Top Challenges of Cloud Migration and Solutions to Overcome Them

Never take a chance when you are starting or planning cloud migration. As the business environment is constantly changing, it’s not all that easy for business leaders to keep pace to drive efficient communication and collaboration. Migration is slightly complicated than you think because numerous common cloud migration challenges can derail your efforts. However, operating on the cloud has several advantages for businesses of different sizes like low cost, better support, increased efficiency, productivity, profitability, scaling, and more.

Ambiguity over security, financial costs, internal resistance to transformation is among the problems of concern. As a result, businesses need to strategize a thorough plan and precise execution for a secure and successful migration.

At this juncture, it’s a great idea to pursue the guidance and assistance of an experienced cloud-managed service provider like ACL Digital and utilize their knowledge and technical capability for cloud ecosystems. From cloud consulting to cloud development and more, you can depend on us for a wide range of cloud computing services. The team consists of knowledgeable cloud consultants to evaluate and assess customer’s readiness for application migration and cloud adoption. Also, all our certified cloud engineers and architects have the necessary skills and years of experience to design, build, migrate, and manage multiple workloads and applications.

So, prior to you restructuring your workflow with cloud-based computing, here are the top challenges that you need to be aware of as your business organization prepares for the next big step.

Some of the Top Challenges

Essentially when you are moving to the cloud, it requires a lot of attention from your company. As the cloud has acquired recognition and popularity in the computing world, more and more organizations are making the switch. Listed below are some of the top challenges of data security and solutions to overcome them.

1. Ambiguous Cost of Cloud Migration

Shifting to the cloud can be an expensive venture, particularly if your business fails to analyse the prospective financial impact well ahead of time. One shouldn’t look at the cost of utilizing the cloud platforms but also the expense of relocating to the cloud, long-term financial risks that result from sluggish adoption, and the essential training needed after the cloud migration.

Solution

The safest way to prevent huge expenditures when it comes to cloud migration is to plan. You should consider working with an established cloud vendor to determine the costs related to cloud migration before committing to any goals.

Also, having an overview of some of the essential elements such as administrative costs, operational costs, direct costs, and any other costs will help manage the cost and scope of the project.

2. Absence of Pre-defined Cloud Migration Strategy

More often, companies decide to take the plunge into the cloud without a well-defined strategy. Migrating business processes and pivotal applications to the cloud needs meticulous planning and consideration. But on many occasions, companies don’t explore the right approach that works. For example, re-platforming, app refactoring and modernization, the lift and shift model are some of the sought-after methods of cloud migration, and every approach has its place in the migration strategy.

Solution

Start with a comprehensive cloud migration approach. In this case, examining your existing infrastructure and business objectives will help you decide the right strategy and determine where you would like to incorporate. A well-planned approach ensures that you can effortlessly navigate the transition while preventing analysis paralysis during subsequent stages. All the processes should be divided into various steps to make the transition procedure as smooth as possible.

3. Data Security Concerns and Compliance

Most businesses are tremendously concerned about cloud security when moving to the cloud. One of the major obstacles to cloud migration is compliance risks and data security concerns. This is primarily because organizations and companies are still cautious to hand over their private data to third-party cloud services, even though the cloud ecosystem being entirely secure.

The indecisiveness of companies towards cloud migration has more to do with technology and application-specific concerns. Also, there could be a disruption if data is exposed to cyber-attack during the migration process.

Solution

At present, cloud service providers have cutting-edge security systems, and cloud platforms are secure to create a holistic cloud ecosystem. The transfer of the company’s data done through a selected routable path will ensure that data is secure in the firewall at all times. For added assurance, you should consider asking your cloud service provider the following questions before undertaking a partnership.

• What are the methods used to migrate data from cloud?
• Are all the security procedures and policies in place?
• Information about data storage?
• Are you compliant with various regulations?
• Is end-to-end encryption possible?

4. Adoption Resistance

People involved pose the greatest challenge as they tend to resist change. The process of cloud migration brings in a lot of disruptions and changes due to new systems, processes, and even leadership. So, you should always manage and take care of the human element to execute a successful migration.

Solution

Your management team is one of the primary factors affecting employee engagement and adoption, so you need clear executive buy-in right from the beginning. Consider using user-friendly and intuitive tools while choosing cloud solutions for applications. To ensure that your users understand new processes and systems, invest in a strong onboarding program. User buy-in and adoption can be a challenge. But if you plan well in advance, communicate clearly, and focus on user training, education, and support, you can accomplish a successful migration.

5. Shortage of Skilled Professionals

In spite of the many advantages of cloud computing, the intricacy of cloud computing stops many businesses in their tracks. One of the primary hurdles is finding skilled professionals who have the right and necessary skills to manage a successful migration. According to a recently published report, the skills gap is mainly accountable for slowing the migration by around 60% and is a concern for business organizations trying to remain competitive.

Solution

When you don’t have the resources to hire cloud migration talent, you should consider partnering with a company that offers all-inclusive cloud computing services or working with cloud consultants. Also, you can look for vendors offering committed and devoted resources to support a successful migration. They can be a beneficial asset for your IT team and an essential tool in your overall training program.

Conclusion

Moving to the cloud is not a challenge but an opportunity to make existing business processes more innovative and agile. As an initial step, you must check your business processes and all the infrastructure components available at your end. And then build a strategy that comprises all the requirements of your business organization on your cloud migration journey.

ACL Digital can help you build and accomplish the cloud migration strategy or approach that suits your business requirements and your company’s objectives. If you want to see how we can help you migrate to the cloud, schedule an appointment with one of our cloud consultants today.