Technology Reseller - v30

01732 759725 38 OPINION Three ways MSPs can avoid the migration migraine to another requires planning and hard work; it cannot be done overnight. When deploying a new product, it is the job of MSPs to make the transition as smooth as possible for its clients. A simple yet effective way to do this is to take a step- by-step approach. An example of this is to begin the process by rolling out the product to new customers only, while allowing established customers to remain on the legacy system. This approach will help to ease the burden for MSPs, as well as eliminate complexity, because new customers will not have existing policies, rules or backup data that need to be converted from one system to another. Once MSPs become more familiar and comfortable with the technology, they can gradually migrate legacy customers from the previous platform to the new one, working on a priority basis. 2 Eliminate vendor sprawl: Many MSPs choose to partner with multiple vendors that offer similar services, whether that be data protection, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure or some other function. In the data-protection category, for instance, three out of four MSPs offer more than one solution in their portfolio. While offering a range of different services to customers is a must, managing similar products from disparate vendors can be a time drain for MSPs, driving complexity up and service desk profitability down. To combat this challenge and streamline services, MSPs should look to an all-in with one provider. Ripping and replacing could provide the perfect opportunity to consolidate on a single vendor, allowing MSPs to reduce operational costs and gain a single point of contact for every user, from sales to support. It could also enable them to gain in-depth expertise in a particular system and, ultimately, onboard customers more efficiently. Furthermore, growing a business becomes far simple when working with a reduced vendor list. It gives MSPs the time to focus and channel resource into what matters most for growth: delivering a high level of service to customers and ensuring the right structures are in place to support the business to scale rapidly. 3 Look for solutions that can be effortlessly deployed: Another factor helping MSPs avoid a migration migraine is easier deployment of new systems. Many MSPs may shy away from implementing new systems because they’ve been burnt in the past, but today’s reality is different. It is not as hard to deploy and manage new technology as it once was. When vendors are looking to launch a new solution to market, a key consideration is how easy it is for MSPs to deploy and manage. Indeed, the deployment and ongoing management of enterprise technology systems has dramatically evolved over the years. A decade ago, it required expert programmers to implement a new system. Today, there are many vendors that have done an excellent job of streamlining and automating the migration process, so even those that don’t have technical capabilities are able successfully to deploy these systems. The migration process will always involve a certain amount of risk and discomfort, but modern solutions have greatly improved the rate of success for MSPs when it comes to moving their customers from one technology to another. If they take the necessary preparatory steps, they can confidently embark on seamless migrations and take their business to the next level. About StorageCraft Organisations keep their critical information safe, accessible and optimised with StorageCraft data protection, data management and business continuity solutions. StorageCraft’s data protection offerings deliver instant, reliable and complete data recovery and eliminate downtime. Its innovative converged primary and secondary scale-out storage platform, with integrated data protection, solves data growth challenges, is efficient and easy to use for on-premises, cloud-based or hybrid deployments. For more information, visit www.StorageCraft.com . Florian Malecki, International Product Marketing Senior Director, StorageCraft, explains why MSPs should no longer fear technology migration Around the world, MSPs face concern about the potentially painful implications of migrating technology from one vendor to another. So why even bother making the difficult move from one technology to another? Why take the risk, especially if the migration comes with so many troubles, challenges and sleepless nights? Sometimes it is necessary, critical even, for MSPs to remove old technology and replace it with new, up-to-date products. There can be a lot to gain for MSPs that migrate their client base to superior technology, namely improved user experience for customers and reduced time and cost of management. For most MSPs, the key to winning new opportunities is optimising their service portfolio and delivering services faster and better. With that in mind, here are three ways MSPs can avoid the migration migraine when upgrading to new technology and future-proofing their business. 1 Adopt a step-by-step approach: Migrating customers from one vendor Florian Malecki