Common Cloud Migration Mistakes Your Business Can Avoid

Cloud migration can be an excellent way for companies to enhance their business processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

However, it is no secret that cloud migration is a complex process that requires significant investments and preparation time.

Different businesses make different mistakes during cloud migration that can result in lost data, downtime, or security risks.

In this blog post, we will be discussing the top 5 most common cloud migration mistakes that lots of businesses commit and ways you can avoid making the same mistakes.

Editor's Note: This blog post is last updated in Aug 2024.

As per research conducted by the Harvard Business Review and Verizon, a staggering 84% of IT and business executives have witnessed a surge in their utilisation of cloud services over the past year, with a significant 39% reporting a substantial increase.

Moreover, an additional 40% have experienced an upswing in revenue attributed to the cloud, while 36% have noticed a positive impact on their profit margins.

Convenience, efficiency and cost-savings are just some of the reasons why businesses are making the switch - but along with these benefits, the switch is causing headaches.

Migrating to the cloud can be tricky. Although businesses can take advantage of all the benefits of cloud computing, they can also fall victim to common pitfalls. Cloud migration needs to be built on a solid business case and thorough strategic assessment.

Cloud Migration Mistakes to Avoid

Here the 7 most common cloud migration mistakes you can avoid:

1. Lack of planning

The most common cloud migration mistake businesses make is to start the cloud migration process without proper planning.

Business leaders and IT managers must determine the business objectives of cloud migration, including required cloud architecture, types of applications and workloads to be migrated, the preferred cloud service provider, and budget.

Any migration process without thorough planning can result in unexpected expenses, business disruption, and impact the overall project timeline.

2. Insufficient security measures

When it comes to cloud migration mistakes to avoid, security concerns are always on the forefront of any IT manager's mind.

Misconfiguring security parameters or failing to protect data during migration can lead to severe consequences like data loss, hacking, and disruption in business continuity.

Security should always be a top priority, and companies should invest in robust security solutions such as data loss prevention, encryption, and sophisticated threat monitoring tools.

3. Lack of testing

Another common cloud migration mistakes business fall into is lack of testing. Testing the applications and workloads in a real environment gives the IT teams an idea of how everything will perform in the new cloud environment.

Skipping this step can lead to unforeseen issues, such as issues with compatibility or application integration issues, and in some cases, it can lead to significant data loss.

Also, it is recommended to test applications and workloads on a small scale before the migration process to avoid possible issues.

4. Overdependence on the cloud service provider

Relying solely on your cloud service provider is a common cloud migration mistake that many businesses make during migration process.

Cloud service providers are in charge of the cloud infrastructure, but it is the business that is responsible for the applications, systems, and data.

Many IT managers and business leaders develop a false sense of security around the cloud providers' expertise and oversight.

It is crucial to ensure that the organisation's IT team has the required knowledge and expertise to manage the cloud environment continually.

Furthermore, this will ensure that they can detect and mitigate any issues before it leads to data loss or downtime.

5. Lack of post-migration optimisation

Even after successful migration, business must continue to monitor and optimise the cloud environment.

Proper optimisation involves cost management, performance monitoring, and security scans regularly.

In addition, this ensures that the cloud environment meets the organisation's operational requirements and can detect and mitigate vulnerable areas before a threat initiates.

6. Not All Clouds Are Equal

Each cloud provider brings a unique set of strengths and weaknesses - however this isn’t always apparent.

Large service providers and small vendors alike can give companies the impression that all cloud services are virtually identical.

As a result, businesses often select a provider based on their reputation or size without actually considering the specific needs of their company.

Therefore, you need to investigate. You might also find that you need to use several types of cloud providers to form your ultimate solution. Here’s a quick overview of different types of clouds on offer:

• Private clouds - these are best suited for companies that need to safeguard sensitive data and provide control, allowing greater freedom to customise resources. Private clouds are popular for the financial and legal sector.
• Public clouds - these are accessible to the public via a network and are owned by a third party. These clouds are great for companies just getting started with a limited IT budget as they offer scalable resources at a low cost. Publics cloud are ideal for businesses that don’t have to meet stringent security regulations.
• Hybrid clouds - these offer the best of both worlds (private and public clouds), enabling a company to keep private information in a private cloud but also provide access to a variety of cloud computing services offered by public clouds. Companies can take full advantage of the cost and efficiency benefits of public cloud solutions but keep sensitive work securely hidden in a private infrastructure.
• Community clouds - these are collaborative systems shared by a limited number of organisations, usually within the same industry or the same geographical location.

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7. Migrating Everything At Once

Moving everything over to the cloud all at once can cause a number of hiccups. Doing so discourages testing procedures which are essential for successful cloud migration.

This runs the risk of leaving an entire infrastructure broken if something goes wrong. It’s a good idea to start by migrating data that has minimal negative impact if problems do arise.

First and foremost, start with web applications and big data analytics platforms. It’s also important to consider that the cloud might not be the best place for all your applications and data, and some data might be better left in another facility.

While this may seem like an efficient use of resources, there are some applications that simply don’t belong in the cloud.

Conclusion

Migrating to the cloud can be challenging, but by avoiding these common mistakes, businesses can mitigate risks and achieve a smooth transition.

Cloud migration mistakes can be avoided thorough planning, robust security measures, testing, optimised infrastructure management, and diligent post-migration maintenance.

Furthermore, avoiding these mistakes enable businesses to streamline their operations and enhance their cloud migration strategy.

We hope that this article has shed light on the crucial aspects of cloud migration mistakes and how you can avoid facing the same mistakes other businesses have made.

Ultimately migrating to the cloud comes down to one thing - paying attention to your business requirements. Use that to drive your decisions when it comes to migrating to the cloud.