Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Migrating to the Cloud

Organizations and their leaders are increasingly relying on cloud computing technologies to drive digital transformation strategies and to gain a competitive edge in the crowded market, but they should start also consider the common pitfalls when migration to the cloud. According to the latest studies, almost 85% of companies are already using the cloud, and they are using it for business-critical apps and systems. Moreover, around 90% of them consider the cloud technology as a key tool in enabling digital transformation.

Despite the time since cloud computing appeared on the market, companies that consider their first migration are still facing various challenges, and they are also making some mistakes that may cause problems. These are the most destructive.

Having an Incomplete View of the Infrastructure

When starting a migration project, IT teams or departments need to have a firm understanding of all the components involved in the process, from applications design to multi-layered datasets. It’s essential for the team to know what services and applications communicate with one another, and also which of them are critical to the overall business operations. Otherwise, the delivery chain will break at some point and might cause downtime and performance degradation.

The solution for this issue is to take all the best practices the team knows about data center migrations and other consolidation efforts and apply them to the cloud migration projects. Using a dependency map can significantly streamline the planning phase while also providing leaders with a complete and accurate view of the entire landscape.

Not Enough Time Allocated for the Migration

Migrating to the cloud doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, when a company starts migrating data, executives find out that it’s slower than initially expected.

Solving this issue is even simpler and it’s one of the common pitfalls in coud migration mentioned above. Once again, understanding all the specific elements that a cloud migration involves is mandatory. Knowing the bandwidth and the potential delays before the migration will provide IT teams the essential insights to start allocating resources more realistic.

Teams Continue to Operate in Silos

Another issue when migrating to the cloud is building the team. Usually, a migration team involves different specialists that work as a cohesive unit. However, too often companies create disparate groups for applications, security, and network, that only focus on the individual tasks and don’t consider the full picture.

The application team is concerned about maintaining productivity and ensuring a positive user experience. The network team has as a responsibility for the management of the enterprise architecture and applications. The third team, the security one, makes sure that all the processes involved in the migration coincide with the established regulation and framework so that all the sensitive data from the company are safe.

The solution here is to tear down the silos and develop a cross-functional team, that can ensure a smoother rollout.

Migrating to the cloud is not as simple as it seems to be. IT leaders and CIOs encounter the challenges mentioned above in their daily lives. But being that they might happen, can help them avoid the additional issues.

What else would you do to smoothen your migration? Leave your comments in the section below!