How Do You Know It's Time to Migrate Your Utility CIS to the Cloud?
Everyone is talking about cloud migration, even small- to medium-sized utilities. And it’s no wonder they are. With COVID-19, people working from home, and cybersecurity threats, migrating to the cloud makes good business sense for many utilities. But, how do you know it’s time to migrate your utility CIS to the Cloud? Will it be a good move for your team and community?
It’s no doubt there are many benefits to CIS cloud migration. A cloud-based CIS is fast, easy to use, saves operating costs, and is secure and reliable. And with all those benefits, who wouldn’t consider it. But when is the right time for your utility to migrate to the Cloud?
10 Signs You Need to Migrate Your Utility CIS to the Cloud
Maintaining your current system is becoming expensive.
Your system is experiencing more downtime.
System upgrades and enhancements are difficult.
Your software and hardware are reaching End of Life or End of Service Life.
You need more capacity.
You don’t have the staff to maintain your system.
Compatibility issues are now common.
You can’t keep up with regulatory requirements.
Your current system is putting a burden on your staff.
Your data is not easily accessible.
Maintaining your current system is becoming expensive.
When you first purchased your utility’s CIS hardware and software, you may have thought to yourself, “This system is fast, robust, and everything we need to serve our community!” Several years have passed, and now, your system is becoming more expensive to maintain. With your servers on 24 hours a day, parts wear out and have to be replaced. As your software ages, your IT team spends more time trying to maintain it (upgrade, patch, fix, etc.), costing you more money and giving your staff less time to work on other high-priority issues. And with older hardware, utilities are less likely to upgrade to newer CIS versions because they do not have the resources to run the latest software. Your staff’s and your system’s performance lag, and poor performance costs your utility more time and more money.
Your system is experiencing more downtime.
The industry recommends that a server be replaced every 3-5 years, but many utilities will try to squeeze out an extra year or two because of the expense and hassle of replacing the system. But, performance and maintenance issues aren’t the only things you need to worry about when your software and hardware age. What you have to worry about, too, is downtime. Even with the best-maintained software and hardware, moving parts will start to wear when something runs 24 hours a day. Your power supply may have glitches, hard drive platters can be damaged, and firmware upgrades can cause more trouble than they solve. When your system is not running smoothly, your team can’t serve your community. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer when they are trying to pay a bill, have an outage, or generally need your assistance, and your team can’t help them because your system is down.
System Upgrades and Enhancements Are Difficult.
Even if you’re not experiencing downtime yet, as your system ages, upgrades are necessary. Security patches, bug fixes, and vulnerability repairs come with your software and hardware updates. And upgrades provide new features and functions that you can use to serve your community better. But over time, updates and upgrades become more difficult as versions change. Although you want all the latest features and functions that updates and upgrades provide, aging hardware and software make it difficult to have them available for your community. And, if all of your hardware and software is not on the latest version, you could run into integration problems and even downtime.
Your software and hardware are reaching End of Life or End of Service Life.
When original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and software companies no longer support their products, the software and hardware have reached their End of Service Life (EOSL). EOSL precedes End of Life (EOL) when a software or hardware company determines that a product has reached its useful lifespan. Microsoft’s SQL 2008 reached its end of service life on June 9, 2019, and SQL 2012 will reach its end of service life later this year on July 12, 2022. If you’re running either of these versions of SQL, it may still be running fine for your organization.
But, it will become more expensive to maintain. When your hardware and software reach the End of Life, you have two options. You can spend money to extend service contracts, or you can use the break/fix methodology and fix it when it breaks. Both of these choices delay the inevitable of replacing your system and only increase your headache and worry.
You need more capacity.
As your hardware ages, your community is also growing. With that growth comes a need for more server capacity for data, users, redundancy, and backups. Your server is designed specifically for the system you need to serve your community, but not having enough server capacity to run your CIS can be frustrating for your IT staff and your customer service representatives. Lack of server capacity leads to slow performance, which, in turn, keeps you from serving your community quickly.
You don’t have the staff to maintain your system.
When it’s not a problem with your hardware and software, you may have a problem finding the right IT personnel to maintain your system. Small- to medium-sized utilities are currently facing an IT personnel shortage. And some are seeing their seasoned IT personnel retiring soon. With a lack of talented IT workers, the salary you have to pay to get them and keep them could be cost-prohibitive for your community, even if you can find one. And according to Gartner, the lack of talented IT workers is a leading factor in adopting new technology, including infrastructure.
Compatibility issues are now common.
As your hardware and software age, you may be noticing compatibility issues. As you update your existing software and hardware, if you’re not careful, one version’s features and functions won’t be compatible with another, or you could even break the integration. Although you may want and need the new features and functions of the latest version of your software, you could experience compatibility problems, causing trouble with new features.
You can’t keep up with regulatory requirements.
As a municipal utility, you must keep up with local, state, and national regulations. If your server and software are outdated, they might not meet all regulatory requirements. As regulations change, so must your software and hardware, but if you’re trying to squeeze one more year out of your aging server and not updating your software, you could be creating a non-compliance headache.
Your current system is putting a burden on your staff.
If your server is reaching its end of life, you may be noticing that its performance is lagging. It used to take your CSRs seconds to pull up records; they now see the spinning cursor. As that cursor spins, your CSRs become more frustrated, and your customers get irritated with waiting. Updated software and state-of-the-art hardware keep your CSRs informed. When your CSRs have everything they need at their fingertips, they can provide the best possible customer experience for your customers.
Your data is not easily accessible.
Having your data at your team’s fingertips is a must, no matter if your team is working from home or the office. Although it’s possible to have everyone remote into your on-premise server, it can be less secure than you think it is. And if you experience a power outage at your office, no one will be able to access your server until the power is restored. No matter if there’s a pandemic or natural disaster, your team needs to serve your community.
If you’re experiencing any of the above symptoms, it may be time to migrate to a new server. And, if you’re thinking of migrating, then migrating your utility CIS to NorthStar’s Cloud could solve all 10 of these problems with added benefits. NorthStar has partnered with AWS to provide maximum performance for your customer experience software. NorthStar’s Cloud is designed for optimal performance and is a fully hosted, secure solution designed for the complete NorthStar Suite. With NorthStar Cloud, AWS updates all hardware, so you’ll always have the latest technology working for your community. And, with an internet connection and the NorthStar Cloud, your community’s data will be available when you need it.
Are your server and software exhibiting any of the ten signs above? Check out our Cloud Total Cost of Ownership to see if moving to the NorthStar Cloud is cost effective for your community.