Data migration is a complex process that often combines the pressure of a strict deadline combined with unanticipated obstacles. No matter the size of business, challenges like the navigation of existing IT systems and limited budgets can create a need for specialized expertise. A customer success team offers insight to predict likely challenges and resources to address them.
A customer success team partners with your data migration team from the initial planning stages to identify potential problems and address them in advance. They equip companies with tools and practices to avoid the setbacks that can derail a data migration budget and timeline. There are three main ways in which they support a data migration:
Scope: A customer success team assists the company in a complete scope of all data, workloads, and files that need to be migrated. They assess and categorize the data and designate where each type of data will need to move.
Strategic Planning: The customer success team then studies the complexities in migrating the data of the company’s IT environment. In a company where the IT environment may rely on a complex infrastructure web, the team will identify the potential obstacles and strategically develop navigation plans for a successful migration.
Proof of Concept: The customer success team migrates a small set of the user base to demonstrate how a larger migration will perform. The subset of data could include shared files and documents as well as mailboxes to give a snapshot of what steps need to be taken to successfully migrate larger sets of data.
While there are countless ways that a data migration can go sideways, there are a few problems that tend to be more common:
Talent: Even if your company has a knowledgeable and well-trained staff, their specialty may be in areas like running your existing IT environment, applying certifications, and backing up your systems. That doesn’t mean they are prepared to manage a major migration. It’s not unusual for a thriving IT team to be unfamiliar with the intricacies of moving data and workloads.
Method: Many companies choose a lift-and-shift approach by default, but this is an opportunity to evaluate data and eliminate what is no longer needed. You may be able to archive some data to create an uncluttered environment and reduce costs.
Speed: Some teams move too fast in their app assessment, failing to understand the amount of data, the size, and the workloads being moved.
Sticking the Landing: Companies may overlook the critical steps of ensuring that data safely lands in the destination – and that it is both available to users and secure.
Failing to Plan: The hard work of a data migration is not the actual migration; it’s the planning for the migration. A customer success team provides an assessment of the scope and strategy necessary to meet deadlines and budgets.
Budget: The timeline and budget for a data migration are often much lower than the reality. Your customer success team helps you gain an accurate picture of what the demands of the data migration will be on your company.
Bringing in a customer success team for your data migration can help you save time, money, and a lot of headaches. Contact us at Cloud Source to learn more about planning a successful data migration.