Cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications, or other business components from an on-premises or traditional computing environment to the cloud.
Moving to the cloud is no longer a tech buzzword as it was a decade ago.
If a company’s database, services, IT resources, digital assets, and more are moved into the cloud either partially or as a whole, it will help reduce the cost of installation of expensive computer hardware just to have enough data space for the company’s database and software applications.
However, migrating to the cloud is not without its challenges and many businesses are still struggling to make the transition.
That is why we reached out to 14 IT professionals and asked them the following question:
What are the top cloud migration benefits and challenges?
Without further ado keep reading to see what the experts had to say.
James Phipps — Be Cloud IT
Cloud Migration Benefits:
1. Increased Flexibility
One of the primary benefits of cloud migration is increased flexibility. With cloud computing, businesses can scale their resources up or down as needed, which gives them the ability to respond quickly to changes in demand. Additionally, cloud resources can be accessed from anywhere in the world, which gives businesses the ability to expand their operations into new markets.
2. Reduced Costs
Another benefit of cloud migration is reduced costs. Cloud computing can help businesses save money on infrastructure costs, as they only need to pay for the resources they use. Additionally, cloud services are often offered on a pay-as-you-go basis, which can help businesses save money on IT costs.
3. Improved Security
Cloud migration can also help improve security. With traditional on-premises data centers, businesses are responsible for securing their own data and ensuring that their systems are compliant with regulatory standards. However, when businesses migrate to the cloud, they can take advantage of the security features and compliance controls that are provided by their cloud provider.
4. Increased Collaboration
Cloud migration can also lead to increased collaboration. With cloud-based tools and applications, employees can work together on projects from anywhere in the world. Additionally, cloud-based collaboration tools often offer features such as real-time editing and commenting, which can help improve team productivity.
5. Better Disaster Recovery
Another benefit of cloud migration is improved disaster recovery. With on-premises data centers, businesses typically need to invest in their own backup and disaster recovery solutions. However, when businesses migrate to the cloud, they can take advantage of the disaster recovery capabilities that are provided by their cloud provider
Cloud Migration Challenges
1. Lack of governance
One of the biggest challenges when migrating to the cloud is lack of governance. Without proper governance in place, it can be difficult to manage who has access to what data and how it is being used. This can lead to security issues and compliance problems down the line.
2. Inadequate planning
Another common challenge is inadequate planning. Many organizations try to migrate to the cloud without first doing a thorough assessment of their needs and objectives. This can lead to problems such as data loss or unexpected costs.
3. Lack of expertise
Another challenge that organizations face when migrating to the cloud is lack of expertise. Many organizations do not have the internal resources or knowledge necessary to properly migrate their data and applications to the cloud. This can lead to delays and errors in the migration process.
4. Complexity
The cloud can be a complex environment, which can make it difficult to migrate data and applications successfully. Many organizations underestimate the amount of time and effort required to properly migrate to the cloud. This can lead to frustration and ultimately, failure.
5. Security concerns
Security is always a concern when migrating data and applications to the cloud. Organizations must ensure that their data is safe and secure while in transit and at rest in the cloud.
One main driver of new business models going into 2023 will continue to be cloud technology because of the agility, security, and availability it provides. It gives businesses the power to rapidly adjust to market inflation/recession and change customer requirements with confidence.
Dmitry Khorev — Mero
Benefits of Cloud Migration
From a software engineer's point of view, the number one benefit is abstracting infrastructure management from the software development process. I no longer have to think about how and where my application will start, what resources it will use etc.
Long-term (for larger projects) this is something you will be aware of but still, you remove all low-level details of setting up a server, patching for security, and providing access for in/out traffic.
Cloud providers have monitoring and logging infrastructure setup from the start, it’s a hard thing to do in-house without too much DevOps experience. It’s hard to maintain it.
Cloud providers have solved a lot of software engineering problems and provide the tools that just work — managed Databases, Queues, Notification services, Event subsystems, access control, and many others.
Challenges of Cloud Migration
As the number of services grows it’s becoming harder to maintain a big picture of any project, and harder to debug if anything goes wrong.
It is no longer possible to test the full application cycle on a single developer machine since most of the services are proprietary to the cloud you’re using.
Most of the time you will have a «vendor lock-in» when you are not able to change your cloud provider because of unique services that are now deeply integrated with your software.
Cloud costs can skyrocket if you’re not aware of auto-scaling capabilities and limits.
David Zhao — Coda Strategy
The top benefit of a cloud migration is an opportunity to rethink the business of IT. A cloud migration offers IT professionals a way to start their IT infrastructure and IT operations from a blank canvas, adopting state-of-the-art tools, and avoiding pitfalls with aging legacy technology.
In turn, cloud service providers maintain the mundane aspects of the underlying infrastructure, freeing up programmers to focus on more creative tasks, such as solving business problems.
On the flip side, the top challenge is that many cloud migration teams fail to include the business. They need to involve the business. We need to kill the myth that a cloud migration is the CIO’s problem. The myth is destructive to the firm.
