Article Why Cloud Transformation Speeds Business Transformation for Service Providers
By Insight UK / 20 Oct 2022
By Insight UK / 20 Oct 2022
The cloud offers great opportunities to drive business innovation and growth for you as a service provider and for your customers. Cloud migration in itself is a major driver to achieve operational efficiency, optimise costs and access new markets. But what if you want to reap the full benefits of the cloud? Then the next step in the cloud journey is modernisation of your entire digital estate, preparing your business and that of your customers for a true transformation into the digital age.
Cloud transformation does not happen overnight. This is due to two factors. One is timing: when do you transfer which instances to the cloud? Perhaps as a service provider you would like to enter the cloud with a big bang. However, that is impossible. In terms of money – think of ongoing data centre contracts and software licenses – time, or resources – staff training, for example. Also, you need to consider that each of your customers is in its own phase of a cloud journey. The other factor is scope. Do you only go for a simple migration of workloads, infrastructure or services or do you seize the opportunity and go for modernisation and a complete transformation?
First some clarification around terms: what is the difference between migration, modernisation, and transformation? Cloud migration is nothing more or less than transferring your existing infrastructure and workloads to the cloud with minimal or no modifications - a so-called lift-and-shift approach. Migration quickly delivers efficiency and cost benefits and is therefore often the kick-start for a longer cloud journey. Especially for SMBs with limited budgets, yet an important target group for service providers. But with migration alone, you only exploit a fraction of the possibilities of the cloud.
Do you combine migration with modernisation? Then you convert legacy instances to cloud-based ones. Modernisation paves the way for digital transformation, changing the way your and your customers' businesses operate. A whole new world opens up with new technology (AI/ML), new offerings and services, collaboration, location-independent working, and more cloud-specific benefits.
So migration, modernisation and transformation are actually three logical, consecutive steps on the road to successful business transformation: building a modern business for the future.
So, a journey to the cloud requires quite a bit of planning, preparation and strategy and can be daunting for service providers. The danger is that you put off the decision, but in doing so, you play into the hands of your competitors who are already going through a smooth cloud adoption process. Fortunately, with the right tools you can accelerate your cloud journey and those of your customers with confidence and success.
Insight Octopus Cloud View, for example, is an intelligent tool developed for planning and scheduling a successful cloud transformation strategy. It provides all the details you need for your entire hybrid cloud infrastructure. The tool actually feeds two birds with one scone. In the short term it helps you to optimise your services and infrastructure and make them more flexible, scalable, and innovative. In the longer term the insights gained, and the budget freed up, you will develop a solid migration strategy with a phased cloud roadmap for each customer. Smart tooling will tell you exactly which cloud resources your customers need and when, and how these outcomes fit in with your own strategic business objectives.
In addition to Insight Octopus Cloud View, Microsoft offers an extensive partner programme for service providers to fulfil the cloud journey with The Azure Migration and Modernisation Program (AMMP). AMMP helps simplify and accelerate migration and modernisation, with a broad spectrum of tooling, automation, best practice guidance with the Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure (CAF) and Azure Well Architected Framework (WAF), and expert help. So why not jump on Azure’s rolling train to get a flying start rather than having to work it all out yourself?
The benefits are numerous. With AMMP you conveniently join a tech giant that is ahead in cloud transformation and is always on top of the latest developments around technical innovation, security, data privacy and compliance.
We started by saying that the cloud offers great opportunities for business innovation and growth. With a clear cloud vision, a solid strategy, and a holistic plan to implement digital business transformation, you have gold in your hands to modernise your business and those of your customers. Clients need you as their trusted expert to help them move forward in the hybrid and multi-cloud world. And you? You will be their trusted expert, creating long-term customer value with strategic customer relationships in a highly competitive market.
If you need help or are eager to talk about how your cloud journey can maximise the power of the cloud and contribute to business transformation? We at Insight have been working with partners like you across Europe for many years. We help them to find ways to optimise efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and maximise revenue by providing valuable time, knowledge, and support in many (hybrid) cloud scenarios.
Contact one of our cloud specialists to find out how we can support you in securing your cloud ambitions in line with your business goals, whether you are designing your first workloads in the cloud or work entirely cloud-based.
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