Imagine this: You have 5 to 6 windows servers. Each of them is running at different workloads. Suddenly something fails on the hardware and you lose critical up time.
What do you do? Well, if you’re like most you’ll cut bait and start moving your windows servers to the cloud.
But, before you do that you might want to consider this first: Consolidate your software solutions alongside your hardware consolidation.
Start by planning your compute requirements, including storage, CPU, Ram and network needs. Hint: You can capture all of this data from within your Windows administrator tools.
Next, create a list of all the apps and check how they can be moved to the same host. This way you may end up only managing 3 VM’s instead of the 6 dedicated servers that you currently have. (You’re welcome.)
Ok. Now that you have all the data ready, take it to your IaaS provider. They should be able to recommend what products in their portfolio map to your specific requirements. See? You just saved yourself a lot of time and money.
One more thing: Don’t forget to add your backup resources and bandwidth requirements, because you are moving to a platform where you are more dependent on network/internet connectivity. This new dependence upon the internet isn’t really a big deal since all businesses need 24/7 web connectivity anyway. This is the 21st century, after all.
While moving to a new environment is never easy, it can be a blessing in disguise. Especially if you count the fact that the process will leave you with lower TCO, consolidated infrastructure and less management headaches.
So, what are you waiting for? Get moving!
