Unfortunately, not all organizations have a successful cloud migration story to tell. Some companies never achieve the benefits they expect. In some cases, they are forced to abandon the idea and move migrated workloads back to an on-premises data center.
Common Reasons Cloud Migrations Can Fail
While the majority of cloud migrations successfully address an organization’s business needs, there are a variety of reasons that can hinder the move. The following problems are the cause of most failed cloud migrations.
No clear business objectives
Before considering a cloud migration, an organization should have well-defined business objectives they hope to address with the move. It may be tempting to jump on the cloud bandwagon with the expectations of saving money and becoming more agile and flexible. Without clear business objectives, companies will be challenged in selecting the right cloud services or offerings.
Employing the wrong migration model
In the planning stages of a migration, choices need to be made regarding the migration model that will be employed for the workloads that will be migrated. Multiple migration models are available and are suitable for different workloads and situations. Companies can employ more than one model if they are moving more than one workload.
An example is an organization that chooses to rehost an on-premises application to the cloud. A better option that would provide more immediate benefits may have been to retire the current application in favor of a cloud-based SaaS solution. In some cases, an application may not be suitable for the cloud and should remain in an on-premises data center.
Insufficient internal cloud skills
Cloud computing requires a different skill set than that required to provide on-premises support. A lack of internal cloud skills can force an organization to rely too heavily on its provider for guidance and technical support. Cloud computing operates with a shared security responsibility matrix that requires the customer to handle a portion of cybersecurity activities. Without the proper skills, a company can expose itself to threat actors by implementing ineffective security measures.
Moving too quickly
A methodical approach to cloud migration is recommended to increase the probability of success. Workloads should be prioritized according to the ease with which they can be migrated and their importance to the business. It’s wise to start with a small application before moving on to business-critical systems. Migrating many systems at once presents challenges that can be easily avoided with a systemic strategy.
Lack of efficient management
Once workloads have been successfully migrated to the cloud, the platform needs to be monitored and managed efficiently to obtain the anticipated benefits. A lack of management can result in over-provisioned storage or compute resources that cost more than they should. Inferior management can also lead to shadow IT with employees using unapproved cloud services that increase costs.
Avoiding these pitfalls gives an organization a much better chance of successfully migrating to the cloud and achieving the benefits they expect. With proper planning and forethought, the cloud will provide a company with many advantages over its onsite environment.