Neglecting to plan

Of all the mistakes organisations can make when they do decide to migrate to the cloud, a lack of adequate planning is probably the biggest. It’s the one from which all the others naturally follow.

Migrating for the wrong reasons

Migrating to the cloud ‘just because everyone else is doing it’ is a pathway to failure. A thoroughly thought-out business plan and management model must be created and considered before choosing to migrate. Questions an organisation can ask when migrating may include:

  • What benefits will the move make for the business and how will they continue after the change has been implemented and in the long term?
  • Will a move to the cloud help the organisation optimise certain tools?
  • Could it assist with improved communication with teams working remotely?
  • Would it mean the organisation is better placed to take advantage of data storage or cloud- based call centre solutions?
  • If none of these apply and the business could actually see decreased productivity resulting from migration, then doing so would clearly be a mistake.
Lack of workforce preparation

Any move as fundamental to the culture and practices of an organisation as a shift in the way work is executed needs to be clearly explained to staff beforehand. Without employee understanding and, importantly, buy-in the road forward will be rocky indeed.

Migrating to the cloud will have impacts across the organisation and will be a major shift for the business – so all stakeholders need to be informed as to why it will be done, how it will be done and what changes it will mean for the organisation.

The first staff to have on board, of course, are the members of the IT department. But it shouldn’t be assumed that they can lead the migration. Organisations that take such shortcuts as ‘our tech staff are experts and can oversee this move’ are risking failure. No matter how skilled and experienced the tech team, it’s unlikely they will have the specialist knowledge to implement an end-to-end cloud strategy. On the other hand, if the task is outsourced there’s no quicker way to snarl up a smooth transition than by not having the internal team consulted and included in the planning period from the get-go.

Ignoring security and compliance

With cybercrime increasing at such an alarming rate, organisations need to proactively protect their data from organisations and persons with malicious intent. Considering the security of any data during and post migration is imperative to avoid compromising it. It is also vital to ensure that all legal compliances are adhered to, depending on the specific nature of the data being handled; for instance, if it be financial, health- related, or governmental.

Dismissing the importance of storage location

Allied to the necessity of ensuring security and compliance adherence in the transfer of data and processes, another mistake organisations can make is failing to identify the most appropriate location for its storage. What region meets your data sovereignty requirements, how secure is it and will there be any other legal considerations that are geographically related? The organisation is responsible for the security of both its own and its clients’ confidential and valuable data. A breach could end up costing the organisations untold sums in compensation or insurance claims. So, it’s of paramount importance that businesses stay informed about data regulations and know they are subject to any regulatory or compliance requirements.

This entails thorough investigation of the security provisions of any potential cloud platforms to ensure that all applications and data are fully protected, but also remain easily accessible and available for audit at any given time.

Migrating the wrong locations

‘Lifting and shifting’ may be one of the simplest and most straightforward methods of migrating to the cloud, but it doesn’t mean it’s always the most successful. Performing a ‘lift and shift’ without any form of data optimisation may speed up the process in the short term but could result in a reduction in efficiency down the track. At some point it is likely that the IT administrators will have to go back to the applications and data and optimise it for the cloud. If optimisation is done beforehand, with systems configured to take full advantage of the cloud’s unique features, organisations can avoid suffering from ‘short-term gain for long- term pain’.

No assessment of IT and business performance

Migrating to the cloud is a major undertaking for any organisation, so to minimise the disruption to business continuity that it will entail, it’s necessary to gain a clear understanding of current application usage. How, when and why do the various business teams use their applications? And how will this be affected by a move to the cloud? If an organisation hasn’t fully grasped the realities of its internet connections and usage or the amount of bandwidth it is working with, there could be unpleasant surprises down the line once migration has occurred.

A related common mistake is to not look carefully enough at the current performance and status of IT hardware equipment. A business that has recently invested heavily in updated hardware and then straightaway looks at migration is clearly not making the best decision for its bottom line.

Choosing the wrong vendor

It may seem as if there is no such thing as a wrong cloud vendor, but there may be a wrong provider for a particular organisation. When specific business needs and processes are properly assessed, it will become apparent that different applications have different requirements. In which case, the best- case scenario is often a hybrid cloud approach to provide a range of private and public cloud solutions. In a similar vein, an organisation that contracts the first cab off the rank regarding providers and doesn’t do its due diligence regarding such key characteristics as reputation, technical competence, experience in the field, range of service and customer satisfaction could get into trouble. Delving deeper will do more to avoid making an error – checking the quality of the provider’s data centres, its approach to data security and safety, the quality of its engineering team, the size of its customer base, its solutions for patch and update management and its level of customer support.

Failing to consider migration management

Migration to the cloud is only one step. This is an ongoing process and if organisations don’t have procedures in place to continually monitor, upgrade and mitigate issues, this could be the biggest mistake of all.

Selecting an inappropriate partner

The best and surest way to navigate the path to a successful cloud migration, and then ongoing strategy, and to not fall into any of the traps mentioned above, is to partner with a cloud migration specialist, which can assist the organisation along every step of the way, ensuring a smooth transition through:

  • a migration readiness assessment
  • a cloud adoption framework
  • monitoring the performance of applications
  • ensuring security and compliance
  • establishing pivotal KPIs
  • the cloud TCO (total cost of ownership)
  • benchmarking and optimisation, and
  • post migration monitoring and troubleshooting.