A well-planned and executed strategy for shifting workloads to the cloud can help an enterprise accelerate progress in its digital transformation goals and create a platform on which it can innovate. But even for the most cutting-edge organisations, cloud migration is a complex and challenging endeavor.
That is because there are so many dependencies and moving parts to think about—from the financial, operational, and technological impact to the effect cloud migration has on people, culture, and governance. Smarter organisations embark on the journey with a plan not only for migration but also for what comes after.
Here are some of the post-cloud migration challenges knowledgeable teams and service providers should prepare for:
Transitioning to a new open-based IT procurement model
Many enterprises struggle to realise the business benefits, cost-savings, and return on investment they anticipated after migrating to the cloud. Out-of-control cloud spending is one common complaint. Cloud Financial Operations (FinOps) is how organisations can bring financial accountability to the variable spending model of cloud-based IT—in turn enabling them to simplify operations and make smarter decisions about cloud spending. FinOps is a set of practices that help companies to adjust their performance metrics and cost optimisation strategies to the cloud.
Embedding security into cloud ops from the outset
The tools, processes, and skills required to secure cloud environments are significantly different from those needed to secure on-premise environments. To avoid security vulnerabilities during migration and beyond, forward-thinking companies will put in place smarter DevOps frameworks and cloud security skills from the outset. They will leverage cloud provider-native tools to automate security processes as far as possible and put in place continuous monitoring systems to safeguard systems and data.
Reskilling employees in cloud solutions
Access to cutting-edge skills can be a major barrier for organisations coming to the cloud from an on-premises world. Smarter businesses will invest upfront in building up cloud-focused DevOps, Infrastructure as a Code, deployment, and automation expertise through upskilling their in-house resources, hiring new talent, and working with external consultants.
Avoiding vendor lock-in
In the early phases of cloud migration, many organisations will initially focus on shifting a few workloads to one or two cloud providers. But as in the on-premises world, vendor lock-in is a significant danger. Knowledgeable cloud experts advise companies to ensure that their data is portable to ease switching between vendors, design applications to be portable, leverage loosely coupled architectures, and build in-house expertise across multiple public cloud service providers.
Not having a long-term roadmap
Many organisations embark on cloud migration without putting in place a roadmap for the entire journey. Experts say a smarter approach is to carefully analyse business objectives and current assets, then think about how each application or workload will be migrated to the cloud and when. It’s also wise to think about which migration approach to use for different workloads, be it re-platforming, refactoring, or rehosting. The roadmap can be adapted according to what the organisation learns as it rolls its strategy out.
1Nebula: A smarter way
Because of 1Nebula’s years of experience in helping companies manage cloud migrations and our background as a developer of solutions that run in the Azure cloud, we can guide your business through the challenges and opportunities of cloud migration.
Get in touch to learn how our knowledgeable team, FinOps and DevOps experience, and the seamless process can guide and simplify your digital transformation journey.