Our CTO Todd Ellis, recently remarked, “Cloud services are great, but if you need to get your data out of the cloud quickly, you may have a problem.”

Anytime you need to pull data from a cloud service, that process can be slow and complicated. It is also true that circumstances can arise when a company may want to transition from one cloud solution into another. When that day comes, it will either be as easy as moving eggs in an egg carton… or it will be like moving eggs balanced in spoons.

What will be the determining factor? Whether the business has a cloud exit plan in place.

When you host in the cloud, make sure you have an exit plan.

There are many elements to having a fully-developed cloud exit plan. There are a lot of considerations, which include:

• • • • • An exit plan ideally begins at the onset of any cloud hosting plan.

          When you commit your network to go into a cloud hosting service, there should always be some discussion about how you would get your data off the private cloud at some future date.

• • • • • Understand your application limitations.

          Applications have dependencies that might make them sensitive to transitioning from one cloud provider to another. The application your business uses need to be assessed for these concerns.

• • • • • Exit plan components include:

          Anticipated time span, anticipated costs, and communication with heads of departments and vendors. It is also critical to know how you will receive the data, because how the data processes out of one cloud will determine how to process it into the next cloud.

• • • • • Document! Document! Document!

          Every decision and nugget of intelligence about the transfer of your data, at every step of the data transition, can become precious information. So document everything, just in case you find you need to trace your steps.

This is just a quick overview of general considerations. Network administrators and CISOs are trained to have a thorough understanding of the risks involved in data backup transitions. This is a case where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so plan ahead.