Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022.  Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

The Future of Cloud Migration And Its Benefits

By Will Milewski, Hyland senior vice president, cloud infrastructure and operations

I have a challenge for you, no matter where your organization is on its journey to the cloud.

If you haven't yet considered migrating your content management systems to the cloud, start.

If you've already considered doing so, accelerate your decision-making so a migration roadmap can be developed and/or finalized as quickly as possible.

If you've already made your decision and are just waiting on the migration process to begin (or be completed), challenge your provider to accelerate that migration.

All of this is to detail my biggest prediction for 2022: If you're delaying your move to the cloud, you're behind - your competitors, your customers and other stakeholders.

Here are other predictions for the new year, related to the benefits and challenges of that migration:

More enterprises will realize a cloud migration isn't as daunting as it once was. There are always hesitancies with any change and that's especially true for mission-critical applications that impact the business and require substantial time to execute. Often, cloud migration is assumed to be a daunting project. However, with more exposure into how applications are evolving, and the opportunities to partner with vendors to reduce any business impacts, cloud migration concerns are being demystified rapidly and people are becoming more comfortable with cloud-based applications. Ultimately, organizations are more frequently welcoming the idea of moving to the cloud at an enterprise level. 

Enterprises will be challenged to participate actively in their vendors' migration processes. Once your organization has embraced the process and begun down the cloud migration road, our team at Hyland always strongly recommends enterprises be active participants in migration strategy and execution. That process includes details like identifying integrations to internal tools dependent upon prior apps or systems, security-related considerations (SSL certifications, domain-specific keys) and more. Generally, there are dozens of items your provider will go through to ensure a smooth migration and as little disruption as possible once a migration is complete; if that partner doesn't know all the end points and third-party integrations impacted by the migration, for example, the result will be a significant amount of post-migration effort.

Benefits to cloud migrations only will intensify and become even clearer - especially security. We know the benefits well: Deploying your content services software in the cloud removes the need for any significant capital expenditure upfront, and subsequently, there is no need to budget for end-of-life replacement expenses or continuous upgrades and expansions. Additionally, when hosted in the cloud and managed and optimized by your vendor, software upgrades and updates eliminate the stress of internal IT departments needing to update a platform or perform patches.

Scalability is easier in the cloud, too - both up and down. Adding a license can be done in a few clicks or with a call to the service provider, and it's easy to add modules or expand the solution to quickly meet an organization's needs as they evolve. And perhaps most importantly - and the benefit that may matter most to enterprises moving forward -- security is a focus area driving businesses to cloud solutions. A reputable cloud-based content services platform will have high-level security built into the platform itself, as well as enterprise-grade security at the data center level. As data risks grow, that peace of mind provided by a vendor's security practices will be incredibly valuable.

Vendors, too, will be challenged. Cloud and cloud migrations will continue to be a focus for IT buyers and how they can evolve their digital transformation journey. As cloud migrations remain a priority area for organizations, vendors should strive to be better and faster in supporting their customers' cloud migration implementations. 

The lesson: A cloud migration has never been less complicated, and the benefits of one have never been clearer. A more secure, easier to maintain content services deployment is waiting for you - in the cloud.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Will Milewski joined Hyland in April 2021, bringing proven leadership in cloud, SaaS, development operations and data center management, along with experience supporting digital transformation strategies while running large-scale, successful SaaS implementations. His background in architecture, run-time management, design, implementation, execution and operational excellence support Hyland's cloud vision to be the world-class leader delivering cloud-based content services and intelligent automation solutions. Milewski and his teams ensure the cohesive integration of the company's cloud strategy, work closely with Hyland's executive team, and drive alignment with the highest priority corporate and product initiatives.