7 HARD TRUTHS ABOUT CLOUD MIGRATION AND HOW TO FACE THEM
If you’ve been following the trends, you’ve probably heard about cloud migration and how much value it offers to organizations. While it’s true that it comes with a lot of benefits, there are still a few things to know about it before you take the plunge. Here are 7 hard truths about cloud migration and how you can handle them.
Cloud migration can fail
One of the foremost truths to know is that even though the cloud has a lot of advantages of businesses, migration isn’t as easy as flipping the switch. Cloud migration isn’t just tedious; things can also go awry just like any other processes. Some of the causes of failed cloud migration include poor planning, selecting the wrong migration approach, not testing thoroughly etc. All of the causes can be summarized in poor planning, which is why it’s important to have a clearly-defined, well-researched and coherent strategy.
Cloud migration is costly
You’ve probably heard or read that cloud migration can help you save money and boost revenue, and this is true. However, the process of transferring your systems to the cloud environment can be expensive with costs including the actual migration cost, hiring and training employees, bandwidth costs etc. To address this problem, it’s important to do an extensive research on pre-migration and post-migration costs so you can prepare adequately. Once you’re able to scale this hurdle, you can expect a drop in your IT expenses.
Might overburden your staff
Cloud migration requires a new set of skills to manage, integrate and maintain the migration of assets and data to the cloud in addition. This can put a huge strain on your IT staff and if their days are already overflowing, it can make the job unbearable and increase the risk of costly mistakes. In this regard, it helps to discuss with your IT team with a view towards coming up with ways to make the migration less stressful.
Data deletion can be incomplete
From time to time, you will need to safely delete data but this isn’t as easy as it sounds since the data is spread over a number of different storage devices within your cloud service provider’s infrastructure in a multi-tenancy environment. Since you don’t want remnants of your data to be available to attackers, consider getting someone who is knowledgeable on the topic to examine a CSP’s security and data confidential policies for any security flaws.
Credentials can be stolen
Another hard truth to know is that attackers can gain authorized access to your sensitive data if your authentication information is disclosed or stolen. In other words, your systems can be breached in hours by any hacker that has the right specialized apps and a virtual dictionary. To avoid this, be sure to use different passwords for different pieces of software and make sure they are complex.
You may lose some functionality
If you’re looking to switch from one cloud provider to another or you’re just looking to change service plan or add new system features, there’s a high risk of data leakage. However, you can avoid this by choosing a provider that is utterly adapted to scaling.
Cloud service problems
It’s possible for your provider’s hardware to malfunction or for some virtual breakdown to occur, leading to permanent loss of data. While you cannot prevent this from happening, you can avoid it by choosing a tested and trusted cloud services provider.
Conclusion
Many businesses immediately begin the process of cloud migration once they learn of its benefits without doing their due diligence, thus leading to a terrible experience. The above are some of the hard truths about cloud migration you should know and how to face them.