3 Risks of a Cloud Migration
Most worthwhile things in life require taking risks to receive the benefits. A cloud migration follows this universal rule. Deciding whether to migrate to the cloud or not comes down to knowing the three following things:
- Do the pros outweigh the cons for my business?
- Do the cons outweigh the pros for my business?
- If number 1 is true, how can I mitigate the risk as much as possible?
To understand those three questions, we must understand the risks that are associated with a cloud migration. In today’s post we will run through the three main risks that are associated with a cloud migration, so you can qualify whether a cloud migration is right for your business. If you are at the stage of wanting to learn more about the risks of cloud computing, then this post is for you…
Risk #1: Managing IT System Complexity
Cloud computing can introduce complexity to IT operations. The chances of failure in a cloud migration is a direct result of how intricate or complex of an architecture your company has combined with the IT provider’s ability to migrate your complex architecture to the cloud.
There are vast variations available to log and monitor cloud services across CSPs may further increase complexity due to:
- Consoles
- Management tools
- Processes to manage data resiliency
- Network drivers
When implementing a hybrid cloud, there may also be added exposure to additional risks due to policies, technology, and implementation methods. This added complexity can lead to security gaps in the cloud if left with an inexperienced provider.
With this amount of complexity, the key is to ‘test before you migrate.’ You can quickly detect what is working in production and exclude any differences that exist between environments when shifting and applying apps to the cloud.
Moreover, cloud migration will end up requiring a cloud providers existing IT staff to learn a new model to ensure they have the ability and skill-set to integrate, manage, and maintain the cloud's data and assets.
Risk #2: Unlocking Data Gravity and Security
Data rich applications have dependencies on multiple elements and on-premises environments. Since replication-based tools are data rich and require to be moved first, it becomes difficult to test if an application will work efficiently in the cloud due to data gravity.
For instance, data accumulates over time and becomes dense while increasing in mass. As density or mass accumulates, the data’s gravitational pull increases. Services and applications also have their own mass and gravity. This causes other applications and services to be gravitated towards data depending on their density.
It also becomes complex to move large volumes of data from one database to another with transactional production servers that continuously update and generate data.
Once data migrates, the system must harmonize new changes to the application.
Challenges arise while trying to manage and control multiple data streams within heterogeneous environments. Security concerns ultimately fall in to play and cause for traditional IT organizations to stand clear from storing production data in the public cloud.
One of the solutions to this complexity is to avoid the headache of replication and move only resources such as the VM (virtual machine). You can also seek solutions with secured and direct connectivity in and out of the cloud like AWS Direct Connect.
Risk #3: Preventing Vendor Lock-In
The top public cloud providers and businesses alike all have one focus in mind: Keep customers dependent on their products and services.
Vendor lock-in is when a customer is using a service or a product and cannot smoothly transition to a competitor’s line. The fear of vendor lock-in is often noted as a major deterrent when it comes to migrating to the cloud.
Some factors to consider so you avoid the probability of falling into a vendor lock-in situation are:
- Cloud gravity phenomena
- Incompatible proprietary technologies
- Inefficient processes
- Contract constraints
Other complications arise through cloud migration when customers feel the need to stay with their cloud providers, even when they don’t meet their needs. This occurs when customers want to avoid dealing with the process of finding the right CSP.
Navigating through the cloud’s complexities as a consumer is not easy, so it might be tempting at times to keep our head in the clouds, right?
Wrong.
This does not hold true when it comes to our company’s data and how we are serviced.
To be sure you choose the right service provider, consider the following tips :
- Read each provider’s policy and ask directly how they assist in moving data out of cloud storage repository.
- Be clear how the provider facilitates the movement of heavy amounts of data either through services or data migration tools.
- Make sure your potential provider has pledged to support emerging industry standards
Conclusion
It is evident that implementing the cloud system comes with some risks to consider, but as mentioned earlier, the traditional data storage system comes with many risks as well.
The cloud is beyond its days of being something new to fear. By familiarizing yourself with the above three risks, you can properly plan your implementation strategy.
The ultimate goal is to do your homework and make sure you are aware of the potential risks while assessing how the cloud will work for your business needs, without adding complexity, compromising data, or locking you in.