When migrating on-premises applications to the cloud, what is a core consideration for small businesses?

When migrating on-premises applications to the cloud, availability is a core consideration for small businesses because it directly impacts their operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Small businesses often rely on a smaller workforce and limited resources, making consistent access to applications essential for daily operations. Any downtime can lead to significant losses, both in terms of revenue and customer trust.

Ensuring high availability means that the cloud infrastructure must be robust and capable of handling unexpected issues without disrupting service. This may involve utilizing redundant systems, load balancing, and effective disaster recovery solutions to maintain uptime. For small businesses, which may not have the same level of resources for in-house IT support, ensuring that their cloud service provider offers reliable availability can be critical to their success.

While data encryption, service-level agreements, and vendor support are important considerations in the cloud migration process, they do not hold the same level of urgency as ensuring that applications remain accessible and operational at all times for a small business's day-to-day activities.