5 Key Questions: It Modernization And Cloud Data Protection

Many IT teams are asking great questions about IT modernization and protecting cloud data. There is definitely an opportunity to connect these two top initiatives and find additional benefits.

Here are some of the key questions you asked – and we answered – in the recent webinar, “Data Protection’s Role in Cloud Migration and IT Modernization.”

Where do I start the discussions about cloud migration and IT modernization?

IT leaders are concerned not just about hard costs, but also opportunity costs. Start your conversations with two big questions.

First, how much IT budget would be saved if older processes like tape backup and archive were replaced with cloud backup and archive? Many organizations perform a cost analysis for opportunities like moving from tape to cloud. They can project cost savings as the older tape hardware is phased out.

Second, what is the opportunity cost?  In that same “Cloud Migration and IT Modernization” webinar, my co-presenter Robin Gareiss, President of Nemertes Research, described questions to help consider opportunity cost.

• How many actual IT work hours would be saved with a cloud migration and IT modernization project?
• What could IT professionals be doing with the spare time if they were not physically moving tape drives in your data center?
• How could your IT staff better apply their skills to adopting cloud instead of maintaining hardware?

If you’re already using Commvault data protection, you employ the same comprehensive dashboard to move, manage and use your on-premises and cloud data. This clear view of data – and data status – helps you smoothly manage a migration from tape backup and archive to cloud backup and archive.

What is the biggest challenge in IT modernization efforts that involve cloud migration?

OK, full disclosure, this was my question.

During the webinar broadcast, we asked webinar attendees to identify their biggest challenge around IT modernization and cloud migration.

Live webinar attendees chose policy management as the biggest challenge. Yes, if you’re still using multiple products for backup and recovery it naturally takes a significant amount of time and effort to manage polices!

Commvault customers can gain control with centralized policy control management for cloud and on-premises data and workloads, managed from a single solution. Learn more about cloud data management.

Who can help me develop a data strategy?

The second biggest challenge reported by live webinar attendees was creating a data strategy. This is a big job.

Many Commvault partners work with organizations to determine short- and long-term data strategies. These plans include timelines for turning off legacy backup products, moving off outdated tape platforms and onto cloud, plus addressing other older technologies that are quickly nearing end of support life.

Ask your Commvault services partner about developing a data – and data protection – strategy.

What about using native backup tools from the public clouds?

Cloud native backup tools are available, however, organizations need a single view of on-premises and cloud data. Here again, it’s extremely important to have consistent policy management across on-premises and cloud storage locations.

Use this guide to compare your options for comprehensive data protection across on-premises and cloud environments.

How do I know what to include in cloud data protection requirements?

Review your environment’s data and workloads that need backup, granular and large-scale recovery, plus data discovery. Include demands for structured and unstructured data, virtual machine conversion, and PaaS workloads such as Amazon RDS and Oracle PaaS.

Think about how quickly your organization is adopting SaaS platforms like Office 365, Salesforce, SAP HANA and Google Gmail.

Then study how much control you need to align with regulations like GDPR, HIPPA, or to deal with PII and emerging regional privacy laws.

If your data protection platform can’t comprehensively manage these requirements, it is time for a change.  

Learn more about data protection’s role in cloud migration and IT Modernization

Today’s evolving IT organizations are moving quickly to take advantage of cloud capabilities. At the same time, IT modernization is always on the radar.