Taking your applications to the cloud is one of the smartest moves you can make, as hosting them in the cloud allows you to securely store and access your vital data. This article discusses various network considerations when migrating IBM i systems to the cloud.
The migration process is incredibly simple, and CloudFirst is there for you every step of the way — from gathering information, designing the migration process to going live on the cloud and a critical component is networking and communications.
When planned properly, migrating IBM i systems to the cloud as well as other critical workloads presents the opportunity to make serious improvements to the network and WAN uptime and reliability.
The preconceived notion may exist that there are too many connectivity challenges, or the network may be too complicated for migrating critical systems like IBM i to the cloud. Some of the biggest IT challenges companies face are related to the reliability and management of their network and communication infrastructure.
This often is justified by a history of network communication issues and their effect on the business, and sometimes appear as a roadblock, but they don’t have to be.
Preparing your network is an important first step in moving forward when migrating systems to the cloud. Connectivity is the name of the game in adopting cloud, starting with the network design your company has in place and any improvements that may be made as part of the process.
You can look at CloudFirst to collaborate with your Network Team and provide your company with a solid design that will provide the proper connectivity, reliability, and bandwidth.
If you decide to opt for CloudFirst-provided bandwidth, you’ll be getting Redundant Clean-IP Service. This includes DDoS Protection, as well as the ability to scale up your bandwidth from 5 Mbps to 10Gbps.
If you have your own data circuits and are moving them over to CloudFirst, it’s important to review your telecommunications agreement to learn when and how you can cancel or re-provision those circuits.
CloudFirst can also work with you to provision dedicated ELAN connectivity or redundant load-balanced internet connectivity at critical locations to ensure the best end to end throughput and availability.
There are a few other considerations when migrating IBM i systems to CloudFirst’s Cloud Services. They include:
- Subnet and IP Address Requirements for Your IBM i: CloudFirst will help you determine the best network VPN and routing design.
- Remote and Work-from-Home Users: Remote workers can easily be supported using a company’s existing Client VPN solution or CloudFirst can provide SSL-VPN connectivity for an easy cost-effective solution.
- IBM i NetServer: It’s important to determine whether your devices are using IBM i NetServer to map network drives to your IBM i servers.
In short, preparing your network is crucial in migrating your IBM i systems to CloudFirst Cloud Services.
If you have any questions regarding your network as you migrate resources to the cloud, please contact the CloudFirst Cloud Services team. We’re with you every step of your cloud migration journey, and will help make the transition as smooth and efficient as possible!
In our next installment, we’ll discuss Security and Compliance as it relates to embracing CloudFirst Cloud Services.
