8 Challenges of Cloud Migration and How to Overcome Them

Organizations that migrate at least 60% of their IT systems and operations to the cloud can stimulate profit growth by up to 11.2% year over year. Total reliance on on-premise computing cannot beat that!

But as you’re implementing this level of digital transformation, whether internally or with the help of cloud migration service providers, some prevalent challenges are bound to come your way. Check the following data: 

• 50% of projects fail or stall
• 56% of CIOs experience compliance and security risk challenges
• 55% of business leaders are unable to optimize their process to match a clearly defined business case
• 44% of CIOs approach migration with insufficient planning

From the foregoing trends, it’s apparent that nearly half of IT-driven organizations are battling the challenges of cloud migration. In this article, we highlight 8 of these problems alongside their solutions, as well as the benefits your business reaps in the long haul. Keep reading to learn more. 

The Benefits of Cloud Migration Outweigh Its Challenges 

Cloud migration entails a high-level process of moving an organization’s databases, applications, workloads, IT resources, and other digital assets into a cloud computing environment. The process can involve moving the whole or partial computing infrastructure. 

Some of the world’s most popular services for on-demand computing include: 

Amazon Web Services (AWS) 

Organizations can subscribe to various services under Amazon Web Services (AWS), including AWS Data Transfer, Virtual Private Cloud, DyanmoDB, AmazonCloudWatch, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Aurora, and Amazon LightSail. AWS provides over 40 compliance certifications recognized worldwide, in the US and other countries. 

Google Cloud 

Like AWS, Google Cloud offerings fall under various categories: storage, computing, services, and identity. Users can leverage Containers, Data Analytics, API management, Multicloud, Serverless, and Hybrid computing services. The platform’s features include G Suite, Chrome Enterprise, Firebase, Android Enterprise, Apigee, Google Hardware, and Google Maps platform. 

Microsoft Azure 

Microsoft Azure is another popular option with advanced intelligent and mixed-reality technologies, such as HoloLens, VSTS, and TFS. Microsoft Azure users can also access Microsoft Office and enterprise tools like Power BI, SharePoint, and PowerXXX. Other offerings include Microsoft Cognitive Services, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Moreover, Azure migration steps are easy to follow and implement. 

Oracle Cloud 

Oracle offers services in four categories: 

• Data-as-a-Service (DaaS): Storage 
• Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): Storage, computing, Database, Load Balancing, Networking, FastConnect, Governance, and DNS Monitoring. 
• Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): Data Management, Integration, Content and Enterprise, Business Analytics, Application Development, and Management. 
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): Analytics, ERP, IoT, HCM, CX, Blockchain Applications, and EPM. 

Alibaba Cloud 

Deployed in 2009 as a custom solution for Alibaba’s eCommerce platform, Alibaba Cloud is among the fastest-growing services in China and Southeast Asia. Its products and services include Analytics and Data Technology, Database Services, Storage and CND, Elastic Computing, and Apsara Stack. The service covers 19 regions and over 56 availability zones globally.

Here are the benefits of migrating: 

Optimized operating costs 

Overcoming on-premise to cloud migration challenges can be a pivot for business success with greater cost-saving advantages to optimize operating costs. A recent survey by Microsoft Office 365 reveals that 86% of small businesses report reduced operating costs after shifting to on-demand computing. 

A majority of public services offer a “pay as you go” pricing model, meaning you only incur the costs of consumed resources. You also don’t need to foot maintenance bills for IT assets that you use occasionally. It gets better — a typical upfront investment for a data center gives you ongoing 24/7 technical support and maintenance to compete favorably in the modern business landscape. 

Industry compliance 

Cloud computing platforms offer services that meet specific industry compliance requirements, making the migration ideal for highly scrutinized sectors like banking and finance, healthcare, or government. 

For instance, Azure’s Office 365 productivity platform has auditing capabilities for files and Power BI activities, allowing users and regulators to see how data is accessed and used. Similarly, the AWS cloud has various compliance certification levels, including HIPAA, ISO27001, and AICPA/SOC. 

Backup and recovery 

Experts believe data loss can cost an organization anywhere between a few thousand dollars and $15 million. Businesses that overcome the challenges faced during cloud migration enjoy in-built data backup and recovery features that are handy in the event of a primary data failure. This ensures business continuity, protects reputation and mitigates insurmountable recovery costs in the event of a ransomware attack.

8 Cloud Data Migration Challenges and Their Solutions 

Now that you understand the benefits of cloud computing, what are the challenges of cloud migration, and how can you prevail over them? Well, inasmuch as change can be hard and many people tend to resist it at first, technical challenges in cloud migration shouldn’t hold your business back from attaining its full potential. 

That said, here are 8 prevalent cloud migration problems and how to solve them:

1. Data Security and Compliance Risks

Data safety and compliance risks are still among organizations’ top cloud migration security challenges. These risks can emanate from data breaches during the migration or weak access control over sensitive enterprise data. 

