4 Reasons to Migrate Your Applications to the Cloud

As a business leader, you’ve likely heard many organizations discuss moving operations to the cloud. Perhaps your company is already leveraging it for some systems, or internal stakeholders are pushing to make that move. Gartner reports that over 70% of organizations have migrated some portion of their systems into the cloud.

However, the benefits of cloud migration may not be clear to you. Many CIOs and CTOs discuss the cloud as if its pros are universally understood. But you’ll need to see more substantive evidence before pushing your time, money, and resources into this initiative.

Below, discover four major reasons to consider migrating your legacy systems to the cloud.

1. Reduced Maintenance

The most direct way cloud migration helps your organization is by lowering your maintenance costs. If your company uses on-premises software right now, you’re paying a fortune maintaining that infrastructure and setting away a substantial sum of money each month for energy bills. Reducing operating costs as likely a key goal in your application modernization initiative, and cloud migration can help. 

As companies iteratively migrate to the cloud, they can begin scaling back their on-prem infrastructure. That means lowering energy costs and reducing the number of staff members dedicated solely to keeping on-prem solutions afloat. According to AWS, organizations reduce IT costs by 31% on average by moving to the cloud. 

2. Autoscaling to Your Needs 

A key reason cloud migration saves organizations so much money is that you only pay for solutions hosted in the cloud when you or your customers use them. This differs from on-prem software, which drains substantial resources even when no one is using it. Plus, companies that depend on on-prem find it difficult to keep up with spikes in demand, whereas cloud solutions can scale up or down depending on your needs.   

For example, at Programmers, we recently helped a company transition its student recruitment tool to the cloud. When it comes to student recruitment, American colleges have a very set high season (fall term) and low season (late spring through mid-summer). Therefore, it made little sense for our client to pay costly server fees when few colleges were using their tool.

Before moving to the cloud, our client also couldn’t handle spikes in demand during peak recruitment season. Colleges often had to wait over a day to see updated information within the student recruitment tool. Once on the cloud, though, our client’s customers enjoyed a seamless experience whether they were looking through data on the most popular day of the year or the least.

3. Enhanced Security 

One of the key concerns your organization may have about the cloud is its security. Luckily, by leveraging some of the most robust cloud infrastructures in the world, such as Azure or AWS, you’re also using those organizations’ comprehensive cloud security procedures.

These cloud providers have a vested interest in ensuring your data’s security. A high-quality cloud service provider will regularly patch its systems to prevent new and emerging cyberthreats. In fact, Gartner estimates that 99% of security issues encountered in the cloud through 2025 will be due to mistakes on the customer’s end. 

To maximize the security of your systems in the cloud, work closely with a proven technology consultant, such as Programmers. That way, you put your organization and customers in the best position possible to avoid data breaches.

4. Freeing Up Your Staff

Reducing maintenance needs, autoscaling, and more built-in security means your tech teams will need to spend less time looking after legacy systems. These employees can shift their focus towards innovation, building new customer-facing and internal systems that set your company apart. 

This is also an opportunity to upskill and reskill tech talent, making your organization more resilient amid the Great Resignation. As your employees get more chances to grow, they’ll be less inclined to look outside the organization for their next job opportunity. 

Final Thoughts

Many leaders take for granted the notion that cloud migration brings value to organizations. However, for any CIO or CTO considering a cloud migration initiative, it’s important to know specifically why this is the best use of resources. 

Migrating legacy systems to the cloud allows you to reduce maintenance and energy costs while increasing security. Meanwhile, it helps your organization grow at scale and frees your tech teams to focus on innovation. 

Programmers’ Fast-Track Application Modernization service lets your company see value from cloud migration and other modernization techniques every 90 days. Learn more about our process and how it drives value to your organization early and often.

Let us know how we can help you.