Cloud technology is estimated to be over 50% of systems by 2025, so when considering migration, it’s essential to plan for the worst.
We’ve compiled some of the most common mistakes in cloud migration to help you learn from others’ mishaps!
#1 Poor Planning or Testing
Migrating to the cloud is a big job and needs to be adequately planned. One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is to start moving its infrastructure and cloud as it is.
Taking the time to assess what needs to be moved, how to move it and migrate it, and how it will work with everything remaining on-premise will make the migration more likely to succeed. Then, if anything goes wrong, be sure to have a rollback plan and a tested backup of your data in case of disaster.
Going hand in hand with poor planning is poor testing. Most consider a test post-migration enough, but it is prudent to create a set of tests to complete before and after the migration to test whether the functionality is the same.
Testing before can show you if there is an error in the dataset before your migration. Testing with assessments designed to cover as much functionality as possible after the migration shows you how successful the transfer has been.
#2 Migrating Everything At Once
Some organizations are so desperate to get their data into the cloud they’ll try and do it all at once and get it out of the way. There are better approaches than this, as the all-at-once method actually increases the risk of downtime and corrupt data, and can increase your overall implementation costs.
Creating a new platform and migrating data in manageable, logical chunks will allow you to deal with any issues with access, usability or otherwise. It’s also best to start with non-critical workloads to reduce operational fallout.
#3 Not Having A Fall-Back Plan
While it is unlikely to be needed (hopefully, you’ve done test migrations as in #1!), if something goes wrong in the migration, it is crucial to have a rollback plan ready to go.
Many things can go wrong with migrations, including data loss (more details), configuration errors, or even user errors. Plus, if an error does occur, knowing you have a plan B will reduce your stress levels!
#4 Poor Staff Training
Staff training when migrating to a new system is a broad term. You’ll need to train your IT team to complete the migration or employ a business to help you with cloud migration services, such as Watserv, but you’ll also need to educate other departments on how to use their new data access system.
Assuming staff will be able to figure a system out is a surefire way to failure and will lead to a reluctance to change at the company, something no innovative business wants.
Successful digital transformations are those that have spent time and money onboarding staff and ensuring they’re happy with the systems they use.
While any systems change can be complex, avoid these mistakes to ensure a successful cloud migration.
Last Updated: November 22, 2022
