An SMB Guide for Migrating to the Cloud

By Jack M. Germain

Moving your business to the cloud might be one of the shrewdest moves you make this year for your company’s improved success. Cloud adoption is at an all-time high and growing.

Cost is a huge factor that is driving cloud growth. Effectiveness is another factor that creates staying power in the cloud. The cloud eliminates the hassles associated with traditional server maintenance and system upgrading.

Putting your business in the cloud puts you in a new competitive position. You are up and running right away. Plus, you are able to scale your cloud operations to your changing needs. This lets you focus on your core business.

Often, SMB owners assume that they must float ever-increasing sums of money into a rigid, one-size-fits-all cloud operation. Not so. The cloud space has many options in public and private cloud offerings.

If you are hesitant, think small. Then get started. Later, expand from there. Take the case of AJ Saleem. He owns a startup tutoring company, Suprex Tutors.

The company is based in Houston and also has tutors in New York and Chicago. Saleem uses the online storage systems in Google’s Drive and Microsoft’s OneDrive ecosystems.

This lets his company’s tutors share information with each other almost instantaneously. In addition, he can transfer many of his business files immediately with the third-party vendors and clients.

“This movement has been a huge benefit to me, and while my business is a start-up, I am not too concerned about the potential security problems,” Saleem told me.

Essential Factors

Moving to the cloud can impact your business in a variety of ways. For instance, when you move to the cloud, you no longer have to worry about IT issues, according to Brady Keller, Digital Marketing Strategist for Atlantic.Net. “Responsibilities like system maintenance and security patching are passed on to the outside party who is managing the data center,” he said.

Improved security is also another benefit Keller sees with your home in the cloud. For example, most companies greatly enhance their overall security by switching to the cloud because a lot of providers have infrastructure experts and security professionals on their team.

Cloud tools are also a great way to increase the productivity levels of your employees, noted Keller. They create a streamlined process for collaboration. In addition, you can retrieve your files from any location as long as you have an internet connection.

A last, important factor to keep in mind is that the cloud will still be there in the event of a disaster. Your physical location might be destroyed. Sure, data backup has always been an option. Now the cloud makes it a lot simpler to actually execute your backup process, said Keller.

Look Before Leaping

As with any technology adoption, small business owners should assess the cloud-sphere before selecting the service they need. Just as computers have different components, cloud offerings vary. So be careful to move into a cloud that serves your unique needs.

“Every situation needs to be evaluated on its specific requirements and the problem that you are trying to address,” Darshan Appayanna, Chief Information, Security and Knowledge Officer at Happiest Minds, told me in discussing cloud guidelines.

His company is a digital transformation IT consulting and services company. It handles issues for businesses looking to leap into cloud opportunities.

“Not every remote or home office worker needs a cloud-based solution. The accessibility, security, and availability of the specific service needs to be taken into account,” he advised.

He cited as an example a service that every SMB company needs, communication. If you are looking at a cloud-based communication solution, Appayanna suggested that you consider these factors:

• Is this infrastructure already available today with the company?
• Does it now support the user growth plans for the next two years?
• Are my home and remote workers in the company bound to grow non-linearly?
• Is there a need to have the latest versions of the software for every worker?
• Is there a revenue impact if the service is not available for a short period of time?
• How robust is the current infrastructure?
• Do you have good backup and restore infrastructure?
• Does the worker need “anytime, anywhere, any device” access?
• Are they any regulatory needs to which you must adhere while deciding if you can look at a cloud option?

Staying Safe

When moving to the cloud, people forget that continually monitoring for security and for configuration vulnerabilities is crucial. Even the most secure cloud providers only offer security OF the cloud, according to Matt Fuller, founder of Cloudsploit.

Security IN the cloud is something else. It is YOUR responsibility.

“The user is responsible for security in the cloud. As groups, roles, devices, etc. change, oversights and misconfigurations open vulnerabilities that lead to outright hacks or just a Financial DDOS,” he warned.

A single misstep can compromise your entire cloud infrastructure. The CloudSploit scanner application is an open-source project available on Github. Its goal is to help you increase compliance with best practices, as well as to protect your company’s infrastructure and client information.

That notion of having security IN the cloud that reaches beyond security OF the cloud is very critical for small business owners, Kelly cautioned.

“Security of the cloud is more significant. You can get the best security, but if you do not set it properly, it will not be a benefit,” he said.

The key is making sure that you have resources to secure your data, he added. That could include adding a managed services layer to the server infrastructure or beefing up that function in-house.

“Both are important, but security of the cloud is what matters the most,” said Kelly.

You can get the best security that you either maintain in-house or through the provider. But if you do not set it properly, it will not be a benefit, cautioned Keller.

Winning Strategy

If you are an SMB owner or conduct business from your Home Office, moving to the cloud can provide you with win-win benefits at a very economical cost. Here is what you get:

• Better collaboration — This gives your workers efficiency and unfettered access. It also keeps your clients well-informed and easily in touch.
• Big Biz data control — Putting all of your data in one well-guarded, off-premise location gives you the same level of information control large enterprises enjoy.
• Effortless disaster recovery — When unexpected storms or other catastrophes strike (natural or otherwise), you can be back up and running without the need to rebuild on-site computer systems and server storage.

Please feel free to share below any comments or insights about your experience with moving to the cloud, particularly as an SMB. And if you found this blog useful, consider sharing it through social media.

About the blogger: Jack M. Germain is a veteran IT journalist whose outstanding IT work can be found regularly in ECT New Network’s LinuxInsider, and other outlets like TechNewsDirectory. Jack’s reporting has spanned four decades and his breadth of It experience is unmatched. And while his views and reports are solely his and don’t necessarily reflect those of Linode, we are grateful for his contributions. He can be followed on Google+.