How To Protect Your Information During Cloud Data Migration

Every year, more and more businesses are choosing to adopt the cloud. This decision to move on from on-premise solutions is rooted in the benefits the cloud offers. The increased agility, scalability, and reliability are too promising for businesses to pass up. However, cloud data migration can be a risky process if you’re not careful.

Protecting Your Information During Cloud Data Migration

There are many reasons you to migrate to the cloud, including the ability to access virtually unlimited computing resources. When most businesses decide to switch to a cloud model, they often work with a cloud data migration service provider. This is because transitioning to the cloud comes with certain risks.

Cloud data migration is a complex process that moves data, applications, and other business tools to a remote server. When migration is successful, you can leverage all of the associated benefits to drive business growth. However, a successful transition to the cloud is not guaranteed.

As you go through the procedure, your data may become temporarily vulnerable to breaches. Additionally, if you run into a hitch as your information is being moved, it could result in losing those files. The best way to mitigate the risks while using the cloud is to prepare in advance.

You can prepare your IT for migration by following a cloud migration optimization strategy. A well thought out cloud migration planning and execution session can help you create a secure data migration environment. Here’s what you need to do:

Perform a Readiness Assessment

A cloud readiness assessment is the foundation of any successful cloud data migration. It’s a collaborative session where you work with a managed security provider to perform a gap analysis of your infrastructure. Through a readiness assessment, you can identify what in your IT is capable of moving to the cloud without trouble. The ultimate goal here is to establish a baseline of knowledge that defines the steps you may need to follow to optimize migration.

Create a Cloud Migration Security Checklist

With the information you gain from the readiness assessment, you can create a data migration requirements checklist. A migration checklist allows you to outline hurdles your organization could face as you move to the cloud. It also helps you highlight what you’re going to need going forward. Your checklist should include:

An inventory of your IT so you have a clear understanding of all the applications your organization uses and how they work together.
A quantifiable definition of success you can use to gauge company performance after migration.
The cloud provider you decided on (e.g. Microsoft Azure).
The cloud model you decided to migrate to (e.g. public, private, or hybrid).
The way you plan to migrate. There are six commonly used migration strategies including: rehosting, replatforming, repurchasing, retiring, retaining, and refactoring.
A backup plan in case something goes wrong.

Understand What Data You Have

It’s not uncommon for a business to have a variety of data. For example, healthcare providers hold on to identifiable personal information and patient health files, in addition to their own sensitive data. During the cloud data migration operation, you could become noncompliant with industry regulations. It’s necessary you take the time to understand compliance requirements for various types of data and adhere to those rules as you move the information.

Encrypt Information Prior To Transport

Encryption converts your information into unreadable code. Only the people who have the encryption key can decrypt the data and see it the way it’s meant to be seen. It’s a tried-and-true security measure that prevents unauthorized access. You should encrypt your information before performing cloud data migration to prevent wandering eyes from viewing data they shouldn’t have access to.

Wipe the Hard Drives You Won’t Be Using Anymore

After migration is finished and you’re sure everything has been transferred over, focus on digital sanitization. All the drives you were using should be wiped clean of any data. This way there’s no remnants of data for someone to find by chance.

Keep Cloud Data Migration Safe With RCS Secure

RCS Secure is a leader in managed security services. We help clients in a variety of industries boost their cybersecurity posture. If you’re looking to migrate to the cloud, our team can help you make it a safe and secure process.