Cloud migration can offer numerous benefits for businesses, including cost savings, enhanced security, scalability, and agility. However, the process is not simple and requires careful planning to avoid any potential challenges. Without proper preparation, teams may encounter disruptions in workflows, user resistance, and unexpected expenses. To streamline a cloud migration initiative and ensure it delivers the expected return on investment (ROI) and results, organizations should follow some key tips provided by 18 members of Forbes Technology Council.
The first step in preparing for a cloud migration is to assess the organization’s readiness for business transformation enabled by the cloud. This involves examining critical areas such as business, people, governance, platform, security, and operations to ensure a smooth migration and achieve desired business outcomes. It is important to take a comprehensive approach to planning the migration process to ensure success.
Defining clear objectives for the cloud migration is crucial, which may include reducing costs, improving scalability, efficiency, productivity, and enhancing security. Once the objectives are identified, organizations should develop a technology strategy and migration plan while ensuring the availability of necessary resources and talent. Cloud-native architecture, security measures, and performance monitoring should also be prioritized for a successful migration.
Selecting a cloud provider that aligns with the organization’s migration goals and has the expertise to support the process is essential. Organizations should also decide on the migration approach, whether it’s a phased approach, lift and shift, lift with optimization, or lift with re-architecting. Establishing success metrics, as well as rollout and rollback strategies, is also important for a successful cloud migration.
Building a comprehensive application portfolio is crucial to prioritize assets and support business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Collaboration across different functions is essential, along with thorough planning to avoid pitfalls during the migration process. Ensuring that all devices, users, and apps are inventoried and transitioned properly to the cloud is also important for a smooth migration.
Keeping business outcomes at the forefront of the migration efforts, rather than focusing solely on technical system migration, can streamline the process and ensure successful outcomes. It is essential to consider the impact on the entire workforce, communicate effectively with employees, stakeholders, and customers, and not to overlook everyday operations during the migration process. Cloud migration should be approached strategically with a focus on achieving business goals.
Incorporating security and privacy controls early in the design and development phases of migration is crucial to ensuring data protection and compliance. Organizations should also consider a “cloud by stealth” approach, introducing new cloud services alongside legacy systems to avoid conflicts and stall progress. Prioritizing the “why” of the migration over the “how” can help organizations move from chaos to clarity and achieve actionable insights. By following these tips, organizations can streamline their cloud migration initiatives and achieve the expected ROI and results.
