Top Three Things to Consider For A Successful MultiValue Cloud Migration
Are you thinking about moving to the cloud? Have you ever wondered what you need to consider for a successful cloud migration?
If you attended our March webinar, MultiValue cloud for Dummies – an Intro to the Cloud” then you learned what we think the top things you should consider for a successful cloud migration. We have learned these things from doing many MultiValue cloud migrations over the years.
ISP Reliability
This is one of the MOST critical things to make sure you don’t overlook. Especially if you’re using a PICK application. As you know, many PICK applications in use today still require a persistent connection. If there is a disconnect between you and your secure server in the cloud your connection will most likely terminate and require you to establish a new session. If you have a flakey internet or faulty equipment (such as a router, modem, or switch) then your connection to your PICK/MultiValue application will drop and most likely will cause the connection to terminate; worst case causing a port to hang eventually leaving it in an unusable state until the port gets cleared or reset. The cloud could expose any connections that fail due to bad equipment or a poor Internet connection.
If you have a connection issue, then don’t blame “the cloud” when the real problem could be with your local internet provider (ISP) or faulty equipment on premise – otherwise known as the last mile or final stretch of an Internet connection. This is where cloud providers have the least control. The last mile is typically the speed bottleneck in communication networks; its bandwidth effectively limits the bandwidth of data that can be delivered to the customer.
If your application requires a persistent connection and you are a user of Zumasys’ AccuTerm product we highly recommend that you upgrade to the latest release of AccuTerm which includes the ReZume feature. This can mitigate some of these issues. This feature allows an AccuTerm session to resume after an interruption in the network connection between the AccuTerm workstation and the cloud server. It is a premium feature available with an AccuTerm subscription.
Who will be accessing your cloud and how do they connect?
Another factor to consider is the number of users and how they are accessing the cloud. The number of users and types of activities they’ll be performing affect everything from bandwidth to licensing, to helpdesk support. Make sure you have a clear understanding of how many people will need access to your cloud environment, along with what they will be doing.
Do you use any third party applications or integrations?
What applications drive your company’s business? Will those applications work in the cloud? While more and more software vendors are providing hosted (Cloud) versions of their applications, most do not. All applications have specific prerequisites that define the environment the software should be installed in. In order for those applications to run well, the cloud platform they are installed on must meet those requirements.
Bonus Things to Consider:
Printing
When you decide to move your MultiValue PICK application to the cloud, don’t forget your printers! How will you print locally when your server is hundreds of miles away in the cloud? If you are still using the traditional method of printing (PICK Spooler to PRINTER) we highly recommend our cloud printing add-on CirrusPrint. To the local spooling system, it looks just like a set of network printers. Print jobs are sent to the server over a secure private SSL socket and arrive quickly at remote printers. CirrusPrint can even bypass VPNs and firewall complications, using the CirrusPrint client. CirrusPrint can also be used to distribute your documents safely and efficiently between systems in different locations.
Testing Testing Testing
We can not emphasize enough how much testing plays a role in the success of a migration. No one knows your application and environment better than you do. While we can help with testing, it is up to you the end user to make sure everything is working as it should and that all third party products are connecting and working as they did on premise.
Bottom Line
While this is a few things you should consider, it is no way an exhaustive list and you need to look carefully at your existing application and all the things that apply to you. And if you are not ready to make a full migration then maybe you want to consider a hot backup server in the cloud.
If you want someone to help you with your migration or make any recommendations, we are here to help! Contact us for information.
