Welcome to Ask the Experts, brought to you by CloudServicesUniversity.com. In this video, David Morgan, VP of Sales Engineering at Windstream, discusses the two keys to ensuring a seamless cloud migration with Intelisys’ SVP Cloud Transformation Andrew Pryfogle. Visit Cloud Services University to learn more about creating a cloud migration strategy for your customers: http://cloudservicesuniversity.com/
| Andrew: | All right, guys. We’re pressing ahead here. You’re knocking out a bunch of these lessons. Great job on that. Our next one that we’re going to do here is an Ask the Experts session with one of our esteemed colleagues from our faculty here at the University, David Morgan. David is the Vice President of Sales Engineering for Windstream, one of our go-to providers in our portfolio; specifically, also around cloud. They have an awesome cloud strategy with our hosted solutions division. David, welcome, man. |
| David: | Hey, thanks Andrew. Glad to be here. |
| Andrew: | All right. Cool. I got one question for you. We design cloud solutions all the time. Customers are adopting cloud at a faster rate than ever before. One of the biggest challenges that many customers have, and perhaps one of the biggest fears they have, is how do I get from here to there? How do I go through a cloud migration without losing data? Or causing down time? Or just having a ton of things go sideways on them? I want you to speak to that real quick. What are the pitfalls that a customer should be thinking about avoiding when they’re looking at a migration to the cloud? |
| David: | Sure, Andrew. I’m going to cover two items primarily. But even before I start with those two, I think it’s important to know up front that when you’re going through this process you’re not alone. Any provider should have support resources, sales engineers, some white glove support that can help identify what’s needed and walk both the Partner and the customer through this process. First, you should know that safety net is in place and we’re here as a resource. |
| The two main things that you’re looking for in a migration is first identifying what are the applications being run today on the customer’s premise for them to do business, and some of the requirements of those applications from a CPU standpoint, etc., latency. Because as we migrate to the cloud, we want to make sure we’ve identified all the applications being used, and how they need to be set up to perform as well or better after the migration as before. | |
| Andrew: | Got it. There’s a lot of thorough planning on the front-end that’s key to a migration. |
| David: | Absolutely. That’s what’s so critical–to bring in the resources of whoever you’re working with, who have been through this multiple times, and can help ask all those questions– |
| Andrew: | Yep. |
| David: | And identify all the applications. |
| Andrew: | Perfect. You mentioned a second thing. |
| David: | Once you’ve identified that, the next thing to care for is making sure you’ve done the same diligence for how everyone was connecting to those applications at the premise where they were. Once we move into the cloud, you have to care for real-time changing of IP addresses and those VPNs, etc., that users were connecting to those applications in one location that now reside in another. |
| Those are really the two main pitfalls. What is it you’re going to use, and after you switch, how are they going to access them remotely or even in the main locations? | |
| Andrew: | Yeah. Got it. It makes a lot of sense. I think the core message that I always communicate to customers around this is, this isn’t an easy thing. Right? Anyone who tells you this is just a flip-the-switch thing is probably not being up front with you. |
| David: | Right. |
| Andrew: | With careful planning and good, thorough engineering, this can happen seamlessly for a business. They’re not in a vacuum, right? They’re not on their own doing this, kind of in a dark room trying to figure this out. Our suppliers, and you guys especially–200 engineers that help Partners through this type of migration. Is that a true statement? |
| David: | Absolutely. |
| Andrew: | Yeah. Yeah. |
| David: | Absolutely. |
| Andrew: | Very cool. Excellent. Hey, great stuff, David. Thanks for diving in with us on this. Guys, that’s David Morgan, VP of Sales Engineering for Windstream. Again, a member of our esteemed faculty here at the University. Check out the learning center for Windstream here at the University and be on the lookout for more great insights from David. David, hey, thanks for your time, man. |
| David: | Thanks, Andrew. |
| Andrew: | All right. Good selling. |
