Over the past year, IT leaders have faced numerous economic, technical and remote workforce challenges, all of which have forced many to assess the business value of expanding cloud operations. According to a recent Gartner report, the proportion of IT spending that is being allocated to cloud will accelerate even further in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis.
Organizations that migrate to a single SaaS-based model can more clearly define digital processes and workflows, as well as streamline technology and infrastructure in a way that maps to specific corporate goals—placing IT in the driver’s seat. Because of these benefits Atlassian is encouraging its users to migrate to the cloud.
Atlassian recently announced changes to their Server and Data Center solutions. As of February 2021, Atlassian will no longer sell new Server edition licenses, and the price for existing Server license renewals is increasing. By February 2024, Atlassian will no longer support Server products. Additionally, the cost of both Server and Data Center licenses increases in February 2021.
These changes encourage users to move to Atlassian Cloud. Atlassian Cloud offers the potential for transformative benefits to IT departments and overall business operations. In addition to offering a SaaS-based solution, rapid onboarding, and licensing support, Atlassian Cloud also provides an opportunity for IT department productivity, efficiency and return on investment.
Before investing in any solution, companies first have to decide which kind of deployment model—server, data center, cloud, or some combination—will align with their business needs and complement any existing infrastructure or IT operations. To ensure the any of these cloud solution selections are adopted as easily as possible, here are some additional, equally critical elements for cloud-curious IT leaders to keep in mind:
Number of users
Companies need to be sure that their cloud solution of choice can support their number of expected users. If there is an unplanned increase in user volume—and your solution cannot accommodate this growth—it can slow down applications’ performance, lengthen load times and result in poor customer experiences. There are no hard-and-fast rules governing the number of users for a specific cloud setup, like Atlassian Cloud, but it’s important to understand how operations might be impacted. This is an especially important consideration for enterprise organizations, which tend to have a larger number of users.
Plug-in app functionality
Before migrating to the cloud, organizations should take stock of all their existing plug-ins and applications before deciding which they do or do not plan on integrating into their new cloud infrastructure. Prior to migration, companies need to be sure that these items can be successfully transferred over—or have other plug-in options ready to existing ones if they can’t. Skipping this consideration could add unexpected costs and complexities to a company’s cloud migration—and disruptions once the solution is up and running.
Compliance needs
Depending on the industry, an organization might have to follow certain compliance standards, like HIPAA, PCI DSS or FedRAMP. These organizations will need a cloud solution that is authorized in these standards. Prior to migration and implementation, business leaders and CIOs should make sure their cloud solution of choice adheres to applicable regulations.
Disaster recovery capabilities
If and when incidents or disasters occur, organizations will want to be ready. The right cloud solution will keep applications running despite these issues and automatically begin troubleshooting them. If a server is disrupted by a hacker or damaged by a natural disaster, a cloud solution with built-in disaster recovery capabilities can put recovery plans into effect immediately. A cloud solution without these functionalities will create extra work for IT teams, and possibly result in longer downtimes and losses in moments of emergency.
IT support offerings
Cloud migration and implementation can be difficult and complex, especially if IT teams have little experience in these processes. There are cloud solution options that offer IT support every step of the way via experts who are available to IT teams 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even experienced teams might want a cloud solution that offers additional IT support for help maintaining everyday IT operations, like security patching and bug fixes, so they can focus more on cloud implementation.
Migration timeline
Migrating systems to the cloud doesn’t happen overnight. It requires weeks of advanced planning, strategic budgeting of time and resources, and constant maintenance. However, with the right cloud solution, the process doesn’t have to be so resource and time intensive. Look for a cloud solution that’s designed to expedite the migration process while maintaining a high level of detail to backups, staging, data management and user testing.
Atlassian and Contegix Make Cloud Adoption Easy
Contegix experts are fluent in Atlassian and can recommend the best migration timeline, plug-ins, cloud model (hybrid or public, for instance) to suit your organization’s needs today—with an eye toward adapting as you scale.
The value of a high-performing cloud environment will continue to increase in the coming year, as companies and their IT leaders continue to navigate remote work environments and the increasingly competitive business world. By partnering with Atlassian and Contegix, companies can adopt these environments easily, successfully, and faster than the competition. Cloud migration is never a walk in the park, but it doesn’t have to be complicated.
