In the field of cloud computing, the era of early adopters is clearly behind us. More and more companies are reaping the benefits of migration to the cloud. However, things often go differently than expected. What are the main pitfalls?
Research into the most common mistakes when transferring IT systems and applications to the cloud yields a rich harvest.
Top 5 Cloud Migration Pitfalls
Here are the top five mistakes while migrating to the cloud
Not Sure What To Migrate
Migration to the cloud starts with the answer to the question: which systems and applications can I and which should I not migrate to the cloud? The urge is often present to want to migrate everything to the cloud at once. Resist that urge.
Start with a good analysis of all applications that are present at your customer. Break down applications that:
- They are well suited to the cloud, for example, because they predictably benefit from cloud benefits such as better scalability, pay-per-use, and accelerated innovation.
- Must necessarily remain on-premises. Security and privacy aspects often play a role in this.
- It is better to replace or phase out in the relatively short term.
Then split the cloud migration-ready applications into two groups. One group can do this with a so-called ‘lift & shift’ approach. In other words: simple one-to-one transfer of an on-premises application to the cloud. Clearly more is needed for the other group.
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In some applications, ‘lift & shift’ sometimes leads to a relatively complex and expensive solution. This is because organizations do not sufficiently consider the architecture principles of the cloud provider in question. The lift & shift approach can also be better avoided if there is an increased risk that old on-premises problems can be transported one-to-one to the cloud.
Therefore, you need to rope in an expert in IT disposal service that can perform all kinds of reverse logistics, IT hardware buyback, data center decor and asset disposition services in a seamless way. If your company is based out of Newark CA, an expert like “Dataknox” can be of great help in IT asset management and logistics disposal.
Do Not Elevate Security As A Spearhead
A common misunderstanding is that by definition, cloud services are secure. In general, security in the cloud is a matter of shared responsibility between the provider and the customer.
Cloud providers almost always do everything they can to secure their own cloud infrastructure. However, your customers should know that they often have full or partial responsibility. This is the case with the security and maintenance of the cloud services that run in the cloud. So keep that in mind. With every migration to the cloud, security should be the top priority from the very first moment.
Do Not Take Into Account ‘Cloud Lock-In’
Ensure adequate portability of your customer’s applications. Migrating to the cloud is sometimes difficult, but returning from the cloud can be even more difficult. Your customers must keep control in their own hands. Make sure they have an appropriate strategy ready from day one, for example, based on containerization. This ensures that in the future they can switch very flexibly from one cloud provider to another, or from one cloud solution to another.
Focusing Too Limited On The Technology
Cloud migration is a change process involving three key players: employees, workflows and technology. The first two often receive too little attention in the required change management, with all its consequences.
Their own cloud-migrated applications, possibly in combination with the right services from the public cloud, offer companies a new connected platform that offers plenty of opportunities to organize workflows and collaboration processes more efficiently. In part, employees spontaneously discover new forms of (collaboration) work. With which they increase their efficiency and productivity.
To an important extent, companies must also provide the right training programs and new tools if employees are to take full advantage of the benefits of cloud migration. Companies often reserve insufficient resources for this immediately at the start of the project. This is a frequently identified pitfall in cloud migrations.
So pay sufficient attention to training if your customers are taking the road to the cloud with their organization. Involve as many employees as possible in that transition. In other words: take the required change management very seriously in this case as well and deploy it for the entire organization.
Making Unnecessary Costs
For many companies, cost reduction is an important reason for migrating to the cloud. Unfortunately, it also happens that organizations spend an unnecessary amount of money on facilities in the cloud. It is not rare that they deploy an on-demand resource for permanent use and vice versa. In this way, they incur unnecessary costs.
Related: Do You Know The Hidden Costs Of The Cloud?
Finding the right mix of resources, for both permanent and incidental use, is typically something to automate. And nowadays there are also the necessary solutions for this.
