Dimension Data Aims to Accelerate Cloud Migration

Written by Chris Talbot 1
January 24, 2013

Dimension Data is rolling out a handful of cloud readiness services in the hopes of accelerating the migration to the cloud of its enterprise customers.

Dimension Data hopes to move along enterprise adoption of and migration to cloud with a suite of new cloud readiness services. The information and communications technology provider has been ramping up its cloud offerings by consolidating its cloud offerings into a single brand and expanding its employee base supporting the cloud.

The new cloud readiness services were “designed to help organizations assess their ability and preparedness for migrating applications to the cloud.” According to Dimension Data, the approach it’s taking addresses four “critical aspects” of cloud: business alignment, organization, infrastructure and applications.

Additionally, the services are split into four key elements:

Online Cloud Self-Assessment is a short, web-based online assessment that includes an in-depth survey that determines the cloud readiness level and recommends specific actions to address gaps.
Cloud Readiness Workshop takes things to the next step with a half-day engagement with Dimension Data’s Consulting & Professional Services team. During the workshop, the Dimension Data team will gather information to build a 12-to-24-month cloud roadmap tailored to the organization’s individual needs.
Cloud Readiness Assessment reviews the customer’s structure, operations and technology over two weeks to develop a plan to move a significant amount of its IT environment to the cloud.
Cloud Total Cost of Ownership helps with the financial justification of moving to the cloud. After all, every business needs to think about the bottom line, especially when moving such a critical element of its operations away from traditional methods. At the end of the TCO assessment, Dimension Data provides customers with “a highly polished set of financial deliverables.”

If the work goes that far, presumably the customer would jump on board and invest in Dimension Data’s cloud services. In the end, the goal is to provide a long-term cloud application migration strategy that Dimension Data can work toward.