We have seen many changes taking place in the business landscape due to advancements in technology and changing workplaces.   

But, last year, was a different ride altogether. Pandemic pushed businesses out of their comfort zone and forced them to adopt remote work.   

With most of the workforces online and business processes digitalized, businesses have to rush towards cloud migration.  

And it’s no surprise why?  

Operating on the Cloud has many benefits such as:  

• Increased operational and management efficiency  
• Better support and access for the remote workforce  
• Reduced operational and management costs  

While cloud migration has bought greater opportunities for businesses, it has also introduced some challenges.   

If you too are planning to migrate to the cloud and leverage its benefits there are some common challenges that you might face.   

In this blog, we will discuss some common challenges faced during cloud migration. We will also discuss some solutions on how you can overcome them to mitigate the risk.    

1. Cloud Migration Challenge: Lack of Cloud Migration Strategy   

Technology has made everything easy; hence, most businesses assume that cloud migration is just an upload button away.  

However, it’s not. 

Hence, you might see managers finding themselves stuck after already having done a fair amount of work. This happens mainly because they have not formulated a cloud migration strategy as per their business goals.   

SOLUTION:

You need to create a 360-degree cloud migration strategy by analyzing your business objectives and infrastructure.  

While Formulating your Cloud Migration Strategy, ask these Questions to Yourself:  

• Which data and applications are needed to migrate?  
• Do any applications need to be adjusted for the cloud environment?  
• What’s the cost of downtime?  

Once you have a strategy in place go on and split it into steps. This will make the process more manageable and give you more grip on the process.   

2. Cloud Migration Challenge: Uncertain Cloud Migration Financial Cost 

Cloud migration expenses can run out of control with so many variables and without proper cost analysis.  

Cloud is cost-effective in the long term and should save you money. However, if your budget is not aligned with your cloud migration strategy; you might have to shed extra in the later stages.   

SOLUTION:  

Once you are ready with your cloud migration strategy start researching the cost associated with the process.   

Make a clear budget based on each process and then evaluate the costs associated with cloud migration.  

Remember to Factor in other Crucial Costs such as:  

• Direct costs – Hardware and other materials, software licenses, maintenance contracts.  
• Operational costs – Maintenance.  
• Administrative costs – training your staff, maintaining the IT team, and other internal costs.  

Another cost that you might want to add in is the cost of online space expansion once your company grows.   

3. Cloud Migration Challenge: Cloud Migration Security and Privacy Concern   

Cyber-attacks have become a common thing in the online space. Hence, having security and privacy concerns is very common.

There are a lot of cloud migration security challenges as it is a very delicate process.   

SOLUTION:  

Firstly, remember that the cloud platforms are fully secure. Secondly, cloud service providers have stronger security infrastructure that most companies can’t even manage in-house.   

But if you still have doubts try asking your provider these questions before signing a contract:  

• What is their cloud migration process?   
• Where will be the data stored?  
• Does the cloud have end-to-end encryption?  
• Do they have any security policies and procedures?   
• Are they compliant with the security regulations?  

Asking these questions, will help you know a vendor, learn about their security procedures, and test their customer service.   

If you’re not satisfied with their answers, you know you need to move on to the next one.    

4. Cloud Migration Challenge: Adoption Resistance After Cloud Migration   

Once you decide to migrate to the cloud you should also be prepared for that change and disruption it will bring. It will require you and your employees to come out of their comfort zone.    

However, preparing employees for this drastic change can become a challenge as people tend to resist change.   

But, preparing employees for this drastic change can become a challenge as people tend to resist change. And, if the bottom line is left unmanaged there will be a lot of struggles to execute a successful migration.

SOLUTION:  

To drive adoption at the bottom level, you should start from the top. Executive leadership can play a great role in influencing employee engagement and adoption.   

Next, you should choose cloud solutions by prioritizing usability and integration. Make sure that you are choosing an intuitive and user-friendly tool that is more likely to be adopted by your employees.  

Lastly, you can make this process easier for everyone by investing in a robust onboarding program. By doing this, you will make sure your employees understand new systems and processes on the new applications.   

Also Read: Top 10 Game-Changing Cloud Computing Trends of 2021 

5. Cloud Migration Challenge: Cloud Skill Shortage After Cloud Migration   

We all now know that cloud migration is a complex process. Hence, business organizations need to find people who will be able to manage it effectively.  

As more and more organizations plan to move on the cloud, the competition for migration experts has drastically intensified. This has created a skilled employee supply gap as the market is highly competitive, and the pool of qualified candidates is small.  

This has become a major problem for big businesses that are trying to remain in the competition.  

SOLUTION:  

You can start by helping your existing teams evolve with the required cloud skills. You can also start investing in skill development programs to train your team.   

If you still want to hire folks that already have the base to build additional relevant skills then you should consider your DevOps engineers, Full-Stack developers, or Site Reliability engineers.   

Lastly, you can always consider hiring a third-party provider as it’s sometimes better to just let someone else handle the complicated work.   

By choosing a third-party provider, you’ll be able to close the skills gap and reduce the internal burden. The providers will also make sure that the processes, procedures, security protocols, and applications are all compliant with industry regulations.   

6. Cloud Migration Challenge: Vendor Lock-in After Cloud Migration   

You have chosen a provider and completely shifted to the cloud. Now, what happens if something goes wrong?   

You won’t be able to switch providers as the process will be expensive and time-consuming. This will leave you with only one option that is to be stuck in an unhappy relationship with one provider.  

SOLUTION:

You can avoid this by doing proper research about a potential cloud provider by scouring their website, read testimonials, and inspecting service contracts before signing.   

Few Ways to Reduce Vendor Lock-ins include:  

• Make your data more portable and describe the data model using appropriate plan standards  
• Make sure your agreement with the provider includes a well-defined exit strategy along with the additional costs associated with it  
• Make code more portable by utilizing software development and IT operations tools.   

These steps will make the process of changing the providers easier and minimize the risk of lock-ins. Even if you are completely satisfied with your vendor, it never hurts to have a backup plan.   

Conclusion:   

Cloud migrations can be challenging but they can provide you with an opportunity to make existing business processes more agile and innovative. You can make this process fun and easy by anticipating the problems.  

To make this less of a headache, the first step should be to take account of all the infrastructure components, business processes, and in-house expertise and build a complete strategy. It should encompass all your business needs for the cloud migration journey.  

Make sure your plan is detailed and you have a plan of action for most of your challenges. This will help in making your transition easier.  

Besides, you can always opt for a third-party service provider as they will ensure that the migration process will go smoothly. Also, you will have an experienced team to help you solve your problems in real-time.  

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