First, the CIO needs to involve business stakeholders, such as the CMO or the Chief Supply Chain Officer.
Second, the CIO needs to prepare a list of pressing business challenges beforehand, that is prepared along with business leaders.
Third, the CIO needs to vet cloud solutions that can solve those business problems. Otherwise, they will end up buying a hammer that is looking for a nail.
Scott Goldberg — Mission Cloud
There are a number of reasons why companies would want to migrate their IT environments to the AWS cloud:
1. Improved agility
With elastic scaling, containers, and a diverse range of platforms available in the cloud, companies can achieve increased agility without sacrificing performance.
2. Better cost efficiency
Optimizing spend and governance in the cloud is easily accessible and can help you achieve powerful savings.
3. Faster development and deployment
CI/CD pipelines using cloud-native services or integrations can shorten development cycles and reduce time-to-launch.
4. Longevity
As your company grows, the cloud can certainly accommodate your evolving needs/scale/priorities as they grow and change.
When looking at a potential cloud migration — for companies small and large, it can be difficult to get executive buy-in when there isn’t really a catalyst event pushing you into it.
It’s easy to justify a cloud migration when your data center is closing down or your aging hardware is starting to fail.
Putting together a business case to help justify a migration will be invaluable, but it’s important to get there without suffering from analysis paralysis, as the time wasted doing so will delay you from recognizing all of the amazing benefits the cloud has to offer.
Dennis Seyersdahl — Black Hills IT Services
From our perspective, the top cloud migration benefits would include automation, security, and cost. Cost is always a factor for our customers as we have a large number of small businesses that range from 1-30 people. These migration benefits can also be challenges as well in similar aspects.
Instead of automation, manual migration steps in a process can be very time-consuming. Same for security, security is better in the cloud but changes for migration is that data is not properly secured during the process.
Lastly, the cost is always a challenge. Many I see will take the lowest cost or the most expensive cost for migration over the right solution built for a particular company's needs.
Though migrations can have both benefits and challenges the company providing them should always be evaluating their options on a regular basis to make sure that
- They have more than one option for migration for their customers
- They can pivot in a time where if you cannot pivot fast enough in our changing world you can lose a lot of opportunities.
Ryan Graven — Matrix Networks
The benefits of cloud migrations are easy. From flexibility to scalability, and ease of management, the benefits are undeniable. The challenges, on the other hand, are a much bigger story.
I would say the largest challenge our clients face, is not having an adequate infrastructure to support their migration.
Moreover, not having an understanding of what a truly optimized Internet for a modern business environment looks like.
The industry has done a great job of capitalizing on these pain points and positioning their solution as appropriate solutions to optimize the Internet for the increase of cloud-based applications.
The truth is, however, that not all SD-WAN and other combinations are created equal. Organizations need to approach their unique environments and gather solution-agnostic education to figure out which configuration is right for them.
Travis Lindemoen — Nexus IT Group
Here are what I consider to be the most important advantages and difficulties of moving to the cloud: Users have constant, global access to all of their cloud data and applications.
As a result, businesses can provide customers with a more tailored experience while also providing their employees with access to cutting-edge, adaptable technology.
And yet, many businesses launch cloud migrations without first developing a comprehensive plan.
Complete cloud migration planning is essential for successful cloud adoption and deployment. Depending on the workload and data size, migrating to the cloud may necessitate a new strategy and take some time.
Each workload that an organization moves to the cloud should have a solid business rationale.
James Chang — Velocity IT
Moving to the cloud is a practical way to cut costs and IT expenses while gaining access to cutting-edge technology and services.
Do you know how much it would cost to buy these new pieces of equipment and hire the best IT guys to manage them? You don't have to do that anymore.
You just pay for the services you utilize when working with a cloud provider. They will provide all the hardware and personnel.
In short, you can take advantage of the benefits without setting up an IT department or engaging a group of IT professionals.
You can direct money that would have gone toward upkeep, upgrades, and updates to other departments or development projects if you decide to transfer to the cloud.
And, if you transition to cloud computing, your provider will pay for maintenance expenses, giving you more cash to devote toward innovation or expansion. Therefore, by reducing expenses and saving on IT through cloud migration, small, medium, and large enterprises can gain a lot!
Rajeev Bera — aCompiler
Top Three Benefits of Cloud Migration
When you do cloud migration, responsibility delegation is the best and most significant benefit you get. Moving your data to the cloud means you no longer need to rely on an on-site recovery system in case of an emergency.
And the second benefit is the cost of adding servers and associated infrastructure to a data center is greatly reduced.
The cloud has a better reputation for safety than traditional data centers. It's a one-stop shop for safeguarding the company's information and software.
When you store your data in the cloud, the service provider will regularly release security fixes to stop unwanted traffic from accessing your data.
Top Three Challenges of Cloud Migration
Training teams to develop a uniform awareness of the new environment's capabilities is the challenge of cloud migration.
