7 Common Cloud Migration Mistakes To Avoid

In last few years, enterprises have embraced IT modernization and migrated to Cloud.
Cloud has become the de facto driver for digital transformation as it delivers many viable benefits. There can be numerous scenarios in which enterprises can benefit from cloud migration. For instance – if you need a highly scalable infrastructure with the flexibility to auto scale on the fly or in case your storage needs have increased or you are looking to setup a multi-region highly available infrastructure to expand your business.

According to a recent report by Harvard Business Review and Verizon that was based on surveys with 452 business and IT executives globally:

• 84% quoted increase in cloud usage
• 40% quoted of increased revenue due to cloud implementation
• 36% spoke of increased profit margins

Agility and cost effectiveness are the reasons that make cloud migration a priority for enterprises. However, a careful evaluation of infrastructure requirements has to be done before choosing the right cloud implementation model. Migrating application between Cloud is extremely challenging and any mistakes in migration process can result in a failed project.

Let’s look at some common cloud migration mistakes that can be avoided.
1. Mistaking every cloud as same: Remember – Not all cloud providers made their solutions with the same crate. Every cloud platform has its own unique features and a public cloud may solve a different set of problems than private cloud. The important considerations while choosing a cloud would be – whether it suits your application demands, scalability or flexibility needs; do they meet required compliance considerations, etc.

2. Missing out on thorough research to choose the right cloud platform provider: Organizations are under a constant pressure of bringing business critical applications to the market fast and within budgets. But rather than rushing in, it’s a good practice to conduct a detailed study on existing IT infrastructure needs and identifying a suitable cloud service provider accordingly. Nonetheless, the situation might change in future and your cloud requirements too. For example – you started with a public cloud and had to switch to a different model due to scalability or flexibility needs. It is essential to map the future growth you foresee and understand how it will affect your infrastructure needs. Moreover, missing out on this can also result in a vendor lock-in, due to their contract constraints like yearly commitments and you may want to have the flexibility to change later on. Determining all these factors at an initial stage is critical and can make your entire cloud migration process seamless.

3. Moving everything to the cloud: Moving full-scale out on the cloud may not be possible in certain cases. For instance, a Healthcare or Banking industry might not be able to move some applications due to security or compliance reasons. Moreover, assuming that any chosen cloud would support all your applications and they would behave the same in the new environment is a costly mistake. It is critical to evaluate the interoperability of the business critical applications or web applications on the new environment before migrating.

4. Missing Out on Evaluating Compatibility Issues: Understand the architecture of the existing applications and evaluate the customizations that will be required before moving to the new environment. Missing out on evaluating compatibility issues that may arise when migrating web applications to the cloud is a common miss out. Applications functioning on in-house data center must have similarly efficient computing system on the cloud. Ensuring to fine tune the web applications as per the new environment while migrating to a new cloud can help in solving this issue.

5. Not getting cloud migration experts in-house: Despite the experienced team provisioned by the Cloud Service Provider, depending merely on the service providers expertise can be a big mistake, as they may lack a clear understanding of your business specific applications. Organizations lose control when they don’t hire cloud experts in-house for managing the cloud migration. Engaging in-house experts can help it determining the right way to handle the applications during migration. In-house experts can implement the strategy, remove communication gaps and make the cloud migration process frictionless.

6. Over speeding the cloud migration: Businesses must consider moving to the cloud at a moderate pace. Targeting the “low hanging fruits” first while migrating to the cloud such as low impact web applications, batch processing systems, analytics platforms or collaborative tools can help in revealing a lot of hidden migration challenges before moving the critical applications.

7. Neglecting security aspects: Every organization demands a secured environment as in most cases they have significant portions that can be vulnerable. Having a weak front to secure the confidential information can cost a lot. Companies must engage information security experts to secure the IT assets and information from malware, intrusions, and breaches.

Don’t rush to jump into cloud migration pool, no matter how tempting it gets, as it can get painful at a later stage. Rather, carefully audit your own infra, determine cloud requirements of your applications or compatibility issues that may arise. However, the biggest mistake would be to wait, to migrate to the cloud as now it is an essential ingredient of the modern IT. Get started with your cloud journey today.