Most common cloud migration challenges (and how to overcome them)

Is your business considering moving to the cloud? Cloud computing has exploded over the past decade as the number of cloud providers and solutions continues to increase. Studies consistently find that businesses are adopting the cloud into their infrastructure at a feverish rate. Before your enterprise makes the jump, however, you need to develop a strategy for migrating to the cloud. That includes figuring out how to overcome the challenges associated with cloud migration.

Let us first look at some cloud migration challenges that organizations face and then at key solutions that effectively address them to minimize risk and maximize the upside of the migration process.

Making preparations for a cloud migration plan

If you fail to analyze the cost of a cloud computing strategy, the migration process will eat into your expenses meant for other business activities and errands. The cloud server also generates a huge bill at the month’s end. The costs associated with migration and operation must be appropriately evaluated in advance so that you can save on your cost. Elements such as capital expenditure, operational expenditure, and overhead expenses must be considered while calculating the total cost of ownership or return on investment. It is a must that the CIOs focus on evaluating the cloud migration cost based on their business requirements and budget.

Breaking down cloud migration costs

Privacy and Security

At present, the cloud vendors comprise advanced security systems that ensure a tamper-proof environment, be it private, public, or hybrid cloud. Before you partner with any CSP, getting a detailed knowledge of key areas such as data migration from the cloud, security governance procedures and policies, end-to-end data encryption, and data storage location is a must.

Training employees on your cloud solutions

Whenever you introduce new technology to your business, you need to ensure that everyone who uses that technology is on board. You can’t assume that everybody will be able to understand a new solution on their own. Take some time to get your employees up to speed on the cloud and the solutions your business is integrating. It will save many headaches in the long run than if you dump the new technology onto them.

Preventing cloud vendor lock-in

If somethings go wrong with the CSP’ after the migration process, the organizations are compelled to switch to another vendor. This entails a significant expenditure, which is why several businesses look to multiple cloud vendors for their data, infrastructure, and applications to evade risks and save on costs. Most of the CSPs in the market operate with similar concepts, and it is, therefore, necessary that you compare them based on their service offerings. Critical considerations for selecting a CSP are cloud migration goals, cloud component necessities, manageability, service levels, support, and costs. Adopters of cloud technology commonly face the issue of vendor lock-in. You must look for SLAs that include information on efforts that the vendor would take if you are considering stopping using their services.