Legacy apps are considered out-of-date. They also create difficulties for those trying to migrate. Especially for larger organizations, this is a critical consideration.
«Regulations and compliance» needs can also be dangerous. Some processes may take longer to respond in the event of cloud migration.
Aaqib Gadit — Cloudways
Cloud Migration Benefits
In addition to boosting server performance — cloud computing typically results in enhanced speed, increased availability, and a reduction in latency due to its network of globally-dispersed servers — one of the primary benefits of cloud migration is scalability.
Most cloud providers enable their users to scale resources on-demand, increasing agility and enabling businesses to mitigate downtime caused by a sudden increase in server load.
Of course, there are also cost savings associated with migration, since with cloud-based services users typically only pay for the resources they use and the extended support of specialist cloud providers means less need for in-house expertise.
Cloud Migration Challenges
Often the main challenge is ensuring the least possible disruption to business operations during the migration period; however, many cloud providers help to mitigate this by handling much of the migration for you.
But there’s also a concern about data security, of course, since transferring large amounts of data between infrastructures can create significant exposure.
Even though most cloud providers offer robust security measures, it’s still the responsibility of the user to secure data and workloads in transit.
Finally, while cloud computing is typically cost-effective in the long term, the process of migrating from an on-premises to a cloud environment can introduce significant short-term costs, which will need to be budgeted for.
Michael Hess — Code Signing Store
Moving to the cloud helps your organization to link systems and improve offerings. 50% of SMBs claim cloud productivity gains. As with any machine, higher load and lower efficiency wear out data centers over time.
A business using a data center must undertake frequent infrastructure refreshes to keep its software and hardware updated and running properly. It's costly, time-consuming, and repetitious, wasting time and resources.
Businesses can transfer apps to the cloud after a hardware update.
In the cloud, the cloud provider refreshes hardware and software, saving money and time and guaranteeing applications run on the latest infrastructure.
Cloud services and applications are regularly updated based on company demands and consumer desires. This means your new cloud environment can evolve to meet company needs and help your team do more.
Your business-critical apps will respond dynamically to traffic variations in the cloud. This means your organization may boost productivity and profitability by scaling up or down to meet demand and using only the resources it needs.
Cloud providers can manage the complexities of your infrastructure so you can focus on your business. The ease of cloud remote access allows your staff to work hard and build your organization.
Andrew Slater — Node4
Having undertaken hundreds of customer migrations to the public cloud, we have found the key benefits being:
- Increased agility from the ability to easily scale services and infrastructure Up/down and from consumption-based billing.
- Access to modernized services and technologies that are unavailable on-premises
- Streamlined operations with the ability to move from managing infrastructure to services, with consistent and modern tooling.
The key challenges are:
- A lack of skills and knowledge to properly implement governance and controls, which can result in ungovernable costs and security.
- It is very difficult to predict consumption billing costs, in fact, our recent report “Future of the Hybrid Cloud” showed 56% of IT decision-makers surveyed had found the cloud to be more expensive than originally forecast
- The same survey showed 50% had moved a workload back off Public Cloud, demonstrating that certain workloads don't fit a Public Cloud mode.
Prem Khatri — Chetu
Migrating to cloud storage yields several benefits in terms of affordability, efficiency, and scalability. Cloud storage offers a safe, low-cost, and reliable solution that reduces overall operational costs.
Storing information in the cloud makes it more efficient to access and manage since the data is centralized and can be accessed anywhere at any time by multiple users. The scalability of the cloud environment also permits companies to adjust their storage needs as they grow.
A typical migration, such as one to Windows 10, can take up to 124 weeks depending on the volume of data involved, the approach used by the migration expert, or the tools used during the migration process.
Despite these challenges, the cloud has no doubt changed how companies store and secure their data, which is considered by many to be a business's most valuable asset.
Disaster instances of lost or corrupt information due to failed hardware, human error, and theft pose a significantly lesser threat than in years prior thanks to cloud technology.
By gradually adopting hybrid cloud services to restructure their data environments and partnering with certified experts to do so, companies can ensure their continued growth.
Adam Stern — Infinitely Virtual
The cloud is easier than you think. «Easier» isn’t the same as «easy»; there are already enough nuances without applying additional layers of complexity to the process. In cloud computing, the fog starts with the nomenclature.
Businesses typically grapple with a surfeit of choices, but it ultimately boils down to apps and data. When you view the decision through that prism, it's clarifying.
If you're approached by a vendor keen on facilitating the migration by suggesting you transition from whatever software you're using to some application you've never seen and that doesn't fit your business all that well- but is pitched as the way you get into the cloud — hold on to your wallet.
The consistent question — in many ways, the only question- is how to get your data into the cloud safely, securely and cost-effectively.
Done right and done well, the cloud – in the guise of the Infrastructure as a Service model – is a proven alternative to the «IT rollercoaster», circumventing the costly and fruitless cycle of hardware acquisition and depreciation, rinse and repeat.
Thank you so much to all the experts that have contributed to this expert roundup!
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