CLOUD MIGRATION RISKS

Cloud has emerged as a game-changer for countless businesses working online. According to the 2019 Unisys Cloud Success Barometer , 92% of companies utilize cloud solutions at full capacity or prefer hybrid solutions (cloud + traditional servers).

However, the report highlighted another significant trend. One out of every three cloud migrations fails, without bringing ain't any benefit to the organization. That means all the costs spent on the migration, working hours, and resources are wasted and wouldn't bring any return.

Migrating to the cloud can turn out to be challenging for many businesses. The process can occur quite overwhelming if you don't have the required skills or experts in your team. Above all, you may get lost in the sea of services, architectures, deployments, refactoring models etc.

Needless to say, all organizations of any size may face cloud migration risks. But you can surely minimize your risks and make your migration successful if you are proactive and aware. It's always better to avoid the mistakes made by someone else ;)

Today, we are going to guide you through the major cloud migration risks that may come your way while migration to the cloud. Along with that, we will also provide solutions to allay fears about cloud computing.

Many businesses are wary of handing over their data and applications to public clouds. Surely, you lose full control when you move to the public cloud like AWS, Google Cloud, Azure. After all, unless you have the on-premise infrastructure, you can't even stay in charge of your security processes.

Solution
Gartner uses the analogy of a flight journey to describe the migration to the cloud. You give up control and rely on the skills of the flight crew, unlike driving your own car. This can make some of us anxious or worried.

However, the flight crew takes extra measures and checks the plane before every flight to make things safe. You, on the other hand, may not check the health of your car unless some issues come up.

So, the first thing to do is to change your perception of control. Then consider the following to eliminate your cloud computing threats-

• Create a strong Identity Access Management strategy. Control user access personally to reduce unauthorized access and accountability.
• Encryption can be a good way to segregate and isolate data, apart from increased security. This approach can work well, even on public cloud platforms.
• Ask your provider for security and compliance monitoring and reporting.
• Analyze vendor contracts and negotiate the conditions. You may be able to reduce cloud vulnerability by striking some favorable terms.

The biggest consideration of migrating to cloud lies with infrastructure and its readiness to be hosted in a new environment . The health of your existing infrastructure will surely impact your risks and opportunities. Old, legacy systems are more challenging to migrate. In comparison, modern microservice-based architectures are easy to migrate.

However, you can take several steps to lower your cloud computing vulnerabilities.

Solution

To begin with, conduct a cloud readiness assessment on your infrastructure and check carefully for vulnerabilities. From there, you will be able to help build and drive your infrastructure in the cloud.

We recommend to pay a special attention to infrastructure as code implementation if you still haven't incorporated it.

Additionally, IaC helps in reducing the severity of risks as they affect only a part of the infrastructure. We can even design and create your cloud infrastructure from scratch if you want.

Switching to cloud can be a long and tiresome process, especially for large enterprises or companies with legacy applications developed a few decades ago. Businesses with large distributed environments and processes can also experience bottlenecks. Waiting for such a long time may hamper operations and take a toll on revenues. You may even lose a few customers while experiencing downtimes.

Solution

Most cloud migrations take up to a year to be completed. Here are some steps to reduce the time needed for migration:

Make a thorough assessment: As we have already mentioned earlier, a detailed analysis of your architecture, applications, and processes is obligatory. It helps you uncover probable issues beforehand and accordingly avoid them.

Engage experts: The assessment should be done by people who know cloud computing from every angel. Alpacked uses qualified engineers who have a keen eye for discovering cloud migration risks and their prevention.

Migrate what's required: Don't waste time and money moving applications and data you no longer use or need. Focus on key resources that you need to optimize to improve service and productivity.

You are on your own when your migration is complete. Your IT team will be responsible for running things smoothly and keeping threats at bay.
Along with that, you also need to ensure the right tools and resources for optimum productivity. With that, you are even responsible for maintenance and patches.
Things can really turn unmanageable, especially if you are a small company.

Solution

The best way to stay on top of your competitors is to go for managed cloud services. Here, the provider takes charge of maintenance and optimizing the platform. They are also liable for keeping things secure and protect you against cyber threats.
Alpacked offers sound tech support and cloud managed services for boosting your productivity. You can focus on growing your business while we ensure everything else works fine. We will even optimize processes to improve efficiency and reduce your monthly costs.
Get in touch with us to discuss your project. Our experts are here to guide you through every step of the process. We can ensure a successful cloud migration free of risks for more profits and excellent service.