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Cloud and migration

AWS, Azure and lean alternatives. Moved across without a weekend of downtime, and without a bill that quietly triples.£8,000 to £20,000

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Cloud and migration, Optimum IT Solutions

What cloud and migration actually means

Moving to the cloud means running your systems on someone else's data centre instead of a server in your building. Done well, that means no hardware to fail, capacity you can add in minutes, and the same systems reachable from the office, home or a site with equal ease. Done badly it means a migration that loses data, a fortnight of chaos, and a monthly bill that grows in ways nobody can explain.

The word covers a lot. It might be moving your email and files to Microsoft 365, lifting a line-of-business application onto Azure or AWS, or replacing an ageing on-premises server with a cloud equivalent. Sometimes the honest answer is that not everything should move, and a sensible mix of cloud and a little kept local is the right design. We will tell you that rather than push the option with the biggest bill.

The migration itself is the risky part, and it is where care earns its keep. We build the new environment alongside the old, move data in stages while both run, test that everything genuinely works, and cut over at a quiet time so there is always a way back if something surprises us. A migration nobody noticed is the whole aim.

See it work

Rather than take our word for it

Watch the whole lot move across to something better, without the office stopping.

Try one:

IMAP / Google WorkspaceMicrosoft 3650%

A scripted demonstration. Real migrations are planned, tested on a copy first, and cut over out of hours so your team keeps working.

How it helps your business

The first benefit is that the hardware worry goes away. No more wondering whether the server in the cupboard will survive another year, no capital outlay every few years to replace it, and no single box whose failure stops the business. Capacity becomes something you turn up when you are busy and down when you are not, rather than a fixed lump you bought and hope is enough.

The second is that your systems follow your people. Cloud done properly means the office is just one of the places work happens, with home and site exactly as capable and exactly as secure. For a business that has discovered it needs to work from anywhere, that is not a nice-to-have, it is the difference between coping and struggling.

The third, and the one people feel most, is control of cost. Cloud bills have a reputation for creeping because it is so easy to leave things running that nobody uses. We size it right at the start, model what it should cost, and set it up so the spend stays visible, so the cloud saves you money rather than becoming the thing you dread on the statement.

How cloud and migration helps your business, Optimum IT Solutions

What is included

AWS, Azure, Microsoft 365 and leaner alternatives, chosen on fit rather than fashion
A staged migration with the old and new running side by side, so there is a way back
Cut over out of hours, so people arrive to a working system, not a broken morning
Right-sized from the start, so you are not paying for capacity you never use
Costs modelled up front, so the bill does not quietly triple three months in
Backups, security and access set up properly as part of the move, not bolted on later

Real examples

Illustrative cases. Tap one to see what happened and what could have been done.

The server everyone was afraid of

The case

A logistics firm ran its whole operation on a single ageing server that was out of warranty and quietly terrifying everyone, because if it died the business stopped.

What could have been done

Moving the systems to Azure in stages over three weeks, running both in parallel until certain, and switching over on a Friday night makes Monday morning ordinary, which after months of low-level dread is exactly the point.

The bill that quietly tripled

The case

A design agency had drifted onto the cloud through a previous provider and watched the monthly bill climb with no idea why.

What could have been done

Going through it line by line, right-sizing oversized instances and switching off services nobody used, brings the bill down by well over half for the same performance, with the spend set up to stay visible from then on.

Ready to sort cloud and migration?

Tell us what is going wrong and we will come back with a fixed price in writing, after a short scoping call. No obligation, and no jargon.

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Common questions about cloud and migration

How much does cloud and migration cost?

£8,000 to £20,000. We agree the exact number before any work starts, so there are no open ended day rates.

How long does cloud and migration take?

Most work of this kind is live within three to four weeks. We give you a date before we begin and tell you early if anything threatens it.

Do you work outside Edinburgh?

Yes. We are based in Edinburgh and work on site across the Lothians, Fife and Glasgow, and remotely across the United Kingdom.