7 Tips for Securely and Effectively Migrating Data to the Cloud

It’s surprising to see how much cloud technology has changed the professional landscape these past couple of years. Of course, the practicality and convenience of cloud are just some of the reasons why more companies are adopting the technology. Using the cloud is easy. The challenge though is transitioning into it.

Transporting all of a company’s data into a cloud server is one of the toughest parts of adopting the technology. Data becomes vulnerable during its transition from hard storage and then into cloud. If you are hoping to make this crucial jump, then here are some important tips on how you can execute the transition properly. You can learn more about migrating Jira or Confluence to Atlassian at sentify.co.

Know What Data Is Being Transferred

The first step in ensuring that your data is safe is by first understanding the kind and type of data you are actually transferring into the cloud. You shouldn’t go as far as cataloging every bit of your data. It pays to at least familiarize yourself with everything that’s being transferred.

One thing you need to do immediately is to figure out which data is the most important. It also pays to know who’s doing what during the cloud migration process. This part of the process helps you determine if all of your data is still intact after the migration to cloud.

List Down Who Has Access To The Data

It’s crucial that you know who’s handling your company’s data. Before the migration begins, you must list down all personnel who are a part of the process. This is an important step as it allows you to narrow down what went wrong in the process just in case something goes missing.

It also adds a level of accountability for those who are handling the data. Those with more expertise when it comes to cloud migration should be tasked with handling sensitive data personally.

Test As Much As Possible

Before you begin the actual process of transitioning into the cloud, it is imperative that you do a penetration test first. A penetration test is basically a simulation of an attack. This is mostly done with the help of a third-party so they have no idea what kind of precautionary measures as in place.

The penetration test reveals all of the potential vulnerabilities in your migration process. It’s an important part of the test as it basically helps you perfect your transition into cloud.

Encrypt Your Data

Data encryption is one of the best things you can do to safeguard your data. Data encryption basically scrambles your data into code that would make it harder for hackers to decipher your assets.

When encrypting your data, an extra but necessary step to ensure your security is to give the encryption key to select personnel only. This means that the only people who can decrypt the data are those that have access to the encryption keys.

Save Data In A Backup

The most common form of attack you can expect during cloud migration is a ransomware attack. In this digital attack, hackers will hold your data hostage up until you pay a certain price after a set amount of time. To make their bids for ransom money worthless, you should consider backing up your data in a distinct fault domain.

Having a backup prepared will also help you recover any lost data during the process so it is imperative that you do this.

Protect Your Physical Assets During The Process

Don’t let your hard drives and computers be vulnerable while your data is in transit. In fact, you should be more protective of them during the cloud migration process. It’s not just about protecting your hard drives from physical threats.

It doesn’t take much for people to steal your data using a hard drive of their own. Other than that, it’s a must that your physical assets stay safe from power outages, water damage, and other physical threats. These could impede data migration. Worse, these could corrupt your data, rendering them useless.

Clean The Slate

Your cloud migration process doesn’t end when all of your data is finally transferred into the cloud. The last part of the process is retiring your old drives and cleaning your slate. The biggest mistake you can make at this point is immediately disposing of your hard drives.

The first thing you need to do is to reformat the hard drive so that all of the data is wiped clean. You don’t even have to throw away the drive as it can be used for other purposes.

Cloud migration is one of the biggest steps you can make for the future of your company. Whether big or small, it is important that your data stays safe while in transit. Hopefully, our tips let you understand just how easy it is to protect your data. Of course, the process is going to be best initiated with the help of professionals.