<p class="x_MsoNormal">There is a heightened urgency for small and medium-sized businesses to <a href="https://webheadtech.com/blog/why-cloud-computing-key-business/">move their critical applications to cloud</a> providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS). The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been a huge driving factor. Many companies that primarily relied on on-premise servers found themselves brittle and slow to respond to evolving customer and business demands during the lockdown.</p>
By the close of 2021, it's projected that more than <a href="https://www.infoworld.com/article/3561269/the-2020-idg-cloud-computing-survey.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="1">59% of businesses </a>will mostly or fully operate in the cloud. Considering the "forced" switch to remote operations, this makes a lot of sense. Regardless of your motivation to migrate to the cloud, AWS cloud migration can help you lower the TOC (total cost of ownership) of IT infrastructure, improve day-to-day employee productivity and ensure access to new client value propositions.
<h2>Benefits of migrating to Amazon Web Services</h2>
Amazon Web Services provides cloud <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is-cloud-computing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="2">computing resources as a service.</a> It liberates your company from devoting costly resources to tasks that don't directly contribute to your bottom line. 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.

More importantly, you can easily scale up or down your IT needs based on demand. This keeps your IT operations and investment lean and agile. Other benefits of AWS cloud migration include:
<h3>1. Cost savings</h3>
AWS migration saves you costs and protects your bottom line. Instead of spending thousands of dollars installing, configuring and managing on-premises servers, run your operating system and all enterprise applications on the AWS platform at <a href="https://media.amazonwebservices.com/AWS_TCO_Web_Applications.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="3">$0 up-front cost</a>. You only pay for the computing resources you utilize.

Besides, you can use services such as Amazon CloudFront to deliver content more quickly to users throughout the world. Amazon's network of 52 global edge locations ensures faster downloads and speeds. Typically, Amazon automatically routes your content requests to the closest servers, ensuring the best possible performance.
<h3>2. Data security</h3>
AWS's data protection model is based on shared responsibility. The platform provides a globally secure infrastructure. Individual customers are responsible for data integrity, confidentiality, and availability in the cloud. By adhering to AWS's documented guidelines and best practices, customers can take charge of their security <em>in</em> the cloud as AWS handles the security <em>of</em> the cloud.

Additionally, you can encrypt your data as you wish and maintain total ownership and control of your content. Keep your data in your preferred format and transfer it or delete it at any time. No need to worry about automated data replication without your approval.
<h3>3. Better elasticity</h3>
With traditional IT infrastructure, you must be able to predict your future computing resource requirements before making your investment. If you happen to underestimate, your applications will not have the computing power required to handle increased traffic. This may result in customer dissatisfaction as a result of slow load speeds. On the other hand, overestimating requirements means that you're wasting money on superfluous IT resources.

AWS's <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/elasticsearch-service/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="4">elastic pay-what-you-use nature</a> allows you to closely align your infrastructure with demand, ensuring both lean and agile IT operations. In addition, you can instantly scale up or down accordingly. Quickly deploy new applications by reserving adequate computing resources as needed.
<h3>4. Flexibility</h3>
The Amazon Web Services platform gives you the flexibility to integrate different programming models, databases, operating systems, and architectures you're already familiar with. Typically, all AWS products and services are compatible with nearly all existing coding languages. Thus, you won't need to learn new codes or worry about data loss during AWS cloud migration.
<h2>How to execute the migration securely</h2>
Statistics indicate that <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/cloud/cloud-outcomes-perspective" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="5">security and compliance risk </a>is the most adversely mentioned inhibitor to achieving full cloud value. Therefore, security teams should be intimately involved in your cloud migration project right from the beginning. Integrate your cloud security solution at multiple layers, including organizational policies, multi-region central networking, multi-region/multi-account AWS-native security, automated security guardrails, and much more.

Overall, partnering with an experienced Amazon Web Services solutions provider can help you jump-start your transition into the cloud. As an AWS Premier Consulting Partner, Webhead can help your business realize the productivity gains, cost savings, and agile data management benefits of AWS cloud-based services. Contact us today to speak with our experts and learn about our proven AWS cloud migration capabilities.