Common pitfalls of cloud migration

Adopting cloud solutions is imperative today, with rapid digital transformation initiatives happening globally. Competitive gains and sustainability in the digital age are primary drivers for cloud adoption. According to the information provided by Statista, the worldwide public cloud services market is going to expand by around 22% to approximately 482 billion US dollars in 2022.

While organizations race to migrate to the cloud, it is essential to avoid common pitfalls that can save money, time, and resources. This article looks at a few critical mistakes to avoid in the cloud migration transition.

Moving to the cloud

Moving your systems to the cloud provides many advantages, whether with a few employees or thousands. Cloud usage is estimated to accelerate in industries where the WFH initiative assists enterprises in sustaining business processes post-pandemic.

Numerous firms are migrating from self-managed architecture to cloud-based solutions, which might raise concerns about affordability, safety, and migration ease. Worse than that, some firms are not taking all required safeguards to ensure the success of their cloud migrations.

There are numerous common oversights that organizations make throughout the cloud conversion process. If these errors are not corrected, your organization may incur significant financial losses, expose its data to security dangers, and even risk non-compliance with data rules.

The following are typical pitfalls businesses should avoid while shifting to the cloud.

1. Not creating a cloud migration strategy

Without a structured cloud migration plan, enterprises may face unintended consequences. Organizations might occasionally become obsessive in their desire to shift to the cloud. There may be internal pressure to migrate to the cloud as quickly and efficiently as possible, which results in data migration without planning.

Due to a lack of a strategy in place, migrating to the cloud is both time-consuming and costly for the firm. When anything goes wrong, it takes money and the workforce to rectify the situation.
Additionally, an organization cannot handle resources efficiently in the cloud migration process without a formal migration strategy. It can also result in unforeseen time and expense requirements.

Most significantly, switching to the cloud without a plan frequently compromises security.
The integrity of the data should be paramount when data gets shared. When security is compromised, the company becomes vulnerable to data breaches. A cloud migration strategy is essential, and it has to be a comprehensive one.

2. Prioritizing the transfer of the most sensitive data

Another frequent error many organizations make is to transfer sensitive or confidential data first in the belief that it is the most critical one. When a cloud migration process begins, it is customary to migrate common data first, followed by sensitive data.

Transfer of sensitive data should be handled carefully as the procedure's overall confidence level, and solution improves. Because there is frequently a learning curve associated with using new data environments, it is prudent to mitigate the risk associated with errors or solution deficiencies. If there are migration issues, business disruption is possible, along with increased costs and timelines delays.

3. Absence of comprehensive knowledge of an organization's networks and infrastructure

Before shifting to the cloud, it is critical for enterprises to get a thorough understanding of how their assets interact. It is significant for several reasons. When businesses fail to establish a comprehensive map of their infrastructure and networks, they will lack a grasp of how various systems and data must interact in the cloud to function correctly, leading to failure.

To begin, each cloud solution provider has distinct characteristics. When enterprises lack a complete understanding of their data requirements from a provider, they cannot compare providers effectively. It may result in selecting providers who are not necessarily the best fit for the business.

When firms transfer data without fully understanding the implications, this can result in system failures that negatively harm users. Some critical data may slide through the gaps, and the balance data may not migrate entirely. Parts of the infrastructure that rely on the data will then fail or operate incorrectly, resulting in increased expenditures for the company and increased irritation for users.

4. Not configuring your data and apps for the cloud

Specific data and apps are immediately available for migration. However, most of them will require slight adjustments to utilize the new infrastructure fully. Specific programs will need to get replaced appropriately with cloud-based alternatives.

Transferring apps to the cloud may not operate as expected. Depending on the data types and the Cloud service you're using, you may need to reconfigure them to function correctly. Additionally, you may have to pick whether a particular application should run quicker or slower.

Specific applications may demand more computer power than previously required or give your cloud provider. Additionally, because you'll be migrating to new systems, you'll want to ensure that you're familiar with administrative and security features.

5. Neglecting security

Every firm understands the critical nature of security in avoiding data leaks and hacking. The absence of security solutions in cloud infrastructure might expose enterprises to configuration drift, resulting in downtime. Gaps in cloud security are invisible, and they're easy to overlook amid the excitement of cloud migration.

Adding a layer of protection can assist firms in protecting themselves and ensuring the integrity of their data. While many cloud solution providers incorporate security into their offerings, there are various cloud monitoring and management solutions that can assist enterprises in better understanding their infrastructure expenses and notify them of any security risks.

By providing your staff with cloud training relevant to their position and responsibilities, you can also guarantee that they understand and can configure new cloud-based tools and environments safely.

Conclusion

The road to the cloud might be a difficult one to navigate. As we have discussed, we may face several cloud-related problems and errors. Many businesses make the shift only to realize that they must reverse course because their staff and cloud service provider cannot deliver on the cloud promise. And the shift does not have to be fraught with confusion and disaster.

All that is required is meticulous planning in advance and a cloud provider with expertise. The popular adage goes: cloud is about how you do compute, not where you do computing.

Adopting cloud solutions is imperative today, with rapid digital transformation initiatives happening globally. Competitive gains and sustainability in the digital age are primary drivers for cloud adoption. According to the information provided by Statista, the worldwide public cloud services market is going to expand by around 22% to approximately 482 billion US dollars in 2022.

While organizations race to migrate to the cloud, it is essential to avoid common pitfalls that can save money, time, and resources. This article looks at a few critical mistakes to avoid in the cloud migration transition.