1. Building a highly customized enterprise cloud and transitioning existing
infrastructure to that cloud takes time and planning. This guide maps out
the transition on a visual timeline broken into three major phases:
1) Starting the Journey, 2) During the Transition, and 3) Life in the Cloud.
THE 14 MILESTONES IN THE
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CLOUD ADOPTION TIMELINE

2. STARTING THE JOURNEY LIFE IN THE CLOUD
Begin Cloud Build-out
Decision to Adopt Cloud
Determine Cloud Goals
Architect Cloud Build-out
Plan
Select Your Cloud
Provider
Technology continues to evolve, with
nothing slowing it down. On top of that,
your business is growing, and your IT
infrastructure needs to adapt to handle
increased workload volume and
production demands. Whether you've
already identified that cloud will help you
solve these problems or you're just
beginning to explore cloud's possibilities,
you'll need to take some steps to get
started.
DURING THE TRANSITION
Audit Existing Infastructure
Enhance Systems with Cloud
Identify Team Responsibilities
Communicate Pain
Points
Cloud Build-out
Complete
With the cloud, things will look a little
different; your systems will be flexible
and easy to manage. But transitioning to
cloud doesn’t necessitate a radical
change to how you accomplish your
objectives. In some cases, it can
effectively replace existing systems, while
in others, it can work alongside and
reinforce what’s already there.
Rapid Provisioning
Keeping Pace with
Technology
Operate in a Cohesive
Enviroment
On-demand Support
It’s a good life. But how, exactly? What is
it about your business that’s changed, and
what are you now able to do? We’ll
review a few of the advantages
customers using TeraGo’s RackForce
Enterprise Cloud can expect after their
build-out to give you an idea.

3. You’ll need to get decision-makers
or fellow colleagues on board with
the transition before getting
anywhere. Enterprise cloud is
designed to address and mitigate
business risks surrounding:
• Costs and capital
expenditures
• Operational risks
• Ongoing project and workload
demands
Leverage this information when
you present the argument to
enable your business with a cloud
infrastructure.
This is where you need to hold up
a big mirror and take a good look
at your business. Where are your
biggest demands? Do you need
access to sandbox environments
optimized for development, or do
you just need to ensure your data
is securely backed up? Consult
with IT management to identify
and set what you want to
preserve or improve in your cloud
infrastructure.
A truly valuable cloud provider is
going to act as a partner; they will
be your guide on this cloud
journey. Ask these questions
when looking for a partner:
• Do they put enough emphasis
on the security and
preservation of my data?
• Can they advise me on the
best infrastructure design
based on my priority needs?
• As our business grows, will
our partner grow with us?
Based on your cloud goals, you’ll
need to assess which
mission-critical operations are
going to be sensitive to periods of
downtime and strategize how to
avoid or overcome that obstacle.
Also consider security features,
performance levels, and other
attributes to meet your goals for
productivity.
This evaluation will help you set
the tangible schedule for your
cloud transition and allow you to
measure progress. In addition to
time constraints, you’ll also be
able to forecast what the budget
spend dedicated to your build-out
will look like.
With your goals set, your plan in
hand, and a cloud partner by your
side, it’s time to make your cloud
vision a reality - you’re at the
buildout stage. Dedicated, “white
glove” support from your cloud
partner during the onboarding
process will be your key to
success from here on out.
DECISION TO
ADOPT CLOUD
DETERMINE
CLOUD GOALS
ARCHITECT
CLOUD
BUILD-OUT PLAN
SELECT YOUR
CLOUD PROVIDER
BEGIN CLOUD
BUILD-OUT
STARTING THE JOURNEY

4. Depending on your cloud goals,
you will want to note what
hardware and software systems
are supporting your company’s:
• Workload or application
development environment
• Data storage systems
• Remote employees
• Production, sales, or customer
service environments
• Analytics or business
intelligence systems
• Voice systems
This is key to preserving familiar
workflow during build-out and
minimizing any need for
retraining.
One of the greatest values of the
cloud is that it can be customized;
this is your cloud. Working with
your cloud partner to identify
which elements of your existing
system can be strengthened with
or replaced by cloud will have
multiple cost benefits. One of the
most visible benefits is the ability
to consolidate costs under one
budget dedicated to operational
expenditures. By completely
eliminating hardware
components, you’ll effectively free
up budget previously tied to
capital expenditures and system
maintenance.
As your enterprise’s staff becomes
acclimated with their new
cloud-based environment, there
are bound to be a few questions
or unfamiliar challenges that
should be addressed. Just
because you’ve completed your
cloud implementation doesn’t
mean that your partner will leave
you to figure it out –
communicate with the team who
has been there for every step of
the way so they can make tweaks
that better suit the way your
internal staff works.
Your cloud partner isn’t just there
to add off-site resources to the
mix. A valuable partner will work
closely alongside your internal IT
staff to optimize the cloud
infrastructure, help build system
elements, and essentially shoulder
the load. Have a conversation
with all team members to set
roles and responsibilities for a
smooth transition.
Congratulations! You’ve
transformed your infrastructure to
become more flexible and
powerful than ever. With this new
power comes new abilities that
will bring your enterprise to a
whole new level of profitability
and efficiency. Let's explore what
some of these abilities are in the
next phase - Life in the Cloud.
AUDIT
EXISTING
INFASTRUCTURE
ENHANCE
SYSTEMS WITH
CLOUD
IDENTIFY TEAM
RESPONSIBILITIES
COMMUNICATE
PAIN POINTS
CLOUD
BUILD-OUT
COMPLETE
DURING THE TRANSITION
US
WE
THEM

5. With a simple selection and click of a
mouse, you can build up or scale down
your entire resource pool. What used to
take weeks of planning and
implementing will now take only
minutes. Making actions like adding IaaS
resources or changing team roles easier
than ever, and this newfound agility
makes you more attractive and capable
of meeting customers’ needs.
Purchasing a hardware system, like
servers, storage, remote switches for
example, was always a risk for two
reasons: it required a significant capital
investment, and with technology’s rapid
rate of change, it could be rendered
obsolete overnight. By taking these
systems and exchanging them for virtual
tools, the burden and risk of investment
is mitigated and even eliminated,
allowing you to keep up with
competitors – or stay ahead. Your new
hosted cloud system will stay current
and updated with just a mouse click or a
quick call to your cloud partner. No more
equipment changeovers and no more
hassle.
24 hours a day and 7 days a week,
TeraGo’s Account Executives and
Technical Support team members are
available for you. With the cloud, security
and system health is more important
than ever. Your cloud partner should have
a live representative available to receive
and assess technical queries, provide
information on performance data,
administer system health reports, or
answer any other questions about billing
and your account. The TeraGo team
monitors systems in real time to identify
and correct any issues, giving customers
the confidence that resources will be
available 99.99% of the time in a given
month. These services are all just part of
what it means to have fully managed
enterprise hybrid cloud with TeraGo.
Without cloud infrastructure, projects
that are conceptualized, designed, and
built in a business’s development
environment don’t always work as
intended. This leads to a higher demand
for support, as well as production delays
stemming from troubleshooting.
TeraGo’s RackForce cloud environment is
standardized for all team members,
reducing and even eliminating these
delays at every stage of production.
RAPID
PROVISIONING
KEEPING
PACE WITH
TECHNOLOGY
OPERATE IN
A COHESIVE
ENVIROMENT
ON-DEMAND
SUPPORT
LIFE IN THE CLOUD
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