I recently came across a Cisco white paper, “Cisco Cloud Connected Solution: Prepare Your Network for the Cloud,” that discusses how to prepare your network for the cloud.

Many businesses believe they’re ready to move to the Cloud, because it should be as simple as that, right? Just push a button and your network is cloud-ready. The reality is, your network needs to be reviewed because several unforeseen challenges and issues may arise before you can even start making the move to a cloud environment.

These cloud services and applications present challenges your WAN is not prepared to handle. Today, most enterprise networks cannot reliably and securely support the new levels and types of traffic created by cloud applications and services. Additionally, performance and availability are in high demand from business, which in turn, introduces even more pressure on IT.

Some Cloud Challenges to Consider:

• Back-hauling Traffic
• Bandwidth Capacity to Support Virtual Desktops
• Detecting and Prioritizing Video
• Optimizing Applications for Mobile Users

This white paper also discusses some of the limitations of today’s networks that inhibit the necessary support for cloud-hosted applications and services.

If you are considering a cloud environment, i-Tech provides complimentary network assessments to ensure your network is ready and, if it’s not, our assessment will show what steps need to be taken to get your network ready for the transition to the cloud safely and securely.