Want to give an IT professional a good scare? Say one word: migration.

Even when migration makes perfect sense (or is unavoidable), few enjoy the process of changing vendors, changing equipment and changing software. Every IT professional, from the trenches to the CIO’s office, can offer tales of migrations-gone-wrong. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, well-executed migration programs can help your business cut complexity, save money and increase performance while walking away from existing IT woes.

Migration may not be the right move for every company in every situation. But some of the usual reasons companies stick to a long and varied list of vendors actually distract them from the potential benefits of migrating.

• Myth 1: Migration is too complex. There’s no doubt that migrating from one vendor’s solutions to another’s isn’t a simple, overnight project. But that doesn’t mean migration isn’t worth the effort. A well-planned migration can make the process relatively painless and set you free of current complexity.
• Myth 2: Migration is too expensive. Anytime you decide to acquire new hardware or software, there’s an expense. But will it be cheaper in the long run? If your staff spends too much time maintaining legacy systems or developing workarounds to compensate for IT shortfalls, migrating to a new platform might give you a faster return on your investment than you imagine.
• Myth 3: Our current situation might be scary, but the unknown is scarier. Sometimes it’s clear that the current situation isn’t working, whether because of product issues or vendor relationship problems. But IT professionals are often masters at dealing with imperfect situations, forgetting that sometimes, the grass really is greener on the other side. Fear of the unknown isn’t a good reason to discount potential time and money savings.

A successful migration can help your IT organization leave behind legacy systems that are inflexible, old, proprietary or homegrown. But how do you know whether migration is worth your time and effort? Businesses suffering from one (or more) of these fundamental problems are typically ideal candidates for migration.

• Your old equipment is too old. Every piece of equipment—hardware and software—has a lifespan. Maybe you’re implementing a new supply chain solution and your current servers can’t handle the application at the performance level required.
• You’re merging with or acquiring another company. Mergers and acquisitions can require the arranged marriage of two different IT shops. Rather than add a mélange of equipment to your company’s mix, consider migrating to a new platform. The potential efficiencies of standardizing can ease merging IT organizations and smooth the overall transition.
• Your company is changing its physical location. A physical move requires a certain amount of upheaval anyway. If you’ve been considering migration, this might be the ideal time to do it.
• Your current vendors aren’t delivering. When products or customer service from your current vendors aren’t living up to expectations and you’ve tried without much success to remedy the situation, you might be wiser to move on.

Of course, evaluating whether to migrate, how to do it and quantifying the gain is much more complex than that. HP migration evaluations, services and proof-of-concept systems help you decide if and when to make the move.

If migration is right for you, HP gets to work on a plan that can include migration support ranging from off-the-shelf migration packs to fully customized migration strategies. We also make migration easier by offering free services to qualified enterprises and trade-in credits for approved competitor hardware, further speeding ROI and reducing risk.

HP knows that migration doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, migration projects can take months. But enterprise-class management solutions, such as Systems Insight Manager, can help you keep a grip on your heterogeneous systems from a single pane of glass while you gradually port your business to the new platform.

You don’t have to guess whether migration is the right decision, and you don’t have to guess how to do it. HP’s fleet of trained professionals can help take the guesswork out of those big decisions. Find out more. Contact HP for a free, no obligation assessment of your organization’s eligibility for migration special offers, trade-ins and “proof-of-concept” systems.

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