5 of the most common mistakes made, when migrating to the Cloud.
Recently, many companies have started migrating to the cloud to access top-grade technology, faster experiences, brilliant storage solutions and the ability to access data from almost anywhere in the world. Moving to the cloud could help your business to operate more efficiently and stay one step ahead in the competitive market.
As great as moving to the cloud can be for your business, it is still possible to run into problems when moving your data. When developing your cloud migration strategy, it is important to be aware of the mistakes that you could make so that you can be prepared to handle problems if they do occur. This article will guide you through the most common mistakes made when moving to the cloud.
1. You have not assessed your legacy technology or current infrastructure
Legacy technology and current infrastructure often holds highly valuable data that should not be lost or misplaced when migrating to cloud . Yet data stored in legacy technology is particularly vulnerable to being exposed. This doesn’t need to be a barrier to adopting the benefits of cloud, but it is important that you run a thorough assessment of your legacy tech and current infrastructure before migrating so that valuable data is not lost.
2. Security is overlooked
The worst-case scenario of any data migration is a security breach that results in valuable data becoming leaked or stolen. Even if you follow strict regulations, moving to the cloud will always present some risk of a security breach and this is something that you need to prepare for.
Understanding your security objectives early in the process will help you to choose the right methods for migration. You need to be clear about the aspects of security that your company will be responsible for and also the aspects of security that you expect the cloud provider to put into place for you. Not all cloud is the same: some provide intelligent security tools that automate monitoring and alerting so that you can spot and mitigate security risks fast.
3. The cloud is not utilised to its full potential
It is very easy to simply use the cloud for storage and look past the numerous other benefits that cloud services have to offer. Hyperscale public cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and GCP offer automated tools, data analytics, security solutions, and AI services. Each cloud provider will be able to offer various services that can be used to boost efficiency and improve the performance of your business.
Businesses that have plans to use these varying features before migrating to the cloud will be able to start experiencing the benefits faster. Understanding what parts of the cloud you want to utilise will also be helpful when creating your migration plan.
4. Forgetting about cost control
Hyperscale means that you can expand your hosting capacity fast and the cloud is a powerful tool that can easily tempt users to use more than is essentially needed. Cloud computing costs can quickly add up and stretch your budget. You should prioritise defining exactly what the cloud will be used for before migrating to the software so that you and all of your team members can be sure to keep costs under control. To work out exactly what your business will use the cloud for, it may be helpful to understand what you aim to achieve by moving the cloud. Aspects of your business that can be directly improved through cloud computing should be part of the spending plan and aspects that aren’t in desperate need of the cloud can be saved for when you have a bigger budget.
Many of the larger cloud providers also provide budget control mechanisms to enable you to set triggers to avoid unwelcome surprise bills. It is important to plan this foundational governance before you start migrating your workloads to the cloud.
5. Not considering a managed services provider
Cloud migration is a large job for anyone to take on, let alone an IT team who undoubtedly have a whole list of other tasks to complete. If staff are not fully trained in management of cloud services, the skills gap can become apparent and problems can quickly start to pile up. If you feel that your team may need some assistance moving to the cloud, it might be worth considering a managed services provider.
Managed services providers are experts that will help you through every step of the cloud migration process. Service providers will have tons of experience at moving data to the cloud and can help you to overcome any problems that may occur. Partnering with a managed services provider will ensure a smoother transfer and will take much of the pressure off of your IT team.
How can Shaping Cloud help your cloud migration?
Shaping Cloud offers high quality cloud strategy, migration and managed services that will ensure your migration process is efficient, smooth and successful. Shaping Cloud has been helping businesses to safely and swiftly move to the cloud since 2010 and they are on a mission to ensure clients experience the true transformational value of the cloud.
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