There are compelling reasons for businesses to migrate their infrastructure to the Public Cloud. Hardware costs are astronomical and don’t allow for flexibility and rapid scalability. The rising number of remote workers requires round-the-clock seamless access to applications, monitoring, threat detection and patch management. If you have multiple locations to manage, this process becomes even more complex. Cloud solutions give you a competitive edge as they are adaptable and lead to greater innovation. Before making the leap to one of the Big Three – Azure, AWS or Google Cloud – it’s critical to analyze what you’re really getting into and the impact it can make on your business.
What Does It Actually Cost to Be in Azure, AWS or Google Cloud?
Good luck getting a straight answer. The pay-as-you-go pricing structure sounds appealing until you attempt to navigate the complexity of each Public Cloud plan. They encompass:
Usage
Take into account what type of data you have and how much data you store. Constant optimization is required to keep costs in line.
Location
Hosting costs can vary by region. How much redundancy you require can impact you as well.
Fee Structure
The pay-as-you-go concept gives you flexibility, but at a very high cost. Discounted rates require long-term commitments. Egress fees can also be exorbitant.
Outsourced Management Resources
Very few companies have the in-house resources or experts to handle a migration or day-to-day management and optimization. So, in addition to the cost of the Public Cloud service, can your budget handle outsourcing these management services?
Getting Ready to Get Ready
While the Big Three do offer pricing calculators, these are strictly estimates and do not account for the additional resources you will likely need to acquire to make the transition and handle on-going management. Many companies also don’t figure for what it takes to get ready for a migration like this, especially for a company that has been in business for a long time. It could literally take 6-12 months to optimize and streamline your data. This process may even demand some internal restructuring and may impact operations. Transformations of this magnitude take manpower, time and money. Will this be the best use of your company’s budget and your team’s focus? Will it ultimately lead to growing your business?
Consider the Alternatives
There are phenomenal Private Cloud providers who create customized fixed-rate plans to suit your business model and budget. Instead of investing months to get ready, some can even “forklift” your data right into their platform and provide user-friendly administrative portals. Many offer Disaster Recovery plans as well. If disaster strikes, instead of days or weeks, your entire team can be up and running in less than an hour. An added plus is that, unlike the Big Three, you will also have 24/7/365 support from the experts who designed and manage the platform.
Imagine having all the information you need to make a sound decision in weeks instead of months?
Before investing 6-12 months of research, consider working with a veteran Technology Broker who has a wide network of Public and Private Cloud providers at their disposal. Your broker can conduct a preliminary discovery to determine which cloud providers would be the best fit. They will coordinate consultations and demos and negotiate the most aggressive pricing. Your team will be positioned to make a sound decision that will positively impact the course of your business for many years to come.
