UC cloud migration is a necessity for companies of all sizes. Unfortunately, while the cloud offers a host of benefits to businesses, migration can be a long, costly and challenging process.
The largest hurdle in moving to the cloud isn’t deciding which platform to use. It’s figuring out how to transition thousands of users, years of settings, and uniquely configured features into a new environment. Everything about a migration can cause significant disruptions to business operations without the right strategy.
The Challenges of UC Cloud Migration
According to a report by Kurmi, a leader in UC service management, migration to the cloud is the biggest challenge faced by 44% of IT leaders today.
Some of the most significant challenges of cloud migration include:
- Complexity and Feature Mapping: There’s no direct one-to-one feature parity between UC on-premises and cloud services. This necessitates a thorough feature mapping process to ensure that all functionalities are replicated or adapted appropriately in the new environment.
- Testing and Validation: Before fully transitioning to the new system, extensive testing should be conducted to identify and resolve any issues. This includes testing for performance, security, and functionality to ensure the new system meets all requirements.
- Integrating systems: As businesses embrace multi-vendor, and multi-app environments, disparate collaboration tools don’t always integrate. Usually, they can’t be managed from a single interface, either. This means new platforms for IT teams to learn and more time-consuming day-to-day management down the line.
- Controlling migration speed: Not all companies can migrate their entire legacy ecosystem to the cloud at once. Some need a phased migration process, which allow them to migrate small clusters, like teams or sites, one by one.
- Maintaining insights: Throughout the migration process, businesses need to maintain a complete and holistic view of their existing resources, network performance, and security issues, to minimize compliance risks and ensure effective resource allocation.
Upgrading your Migration with UC Service Management
Ultimately, there are two general ways a company can manage a complex UC migration. The first way is to handle the migration manually. Unfortunately, this process is time consuming and complex, often causing companies to miss deadlines and incur unnecessary expenses.
Manual migration also increases the chances of errors in data transfer and configuration, potentially leading to business downtime and disruptions. Cost savings on technology from a manual approach are usually outstripped by the cost of time, personnel, delays and cloud licensing used inefficiently.
The alternative is to use a tool that is purpose-built to automate this type of move. A UC service management tool, with built in migration capabilities, such as Kurmi can streamline the migration process, reduce errors, and ensure seamless transitions – plus automate the day-to-day management prior, during and after the migration.
A UC service management solution helps businesses address the challenges of migration by:
1. Optimizing Settings & User Transfer through Cleaning
Data cleaning ensures that only relevant, accurate and necessary settings and users are migrated, improving the efficiency and reliability of the new UC environment.
The UC service management tool identifies all communication-related data, such as user accounts, phone numbers, device configurations. It organizes data into categories, separating active users and devices from obsolete or redundant entries.
The solution checks fields for consistency (e.g., ensuring phone numbers are in a standard format or email addresses are valid). Organizational rules are applied to validate system and user settings against compliance and security standards (e.g., routing, proper naming conventions, required fields).
UC service management tools scan for duplicate entries, such as users with multiple accounts, and merge or eliminate them to maintain uniqueness. The system also flags and removes accounts or data associated with former employees, unused devices or disconnected services. The UC service management solution flags incomplete or incorrect data (e.g., missing user roles or invalid device IDs) and provides options for automatic or manual correction.
2. Moving the Settings & Users
UC migration involves transferring the cleaned and validated settings and users from the old system to the new UC platform while ensuring compatibility and minimizing disruptions.
The steps here are:
- Preparation: Encompassing mapping existing settings structures to the new system’s architecture, ensuring that all fields and formats are compatible. Then analyzing dependencies (e.g., group memberships, call routing rules) to ensure that related data is transferred together.
- Data Export: A complete backup of the settings and users is created to prevent loss in case of migration issues. Relevant data is exported from the source system, filtering out non-migratable or redundant information.
- Users Transfer: The UC service management platform moves data in batches, which helps reduce the load on the tool and allows for staged deployment. Users can be moved in real-time for immediate migration or during scheduled downtime to minimize user disruption.
- Settings Import: If needed, the migration tool reformats the settings to align with the new platform’s structure (e.g., converting legacy phone numbers to a modern numbering plan). As data is imported, the system verifies that all entries are correct, complete and functional in the new environment.
- Testing and Reconciliation: After migration, the UC service management platform tests key functionalities (e.g., call routing, messaging, device registrations) to ensure they work as expected.
- User Access Configuration: User permissions and profiles are updated to reflect the new system’s capabilities, ensuring proper access. The service management platform provisions users, devices, and settings automatically based on predefined templates or policies.
3. Enhancing Long-Term UC Management
UC service management solutions don’t just offer companies the resources they need to manage a single migration. Kurmi’s platform ensures businesses have the tools they need to effectively manage their entire ecosystem on an ongoing basis. Administrators can oversee both on-premises and cloud solutions in a single interface and automate complex configuration tasks.
IT administrators get an environment where they can easily handle number management and provisioning, track important data, and even enhance the user experience with access to convenient self-service portals. What’s more, as your UC landscape evolves, these platforms make it easy to implement and align new tools and applications.
Making UC Cloud Migration Simple
The migration to a cloud environment is a priority for countless companies, but transitioning into a new communications environment can be extremely complex. A powerful UC service management solution with migration features makes it easier to streamline the transition to a new technology.
With UC service management platforms like Kurmi’s provisioning solution, companies can reduce operating costs, improve IT and UC staff productivity, reduce errors and enhance user adoption, all while adhering to migration deadlines. Whether you’re moving your entire organization to a UCaaS platform or just transitioning certain departments to a new hosted collaboration system, you’ll be able to handle everything from a single pane of glass.
Overcome the biggest challenges of cloud UC migration – with an all-in-one suite built to simplify and optimize your journey to the cloud.
