A Practical Guide to Cloud Migration- 5 Common Cloud Migration Pitfalls to Avoid

Cloud Migration can help businesses reduce complexity, enhance performance and improve security. In addition, migrating to the cloud offers businesses a host of advanced tools to support overall business operations. First, however, companies need to carefully map out their migration journey for successful Cloud Migration. 

Here is a practical guide to Cloud Migration, along with a rundown on some of the common Cloud Migration pitfalls that businesses should avoid. 

Common Cloud Migration Pitfalls to Avoid

The migration impacts every aspect of the organization, including business processes, tech platforms, and employees. Therefore you need to ensure that your Cloud Migration journey is seamless without common migration pitfalls. Even a small misstep can cost you heavily both in terms of money and time. Here are some common Cloud Migration pitfalls to avoid when planning your Cloud Migration journey. 

1. Migrating to the Cloud at the Wrong Time

You have decided to migrate to the cloud. Great. But you must choose the right time to migrate. For example, avoid Cloud Migration if your business is in the middle of an expansion or in a critical restructuring. 

Rushing through with your Cloud Migration is one of the biggest mistakes you can make. Here are a few things to keep in mind;

Consider consulting with an expert before planning your migration. For example, you could consult with a cloud solutions provider or a cloud architect to first understand the current state of your tech infrastructure.  

Consider the depreciation rate of your on-premise servers ' this could be a good point to plan your cloud move since you are up for changing your physical infrastructure anyway. 

2. Migrating without Upskilling your IT Teams

Cloud solutions are designed for easy implementations, integration, and usage. However, assuming your IT people will easily adapt to the cloud is another major pitfall you want to avoid. 

Without the proper training and upskilling, your Cloud Migration journey can take longer, which could prevent you from leveraging the full potential of your cloud solution. Moreover, misconfigurations in the cloud could open gaping security holes.

To avoid this situation, consider dedicating the necessary time and effort to train your IT people and get them prepared for your cloud journey. 

You might want to consider hiring or working with qualified cloud experts to upskill your tech teams on the latest tools and services. 

3. Failing to Prioritize Workloads before Moving to the Cloud

Before you go ahead and plan your Cloud Migration journey, start by clearly defining your use cases. Ensure you have a cost model in place and ensure proper data collection. 

As tempting as it may seem, moving all your data in one go to the cloud is not advisable. Remember, everything depends on the size of your workload. Your Cloud Migration can take a few weeks, a few months, or even a year, based on the size of your workload. Hence prioritizing your workloads is a critical aspect of your Cloud Migration strategy. 

4. Choosing the Wrong Approach to Cloud Migration

One of the quickest Cloud Migration approaches involves the lift and shift strategy. With this approach, migration can happen quickly, and businesses benefit from the faster running of their workloads. However, the lift and shit approach may not work for every business type. Choosing the wrong Cloud Migration approach is one of the reasons why some businesses fail to realize costs advantages with their cloud infrastructure. 

Remember, a successful Cloud Migration strategy depends on several different considerations. These include aspects such as configuration changes as well as security and monitoring. And this is true even if you have a cloud-optimized infrastructure for your business workloads. 

Ensure a customized cloud environment to support your application requirements. 

Identify the application that needs to be moved to the cloud and the applications which need to be replaced. In some cases, you might find that continuing with a particular software application is more beneficial, while in some cases, you might have to consider shifting to a cloud application.

5. Underestimating Security and Privacy Risks

In their rush to migrate to the cloud, many businesses neglect security gaps within their cloud environment. Simply transferring your workloads without transitioning your IT processes can leave you vulnerable to security breaches. 

Ensure security issues are taken care of when you plan your Cloud Migration strategy. And this is applicable even for businesses that function within highly regulated industries. Make sure you carefully evaluate the different security paths, define your business security objectives, and confirm the availability of access management tools as well as the availability of automated threat detection systems. 

On a Final Note

The Cloud Migration journey of every business is different. To ensure a successful Cloud Migration, carefully plan your migration strategy and approach. In addition, ensuring your IT teams have the necessary training to work in a cloud environment can help you effectively realize your Cloud Migration goals and enable you to leverage the full potential of your cloud environment. 

Download Example (1000 Sample Data) for testing

Click here to download csv

Prevent millions of $ of privacy risks. Learn how.

We take privacy seriously.  While we promise not to sell your personal data, we may send product and company updates periodically. You can opt-out or make changes to our communication updates at any time.