The race toward cloud migration isn’t just for large companies. Small and medium-scale businesses are very much in the mix.

One of the managed services providers championing the cloudification cause for SMBs is Innovative Data Processing Solutions Ltd., and the company’s approach and implementation style is reflective of its own name.

“There’s this big misnomer that when you move to the cloud, you’ve got to automatically modernize,” said Justin Copie (pictured), owner and CEO of Innovative Solutions. “We help as many customers as possible understand that lifting and shifting, moving the stuff that you maybe currently have on-prem or in a data center to the cloud is the first step, and then following that by progressively working through a modernization strategy is always the better approach.”

Copie spoke with industry analyst John Furrier at the recent AWS Summit San Francisco event, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed the unique pain points requiring SMBs to go cloud-first and the hurdles that accompany the move, as well as how the company works with AWS as a consulting partner. (* Disclosure below.) 

Quashed misconceptions and growth opportunities

Another myth, as pointed out by Copie, is the perception by executives and founders at SMBs that only the newest cloud services can help them stay competitive.

“Some things have been around for quite some time and are hardened solutions,” he said. “And so what we try to do with technology staff that has traditional on-prem skillsets and are trying to move to a cloud-based workload is we try to help those customers through education and through some practical use cases.”

If the pandemic has taught the enterprise one thing, it’s that businesses must remain equipped for adaptation or risk significant downturns. However, the notion that businesses have to “get it right the first time” with cloud migration is erroneous, according to Copie.

“In the cloud, you could turn those services on and off, and so it gives you a much higher density for making decisions and failing forward,” he stated.

Providing SMB customers with the know-how, tools and educational resources to navigate a landscape with thousands of products and services under the AWS cloud umbrella, with an equal multitude of unique use cases, is Innovative Solutions’ primary raison d’etre, Copie concluded.

Here’s the complete interview, part of theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Summit San Francisco event:

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the AWS Summit San Francisco event. Neither Amazon Web Services Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE