12-27-21 | Blog Post
Over the past several years, there has been a significant increase in cloud adoption. As more businesses see the benefits of the cloud such as cost savings, easy scalability, and improved performance, they have shifted away from traditional physical data centers and network infrastructure. In 2017, the global public cloud market was $146 billion; this figure is expected to rise to $178 billion in 2018. In addition, the global public cloud market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22 percent.
After you have made the decision to move your business to the cloud, it is important to take some time and develop a thorough cloud migration strategy. The cloud migration strategy provides the framework that will be used to ensure a successful transition to the cloud with minimal interruption of your normal business processes. Failure to develop and/or adhere to a cloud migration strategy can result in mistakes, some of which potentially could negate any of the benefits of cloud migration. Discussed below are five cloud migration mistakes that could occur through the lack of or failure to adhere to a cloud migration strategy.
Lift and shift is the process of moving data and applications from the physical infrastructure directly to the cloud without any form of data optimization. This is done by some IT administrators because this speeds up the data migration process. In the long run, this leads to a reduced efficiency of cloud processes by as much as 30 to 40 percent. Eventually, the IT administrators have to go back and optimize the data and applications for the cloud.
Instead of lift and shift, cloud-native optimization of the data and applications should be done prior to the migration. This means that the data and applications should be configured to take advantage of the unique features of the cloud. The applications should not be hard-wired to any physical infrastructure for easy scalability and should be packaged in a way that they can be easily reused.
Some businesses assume that all cloud service providers are the same and therefore do not do their due diligence before making a selection. This can lead to problems later on down the road when the businesses discover that the cloud service provider chosen was poorly suited to meet their business needs.
Some things to check when choosing a cloud service provider include:
Some businesses do not give thought to how their data and applications will be supported after the transition to the cloud. They make the wrong assumption that no support is needed since everything is in the cloud; these businesses are caught flatfooted when they experience problems with their data or applications.
Part of the cloud migration strategy should be a clear understanding of who is responsible for supporting the data in the cloud, a support strategy, and escalation points, if needed.
Data stored in the cloud are a rich target for hackers and other unscrupulous characters. Some businesses neglect to consider the security of their data during and post-data migration thereby putting their data at risk of compromise. In addition, some data requires additional compliance measures such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) which guides the storage and handling of protected health information; neglect of these additional compliance measures can result in adverse legal and financial consequences.
Some businesses retain the use of their traditional databases after cloud migration. This can result in reduced performance and efficiency as the database may not be optimized to function in the cloud. It is preferable to utilize cloud-native databases after a cloud migration so as to prevent problems arising from the use of the traditional databases.
At Otava, we are experts in migrating traditional data centers to the cloud. We will work with you to develop a cloud migration strategy unique to your business. For more information about cloud migration strategies, contact us today.
