Cloud consulting is the decision, not the migration. It answers which workloads should move, which should be replaced, which should be retired, and which are cheaper left alone - and puts a running cost against each answer before you commit.
The migration is the easy part. Deciding correctly is what saves money.
"Move to the cloud" stopped being a strategy about a decade ago. Almost every Australian business already has email, files and at least one line-of-business system running somewhere other than their own office. The live questions now are narrower and more expensive to get wrong: is this workload in the right place, are we paying for capacity we do not use, and what happens to our costs as we grow?
What a cloud consultant does
1. Audits what you actually run
Not what the org chart says - what is genuinely in use. This normally surfaces two or three systems nobody has thought about in years, and at least one subscription being paid for a person who left.
2. Maps each workload to a decision
Every system gets one of four verdicts: move it as-is, replace it with a cloud-native equivalent, retire it, or keep it where it is. The last two are the ones that save real money, and the ones a consultant selling migration services is least motivated to recommend.
3. Models the running cost, not the project cost
The migration is a one-off. The monthly bill is forever. A proper assessment prices the steady state - licences, storage, egress, backup - because that is the number you live with.
4. Plans identity and licensing before data
Who can sign in to what, from where, is the foundation everything else sits on. Migrations that move data first and sort out identity later create security gaps that persist for years.
5. Oversees the cutover
Sequencing, rollback plan, and a defined point at which the old system is switched off. Businesses often carry the cost of both environments for months because nobody was accountable for turning the old one off.
Where cloud projects actually go wrong
Four failure modes worth knowing before you start
Lift and shift. Moving a server to the cloud unchanged usually costs more to run than the hardware did, because you are now renting capacity you previously owned outright. It is sometimes the right call for a short bridge - it is rarely the right destination.
Licensing surprises. Software licensed for on-premise use does not always transfer to a cloud host, and the compliance position often only becomes clear after the move.
Nobody turns the old thing off. Paying for both environments is a normal outcome of an unplanned cutover.
Backup assumed, not configured. Cloud platforms protect their infrastructure, not your data from your own mistakes. Retention against accidental deletion and ransomware is a separate thing you have to configure and test.
Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Azure?
These get lumped together and they are three different decisions.
| Platform | What it is for | Choose it when |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 | Email, files, Teams, Office apps - plus device management and security in Business Premium | You need security and device control, use desktop Office heavily, or clients expect Microsoft formats |
| Google Workspace | Email, files, Meet, browser-first collaboration | Staff work in a browser, collaboration matters more than desktop apps, and you do not need Microsoft's security tooling |
| Azure / AWS | Hosting servers, databases and applications | You have a line-of-business application or server that has to run somewhere - this is separate from your productivity suite |
For most small businesses the productivity decision is the significant one, and the follow-up question is which tier. That comes down to whether you need the security and device-management layer - see Business Premium vs Business Standard for the detail. If you are currently on Google and weighing a move, we have a dedicated Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration service.
What cloud consulting costs
Advisory work is charged either hourly or as a fixed-scope assessment. Ours is $180/hr ex GST, one-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments, no call-out fee in metro Perth. A small-business cloud assessment is normally delivered as a fixed-scope written recommendation with costs attached - deliberately so you can read it, disagree with it, and decide before anyone touches anything.
The test of a good assessment is whether it tells you not to do something. If every recommendation is a project the consultant would like to deliver, you have been sold to rather than advised.
Cloud Questions, Answered
What businesses ask before committing to a migration.
What is cloud consulting?
Cloud consulting is independent advice on which parts of your business should run in the cloud, which should not, and how to get there without breaking things or overspending. It covers the decision and the plan - what moves, what stays, what gets retired, what it will cost to run afterwards - and usually the oversight of the migration itself.
What does a cloud consultant actually do?
A cloud consultant audits what you currently run and what it costs, maps each workload to a recommendation (move, keep, replace or retire), models the ongoing running cost rather than just the migration cost, plans the cutover including licensing and identity, and oversees the migration. Good ones also tell you which systems are not worth moving.
How much does cloud consulting cost?
Advisory work is normally charged hourly or as a fixed-scope assessment. Support Perth charges $180/hr ex GST with a one-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments. A small-business cloud assessment is typically a fixed-scope piece of work delivered as a written recommendation with costs attached, so you can decide before committing to a migration.
Is moving to the cloud cheaper than on-premise?
Not automatically, and treating it as a guaranteed saving is the most common way cloud projects disappoint. Cloud converts capital expenditure into operating expenditure and removes hardware refresh risk, which is usually worth it. But a workload lifted to the cloud unchanged often costs more to run than it did on a server you had already paid for. The saving comes from redesigning or retiring things, not from relocating them.
Should a small business use Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Azure?
For most Australian small businesses the productivity decision is Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, and it is largely determined by what your staff and clients already use and whether you need the security and device-management tooling in Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Azure and equivalents are for hosting applications and servers, which is a separate decision from the productivity suite - businesses regularly conflate the two and buy things they do not need.
Related
Where to go next, depending on what prompted the question.
Weighing up a cloud move?
Tell us what you run now. We will tell you what is worth moving, what is not, and roughly what each option costs to run.
Support Perth IT Pty Ltd · Perth, Western Australia · $180/hr ex GST, one-hour minimum, then 30-minute increments · No call-out fee in metro Perth.