Solution 

While cloud services are inherently secure, it will help if you pass your data through a secure path inside the firewall when migrating it. You can add an extra layer of assurance by encrypting the data and ensuring that your strategy follows industry compliance standards.

2. Uncertain Cost of the Cloud Migration Process 

Although a successful cloud migration can cut IT operating costs in the long haul, the biggest challenge arises when estimating the actual upfront investment. This cost can shoot up the roof when other indirect project expenses come into play. This includes costs for transforming the organization for cloud computing, as well as the expenses of vacated data center capacity. 

Solution

You can prevail over this uncertainty by planning carefully with your service providers and factoring in the hidden costs of migration in the budget. Overall, you are looking at the following cloud migration costs: 

Pre-migration 

• Consultations 
• On-premise data management 
• Database upgrade 

Migration 

• The project itself
• Refactoring 
• Application and code changes 

Post-migration

• Monthly or yearly license 
• System maintenance 

3. Wrong Cloud Migration Strategy 

You may encounter various cloud migration challenges if your team doesn’t deliberate on a well-hatched plan. Many get it wrong—that planning is all about anticipating migration bottlenecks and creating remediation contingencies, forgetting to focus on understanding the current infrastructure and target cloud. 

Solution

With that in mind, you would want to devise a well-thought strategy that covers all intricate approaches to successful migration, such as app modernization and platform refactoring. This means conducting a thorough assessment of the current infrastructure and making adjustments whenever possible for optimized performance in the cloud.

4. No Internal Capacity to Perform the Cloud Migration–Skill Gap

Switching to a cloud computing environment means deployment of new technologies, processes, or third-party integrations. In most cases, your current employees may lack the necessary skills and qualifications needed to fulfill IT roles under the new infrastructure and simply don’t fail the process. 

Solution

You can overcome this barrier by hiring an experienced cloud migration company to assist with the process and upskill your team. The experts will figure out the right strategy that complements a smooth transition process with everyone on board. Alternatively, you can hire fresh talents to fill the new IT positions.

5. Migration Complexities

Your organization can experience a cloud migration challenge if you underestimate the complexity of the project. For example, some organizations think they can just port legacy software to the cloud as it is. This can lead to a serious downtime and loss of key functionalities, which translates to unhappy customers and lost productivity.

Solution

To overcome this challenge you need clearly assess your current infrastructure to identify any compatibility issues or dependencies that could impact your migration, create a roadmap that outlines the migration process, and choose the right cloud provider that can meet your specific business needs.

6. Low Application Performance After Migration 

One of the most overlooked post-cloud migration problems is low performance after migration. Legacy systems often feature several components hosted on multiple servers which lowers their flexibility when migrated to the cloud. At the same time, on-demand computing solutions come with varying storage options and services – it’s elementary for legacy systems to face performance issues.  

Solution 

Application performance challenges can be addressed through cloud capacity planning. This process analyzes and measures the performance of your applications against predictive demand. With this approach, your team can then provision and allot the right resources needed to meet that specific demand.

7. Network Bandwidth 

You can also experience database migration to cloud challenges if you don’t specifically define the network bandwidth requirements of cloud-powered applications. Typically, these applications should match or exceed the performance of on-premise deployments. Unless you define the bandwidth requirements accurately, the migrated applications will experience latency, resulting in poor user experience and unmet business requirements. 

Solution

You can solve this problem by factoring in network constraints before migration, with the help of network technology modeling tools. This will help you evaluate current application performance to determine areas that need improvement before the migration process.

8. Cloud Environment Adoption Resistance 

Employees may feel that cloud adoption will reduce their control over data and processes, leading them to resist the change. Resistance toward change is common, and switching to a cloud computing environment means more change and disruption around processes, systems, or leadership. 

Solution

Train your employees on the new cloud environment and the tools and processes that will be used. To ensure that everyone is okay and ready for the new IT strategy, develop a change management plan and implement it before, during, and after the migration. Also, involve them in the cloud adoption process and address their concerns. This supposed to smooth out difficulties.

Migrate to the Cloud with ModLogix Professional Services 

ModLogix is a full-service IT company providing professional cloud migration services for businesses across all industries. With our in-depth expertise, we can help you overcome specific challenges with cloud migration with carefully thought steps and best practices. The benefits of our migration services include cost-efficient maintenance, automatic software updates, greater processing capability, and data loss prevention. 

We can handle projects of all sizes, whether you want Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or Google Cloud migration. 

In this Azure Cloud migration case study, we moved a scalable database registry with sensitive healthcare data safely to the cloud. On top of preserving data privacy during the process, our team also established access control, encryption, and authentication processes. 

Let us know your problem statement about cloud migration, and we’ll propose a viable solution to see the strategy through. Contact us today to begin your project. 

Final Thoughts 

Now that you understand the challenges and solutions of cloud migration, nothing should stop you from shifting to on-demand computing. While a flawless migration might be an uphill task, the benefits that come from this bold and strategic move are immense — real-time data analytics, cost-saving factors, greater security, compliance, third-party tools integration, and much more.