Here are four consistent mistakes you can avoid through careful preparation during the cloud migration process for your business.
1. Move It All, Move It Fast
All too often, businesses have the mentality that a migration project means every single application, piece of digital data, and the programs that use them must be fully shifted to the cloud. When businesses think this way, there’s a good chance they will encounter countless unnecessary challenges throughout the process. When migrating to the cloud, careful consideration and planning need to take place before anything gets shifted. This is not a process that should be rushed. Migrated data and migration tools should be carefully considered.
2. The Move It or Lose It Mentality
Again, the idea that every single application and all data types your company touches needs to be natively based in the cloud is something that commonly hurts businesses in both the short and long run. Modern cloud-based solutions often have compatibility patches for your current or legacy software which means that not everything needs to be thrown away and changed with the initial migration. This may not apply to all software so check first and weigh your options.
There are two types of people when it comes to change. Some either don’t mind change or even enjoy it but some aren’t quite as excited about it and might even become fearful. Ideally, your business will migrate to the cloud when there is a clear potential benefit for the company as a whole and left as is when possible.
3. Hope for the Best, Don’t Test
Assuming something is going to work as advertised without any testing or trials with your own employees is a tragic mistake that happens all too often. When piloting how something looks and operates after migrating to the cloud, ensure that you are testing this with the employees who will be utilizing the changed process within your company. That way, customized solutions and troubleshooting during the migration project are accomplished before any roll-out becomes permanently effective.
4. The Unwavering Path
The process of cloud migration and adaptations within your company may not look like a straight path. You need to understand and expect that there will be challenges along the way that require adjustments and adaptations from your initial plan. However, if you accept it as an eventuality, you can plan for it and complete the necessary backup plans along the way. This allows your company to maintain its current day-to-day activities and have some version control while the cloud migration process to work itself out along the way.
Here at Next Pathway, the SHIFT™ Migration Suite helps our customers accelerate their migration to the cloud, by automating key tasks in the end-to-end process. Learn more here.
