The time it takes from starting a cloud migration initiative to realizing any form of tangible value can be years.
After all, there is a lot to consider.
First, you need to decide what your short, mid, and long-term objectives are.
Then there's the small task of assessing your entire application estate and figuring out which cloud configuration - of all the instance types, storage options, availability zones, and pricing plans from the major cloud vendors - is the optimal configuration for you.
Then you need to build a migration plan, defining a strategy for each application, complete with Proof of Concept (POC) migrations to work out any kinks in your migration factory.
All of this requires time and a deeply analytical approach.
For many leaders who are driving cloud initiatives, time is a luxury that few can afford. Data center exit timelines, more competition and - in the case of 2020 - global events, have sudden and dramatic effects on how you operate your business.
Yes, cloud migrations are complex but they don't have to be painful.
Below are the 3 biggest killers of cloud migration momentum. We also outline how a smarter, automation-enabled approach to cloud migration planning can significantly accelerate the time-to-value of your cloud journey.
1. Assessment Fatigue
Building a comprehensive cloud migration plan starts with performing an assessment of your existing estate.
A precise understanding of your environment helps you choose the right cloud provider and configure your cloud platform in a way that delivers optimal value to your business. It also helps you build your business case for cloud adoption by estimating the total cost of ownership of your cloud.
Typically, this fundamental stage of your migration journey is the most draining.
It can take months for some cloud management software tools to crawl your estate and extract the data you need to start planning your migration.
Even then, there are months of workshops and constant questions directed towards your application owners that need to be worked through before you can proceed.
This kills momentum by making you feel as though you are stuck in a perpetual state of assessing what you have - rather than focusing on the value you want to achieve from the cloud.
Yes, precision is crucial when planning a cloud migration, but so is speed. That's why it is essential that you encourage an approach that removes the friction of getting started.
A Smart Migration approach will combine over a decade of expertise in rapidly migrating complex enterprise estates onto the cloud with software-enabled automation.
In just 10 weeks, you should have a comprehensive cloud migration plan that's informed by data about your applications and their infrastructure touchpoints.
By using data from hundreds of successful migrations to model this approach and by leveraging technical and business expertise, an experienced vendor will keep the wheels of your migration initiative moving!
2. Analysis Paralysis
There is almost always an element of pressure to a cloud migration. Your business might be under pressure to respond to market changes and ward off nimble competitors. There may be an imperative to cut CapEx IT costs. You may have a hard deadline to exit your data centers. And, as many enterprises faced in 2020, you may need to respond to a chaotic and disruptive event like a pandemic and rapidly scale your business's digital capabilities.
In these situations, you need to deliver value fast - at the lowest cost possible.
You need to migrate your estate securely whilst negotiating multiple, often conflicting, priorities from different areas of your business.
What's more, you are overwhelmed with data and are expected to make decisions about hundreds of configurations that determine the overall value your cloud platform will provide and the long-term success of the transformation.
That is a lot of variables with very little margin for error.
With all of this riding on your shoulders, the need to analyze every single detail can be paralyzing. Traditional consulting approaches can exacerbate this by providing more questions than answers. It is all too easy to get caught up in deliberating rather than in taking action and honing in on the end goal of your migration.
A Smart Migration approach cuts to the chase. At the core is software-enabled automation, which rapidly provides a summary of the total cost of ownership of your cloud and a detailed overview of your optimal cloud configurations.
When you need precision, go for vendors with data-backed proposals for how you should move forward so you can make smart decisions with confidence.
3. Fear of the unknown
Migrating to the cloud represents a huge shift - not just in technology but in people, culture and processes.
For those of you preparing for your first dive into public cloud, it can be a cold and deep plunge pool. You need to get to grips with:
- New financial model ( from CapEx to OpEx)
- Managing costs with effective governance (watch out for those idle or over-provisioned resources!)
- Securely architecting your estate (less focus on perimeter security and a move to zero trust)
- Managing compliance so as not to cause friction for users
These issues all need to be handled before, during and beyond your migration and only add to the momentum-killing mountain of considerations whilst planning.
That's why you need experts with vast experience in helping companies like yours navigate these uncertainties - experts to help you mitigate the impact of the inevitable challenges your business will have to respond to when adapting to life in the cloud.
The automation-enhanced expertise provided by a Smart Migration approach helps remove uncertainty and identify future opportunities in the cloud. The result? A migration plan that factors in everything - not just the migration itself. Learn more!