It is undeniable that Cloud computing is becoming the new promised land for data storage in the IT industry. Companies are migrating from On-premises infrastructure to Cloud services for enormous benefits. Among all Cloud Service Providers, AWS (Amazon Web Services) is taking the lead as the the dominant worldwide market share leader with the market share of 32% as of Q2 2023.
As companies consider whether to host their infrastructure On-premises or the AWS cloud, this article will explain the rises of Cloud-based environment, and why you should choose AWS as your new Cloud Service Provider.
What is On-premises?
On-Premises refers to IT infrastructure hardware and software applications that are hosted on-site. This means that local software is installed and runs on computers in your company’s own IT environment. From your company’s offices, you can choose whether to manage and maintain servers, etc., or whether an external IT provider should be responsible for this. This is used instead of an external facility, such as a public cloud platform or remote data center. On-premises gives businesses gain more control over the digital assets by maintaining the performance, security and upkeep, as well as the physical location.
What is Cloud Computing?
On-premises software has been dominant until now, but the IT industry is undergoing a transformation where traditional on-premises solutions are being replaced by new, modern cloud solutions. Cloud computing is changing the way businesses manage their IT systems and offers a completely different level of flexibility in terms of new functionality, integration, scalability, security and finance.
Defined by IBM, Cloud computing is on-demand access, via the internet, to computing resources—applications, servers (physical servers and virtual servers), data storage, development tools, networking capabilities, and more—hosted at a remote data center managed by a cloud services provider (or CSP). The CSP makes these resources available for a monthly subscription fee or bills them according to usage. This means that rather than owning their own computing infrastructure or data centres, companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider. With an online connection, cloud computing can be done anytime, anywhere.
What is AWS service?
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a comprehensive and widely-used cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. It offers a wide range of cloud services, including computing power, storage, databases, machine learning, analytics, and more. AWS allows individuals and organizations to access and utilize these services over the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis, eliminating the need for extensive on-premises infrastructure.
AWS is now the biggest CSP in the world, surpassing many giants like IBM, Google or Microsoft. A recent whitepaper by IDC, shows the customers that migrate to AWS can experience 51% reduced costs of operations, 62% increased IT staff productivity, and 94% reductions in downtime. Therefore, for many companies, the question is not “If” any more, but “When”.
Benefits of migrating to Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services provides cloud computing resources as a service. It frees your business from spending money on projects that don’t directly improve your outcome. As a result, you can focus on your business’s core competency instead of devoting time, personnel, and money to IT-related activities. Besides, you and your employees can access company data anytime and anywhere through an internet connection without geographical limitations.
What’s more, you may easily adjust your IT requirements to match demand. Your IT investments and operations remain nimble and lean as a result. Moving to the AWS cloud has additional advantages like:
1. Cost savings
Having in-house hosting services requires the same amount of money regardless of how many resources are needed. AWS migration reduces costs and safeguards your financial position. Run your operating system and all enterprise apps on the AWS platform for no upfront cost, instead of spending thousands of dollars installing, configuring, and monitoring on-premises servers. Only the computing resources you use are charged for.
Additionally, to deliver content more swiftly to users around the world, you can leverage services like Amazon CloudFront. Download and speed are increased because to Amazon’s network of 52 global edge sites. To ensure the best speed, Amazon typically sends your content requests automatically to the closest servers.
2. Data security
The shared accountability principle underlies AWS’s data protection strategy. An internationally secure infrastructure is offered by the platform. Data availability, confidentiality, and integrity in the cloud are the exclusive responsibility of the individual clients. Customers can control their security in the cloud while AWS manages cloud security by following AWS’s established best practices and standards.
Additionally, you have complete ownership and control over your information and can encrypt your data as you like. Keep your data in the format of your choice, and you can transfer or delete it whenever you want. No need to worry about automated data replication without your approval.
3. Better elasticity
With traditional IT infrastructure, you have to be able to foresee your future needs for computer resources before you spend. In the event that you underestimate, your apps won’t have the processing power needed to manage more traffic. Due to the sluggish load times, this can cause customer dissatisfaction. On the other hand, underestimating needs results in the wasteful use of IT resources.
You can closely match your infrastructure with demand thanks to AWS’s elastic pay-what-you-use model, enabling lean and flexible IT operations. Additionally, you can immediately scale up or down as necessary. Deploy new apps quickly by reserving enough computer power as required.
4. Flexibility
The Amazon Web Services platform allows you the freedom to combine various programming paradigms, databases, operating systems, and architectural styles that you are currently accustomed to. Typically, all AWS services and products are compatible with almost all currently used programming languages. The move to the AWS cloud won’t require you to learn any new codes or worry about data loss.
How to execute the migration to AWS safely
1. Plan ahead:
It’s important to carefully plan and prepare for the data migration process to ensure a smooth and successful transition. There are several steps involved in the process of on-premise data migration to the cloud, from assessing your data to testing and optimizing, so if companies don’t prepare well, they may get lost during the tranformation.
2. Use data transfer tools:
There are many tools available that can help transfer data to the cloud efficiently and securely, such as data migration tools, such as AWS Data Migration Service Glue, Azure Data Factory and GCP data flow and file transfer tools, such as SFTP and Aspera. Do research about these tools, as they can give you an edge you never knew you needed.
3. Encrypt data:
It’s important to encrypt sensitive data during the transfer process to protect it from unauthorized access. It ensures that even if intercepted, the data remains unreadable without the decryption keys. Besides, many regulatory standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA) mandate data encryption during transmission, so failing to comply can result in legal and financial penalties.
4. Test and optimize:
Once the data has been transferred, it’s important to test and optimize it to ensure it’s in the correct format and structure for use in the cloud, maintaining data integrity and protecting against potential security breaches.
In short, partnering with an experienced Amazon Web Services solutions provider can help you jump-start your transition into the cloud. Don’t be afraid to migrate your data to AWS to catch-up with this changing world and strong competitors.