Five imperatives that we must follow in order to accomplish a smooth transition to the cloud

In today's Virtual Era, the role of IT has changed due to the speed at which technology is evolving, and it requires the same evolution of our IT teams. In order for the teams to support, and carry out the goals of their organizations, they need the infrastructure to grow while becoming more agile and efficient. However, there are some challenges that come with these changes. Many companies, especially smaller ones that are just getting started, lack the resources with which they can use to make these changes. Additionally, it can be difficult to manage the outdated hardware and software which is used.

It's important that we begin working towards streamlining processes and making better use of the cloud in order to gain an edge over our competition, while fulfilling our company's objectives. There are five imperatives that we must follow in order to accomplish a smooth transition to the cloud. Each of these will help to transform IT as we know it and will help to reduce the costs and complexity. On their own, they each aid in self-funding and reduce costs and overhead expenses. Together, these five imperatives help IT become more agile, efficient and allow the IT team to use their time, energy and financial resources to focus on other areas of innovation and growth for the company. Let's take a look at the five imperatives:

Leverage the Power of Virtualization

The first thing that should be done is to virtualize data in order to boost efficiency. By removing touch points, silos and servers, costs are dramatically reduced. This task can prove challenging for companies who have an inflexible system that won't allow for full integration at the present. But since technology is ever-changing, more and more resources are becoming available which will help you be able to unify everything seamlessly.

Manage Your Data

Today, data is being created at unprecedented levels and it's difficult to manage due to it being relatively unorganized and inefficiently stored. We need to have it organized so that we can find what we want, when we want it with little effort. Our data needs to be able to be moved around easily and transferred to the device on which we want it, at the moment we want it. While it may seem reasonable to just add more storage devices to organize and handle the vast volume of data, the better choice is to virtualize it so that it can be everywhere, all the time. Virtual storage that is optimized and automated is the answer. Our data needs to be protected, able to be recovered and archived so that it can be integrated with our organization's existing infrastructure.

Enable Mobility

Many of us do our work virtually, working from home, around town or even while travelling the world. We may have team members that we seldom see face-to-face, if we've ever met them at all. It's essential to be able to have access to data and applications from anywhere there's a wi-fi connection, at any hour of the day. Our teams also work with a variety of devices, such as tablets and smart phones, so it's important that they have safe connections that allow employees access to the information which they need to get their work done.

Consumerize IT

As our workforce becomes more tech-savvy, IT needs to be made accessible to everyone in order to enable our employees to work remotely with their own devices of choice. There's a vast array of devices, operating systems, hardware and software that our team members are comfortable using, so the IT organizations need to put systems in place to ensure that our data is monitored, protected, secure and backed-up, while still remaining accessible to everyone in the company.

Transition To the Cloud

In order to leverage our resources, work more efficiently, reduce costs and streamline management, we need to make the move to the cloud. A remote server and nas storage make this possible. Each company has its unique needs and will go about their transition differently. However, getting into the cloud paves the way for a more advanced, efficient working environment.

As we make move forward into this Virtual Era, and transition to a more mobile work environment, we must keep these five things in mind. Not only will it help with the transition, but it will ensure our data is secure, yet available to the people that need it.

The author works with Dell and writes on technology related content. Find out more about Dell Virtualization or cloud computing