As great as these potential benefits sound, it's important to keep in mind that for every cloud adoption success story there are almost as many cloud adoption horror stories. Some common pitfalls and failures relate to time for deployment, application errors, and incidental business process costs.
Our goal will be to look at five common ways in which these challenges have traditionally occurred so that your business can join the examples of cloud migration success as opposed to prey to these common hurdles. It’s important to realize that a process as large and complex as cloud migration is one your business is unlikely to be prepared for alone, be sure to look for experts in this field that have a proven track record of success.
1. Lacking a Strong Guide
It cannot be overstated how important it is to ensure that the company you partner with has a clear track record of success. This isn’t the time to cut costs and look for a new field vendor. You need to find someone with a cloud migration strategy that understands the cloud environment. Without the strong area expertise of a strong, guiding, partner it is likely you’ll find yourself struggling with the following four common challenges.
2. Not Adapting to the Cloud
It is highly unlikely that the way your applications and software have been running locally will directly match how they will work in the cloud. Many traditional applications are built to utilize static local resources, whereas cloud native or cloud adapted applications focus on scaling resource allocation on an as needed basis. Your company will need to ensure any application you move to the cloud platform will work as intended, and if not then will need to consider either adapting the application or replacing all together.
3. Lacking In-House Expertise
Sadly, the skill sets of ITIL framework, monolithic applications, waterfall process, etc. are not going to be as useful as they once were once you move to the cloud platform. Your company will need to ensure it can attract, engage, and retain employees who have the cloud-based skill set you’ll need to ensure success. Skills related to dynamic infrastructure, automation and microservices are essential within your in-house team.
4. Compartmentalizing the Transition
All too often we see companies attempt to delegate the process of cloud migration to a select group as opposed to making it an organization wide endeavor. This isn’t something that a handful of “focus group” members can handle alone; you’ll need to ensure that all stakeholders in the company have their voice heard throughout the entire planning and implementation phases. All employees should be aware of how data is stored in the cloud environment and it should become part of your migration plan.
5. Unrealistic Aspirations
While the move in all modern business is pushing toward cloud migration, it's important to realize that not all companies are the same and the benefits to some will be vastly different in size and magnitude than they are for others. This is where having a strong partner specializing in the process of cloud migration is essential.
With their industry focused knowledge and skills, they will ensure your business maximizes their return on investment potential and avoids the common overspending or unrealistic expectations that countless companies have suffered from before you.
