Common Cloud Migration Challenges and How to Overcome Them: Part 1

Set your organization up for success by solving common cloud migration challenges.

August 21, 2023 | By Vaividh Yasa

In the digital era, many organizations start their transformation journeys with a cloud migration project. It’s seen as a nonintrusive but cost-saving step toward business modernization that ideally doesn’t impact day-to-day operations. However, this mindset fails to account for the true complexity of migration projects. There are many potential cloud migration challenges, and research has found that 41% of organizations fail to achieve their desired outcomes from digital transformation initiatives.

Want to set yourself up for success? Knowing what to look out for is the first step to avoiding any cloud migration mistakes and typical challenges. In this series, we’ll touch on the most common cloud migration challenges and what you can do to mitigate their impact.

1. Planning

Why it’s a problem area: A project without goals is no project at all. Many organizations fail to properly prepare for their cloud migration by underestimating the importance of the planning stage. They see the journey as a necessary evil and want to get it over with as quickly as possible. This is a bad idea! Best case scenario: You get the project done but lose out on areas to add value or improve your systems. In less ideal scenarios, you could end up halfway through a cloud migration only to find out a critical application isn’t supported by your new vendor.

How to protect yourself: To overcome this cloud migration challenge, plan for every possible outcome! Work through every stage of the journey from a theoretical perspective before flipping any switches. Ask questions like: Do you know what your goals are? Have you set expectations for your team? Have you accounted for all application dependencies and completed a comprehensive risk assessment? Establish clear service-level agreements (SLAs) to set expectations for your vendors and cloud services partners alike. Consider the impact to your workload pattern and plan accordingly.

2. Performance and Optimization

Why it’s a problem area: Athletes are encouraged to warm up before games. Why? Because it will maximize their performance and reduce the risk of injury. It’s an important step to take, yet businesses often skip it. A common cloud migration mistake is they dive right in without taking the time to complete capacity, network or performance tests. They might ignore latency issues or fail to ensure that the proper resources are allocated before the migration starts. Without setting up adequate monitoring and alert processes ahead of time, businesses might find themselves being overextended and dealing with serious delays.

How to protect yourself: Resource optimization should be a key objective for any cloud migration plan. To mitigate this cloud migration challenge, implement cloud-based monitoring tools that will enable you to regularly review your cloud resources. Create automated workflows that will run autonomously; this will free up your engineers and reduce the risk of error. Complete thorough performance tests to identify issues so you can address them before the migration begins. Check in with stakeholders to ensure they have what they need.

3. Security

Why it’s a problem area: We all like to believe we’re as secure as can be, but you can never be too careful. A cloud migration creates new areas of attack for cybercriminals to target, and your sensitive data is at its most vulnerable when it’s being moved. Compliance and regulatory requirements are also becoming increasingly strict as the real-world consequences of cybercrime continue to grow, so it’s important to make sure you’re taking the necessary steps to protect your organization.

How to protect yourself: Build a comprehensive security plan that accounts for all potential threats. Implement a change management process so there’s a level of accountability every time something is updated or new users are given access to sensitive information. Study any necessary compliance requirements relevant to your industry and set resources aside to make sure they are met. Test your systems for weak points and provide your workforce with regular training to keep them aware of the latest trends in cybersecurity threats.

4. Communication

Why it’s a problem area: Any change to your organization’s infrastructure or processes will likely impact multiple teams. Who is responsible for properly communicating the necessary information to those teams? How do you know that the message has been received? Will training be necessary? If you can’t answer these questions, you need to take a closer look at your channels of communication. That includes communication with contacts outside of your organization, such as your cloud vendor.

How to protect yourself: Avoid this common cloud migration challenge by establishing clear lines of communication. Identify every stakeholder who will be impacted by the work and task them with providing regular progress reports to their teams. Determine whether formal training for new systems is necessary and weave it into the project plan’s timeline. Appoint primary points of contact and make sure their information is readily available should end users need assistance.

5. Cost

Why it’s a problem area: Many organizations undertake cloud migrations as a cost-saving measure. However, approaching a project like this with such a mindset can lead to stakeholders making short-sighted decisions that cost organizations more money in the long run. Choosing a cloud vendor based on price alone could result in poor service quality and increased maintenance needs. Vendors are your partners. You trust them with your sensitive data and as such should be considering multiple factors aside from price.

How to protect yourself: Look at the big picture! Don’t be tempted by short-term savings. Perform a total cost of ownership (TCO) exercise to map out every contingency. Compare the service offerings from each vendor you’re considering based on metrics such as service quality, security and network bandwidth.

Choosing a vendor with a lower price point but fewer support options might end up costing you more over time if you need to find a separate maintenance solution. Devise a migration plan that both minimizes data transfer costs and trims unnecessary expenses.