility of a public cloud. What are you waiting for? Contact us today to learn more.
