Here are the top challenges you should keep in mind as your company prepares for cloud migration.

Lack of a proper cloud migration strategy

With the cloud becoming the talk of every organization, most companies are tempted to quickly migrate without having a concrete plan to keep everything in order. As such, they end up migrating critical applications and business processes to the cloud without carefully planning for it. Without shopping around enough for a suitable strategy and platform that works for them, enterprises end up with the wrong move, which can be costly to operations. Although a lift and shift model can work well in some instances since it is a fast and least disruptive approach, it may not do as you would have wanted on mission-critical and proprietary applications.

To solve these problems, start your cloud migration by developing a detailed strategy. Analyze your infrastructure and business objectives and choose what fits your case. With such a well-thought strategy, you can navigate the transition and avoid falling into a hole during the later stages of migration. Know critical determinants like costs, data and applications that need to be moved in advance and accommodate them in your strategy.

Data security and compliance issues

One of the barriers to migration to the cloud is data security and compliance concerns. Most firms are still reluctant to hand over their data to a third-party cloud service provider due to concerns about how their data will be handled. Despite improved cloud security over the years, reports indicate that more than half of organizations are concerned with security concerning technology and applications. Their concern is that if data is exposed during the migration, it could cause disruption.

Despite advanced security measures today, there is a need for collaboration between companies and cloud service providers. This ensures the process of migration is right.

Cost uncertainty

Migrating to the cloud is meant to cut costs over time by streamlining processes, increasing productivity and reducing administrative costs. Despite the promise of cost reduction in the long term, it is never the case at all times. Moving to the cloud can be costly, especially if the analysis is not done in advance to project the potential financial implications and ways of minimizing the costs. Although the price is a key component, it should never be the only factor in cloud migration. Other things like long-term monetary risks should also be considered. Budget surprises can hinder the possible success of moving to the cloud if not identified beforehand and addressed accordingly. The right approach to avoiding huge expenditures during cloud migration is to prepare well before embarking on the process.