TOP 12 CHALLENGES IN CLOUD ADOPTION

TOP 12 CHALLENGES IN CLOUD ADOPTION

If you are looking to power your business to rapid growth, scale workloads to meet real-time needs, looking for high availability, productivity, and cost-effectiveness, in that case, cloud computing is the way to go. Sometimes, the migration challenges are more compared to the advantages of migrating to the cloud itself. Here is a list of top challenges in cloud migration and how to overcome them with careful planning, selection, design, and use of tools and partners.

1. SETTING A BUSINESS OBJECTIVE

Setting clear and flexible objectives and plans based on business requirements is important in any cloud migration.

Create a clear migration plan, factoring in projected costs, downtime, training needs, migration time, etc.  Be prepared with risk mitigation plans as well.

2. FINANCIAL COSTS

Though cloud migration brings in a lot of returns and benefits, in the long run, getting there is usually expensive and time-consuming.

Costs include architecture changes, human resources, training, migration partners, cloud provider, and bandwidth costs. Proper planning and a phase-wise migration will reduce financial risks.

3. WHAT TO MIGRATE, WHAT NOT?

Decision on what to migrate and what to leave behind is important for a successful migration strategy. Therefore, careful selection is very important.

To reduce risks, one can migrate applications with lesser dependencies, lesser criticality, compatible with clouservices, or those aligned with critical business goals. A phase-wise migration approach is always better.

4. DATA SECURITY

Data security is the biggest concern when enterprises store their sensitive data with a third-party cloud provider. If data is lost, leaked, or exposed, it could cause severe disruption and damage to the business

Make a strategy to keep mission-critical data at your premises or ensure complete data security at rest and in transit while you migrate to a cloud environment. Follow and implement the best practices and policies to protect data and access. Seek the help of a consultant/team with previous experience in setting up security in cloud environments.

5. CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER

The availability of multiple similar cloud service providers makes it a hurdle to choose the right one.

Goals, budget, priorities of the organization, along with the services offered, security, compliance, manageability, cost, etc., of the service provider are the main factors to be considered in selections. Opt for Hybrid Cloud to reduce vendor lock-in.

6. COMPLEXITY & LACK OF EXPERTISE

Most organizations are scared of the complexity of cloud environments and migration processes. However, surveys show that complexity is still a blocking factor in cloud adoptions.

If you do not have enough in-house expertise in dealing with cloud, migration processes, and compliance requirements, better engage a partner with previous experience. Encourage maximum automation with the right hassle-free automation tools and technologies.

7. COMPLIANCE

For companies operating under strict regulatory and compliance frameworks, it is hard to migrate to the cloud.

Cloud migration should ensure compliance with local and global regulatory requirements. For example, data should be protected at rest and in transit; integrated audit trails, dashboard, and incident management systems should also be available to meet regulatory compliance requirements.

8. RESISTANCE TO ADOPTION

Resistance to change is inherent. Therefore, building organization-wide acceptance is key to any transition and its success.

An enterprise ensuring leadership buy-in right from the start and a business case with clear reasons behind the changes is likely to get more acceptance and adoption. In addition, employees’ knowledge of the value that the change brings in will create a positive difference.

9. TRAINING & RESOURCES

Cloud environments and cloud migration processes are still complex to understand and practice. Moreover, lack of expertise and training resources are a concern even today for many enterprises.

The skill gap is one of the main reasons for the slowdown of cloud migration. Therefore, providing proper training and support to employees, using hassle-free migration platforms and experienced partners are critical to a successful and timely migration.

10. MIGRATION STRATEGY

Whether to rebuild, lift and shift, re-host(IaaS), refactor (PaaS), replace (SaaS) or opt for a combination? is always a challenging question during migration.

This decision is specific to the nature of applications, infrastructure, network, security, privacy, scalability, regulatory, and business requirements of the organization. A detailed analysis of all these factors, including the budget, risk, time, etc.,  will help arrive at the right distribution strategy.

11. DOWNTIME!

Downtime can be catastrophic to business in terms of revenue and reputation to many organizations.

Adopt a methodology that minimizes disruption and ensures business continuity. For example, test migration offline, use the right tools, and end-to-end automation tools to reduce risks and downtime.

12. POST-MIGRATION

One of the other key concerns is the data privacy, security, and monitoring capabilities of the application running on the cloud.

Ensure there is complete observability on the build, deployment, and running of applications and data on the cloud. Use the right tools, which provide logs, audit trails, alerts, visual dashboards, and approval workflows to control and monitor the entire stack and operations.

AppZ – HASSLE-FREE CLOUD MIGRATION

AppZ is a Lowtouch Hybrid Cloud Migration Platform.  APPZ is really fast, cost-effective, and application-centric. AppZ is in Amazon Market Place.  More than 1600 applications are successfully migrated to multi-cloud environments using AppZ. Analysis showed that APPZ could bring 50-70% savings in operational cost and 30% on recurring expenses after migration.

We have impeccable expertise to architect, secure, and manage your cloud migration in line with the overarching digital strategy of your business.

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