It was a cold and wintry afternoon in January. IT leaders and execs at Glum Group Holdings, a financial services firm (the name of which has been changed for fear of public shaming) were just informed that their go-live would be delayed by several more weeks. They had been looking forward to a successful cloud migration for just over a month. 

That’s where their troubles began…

Many companies move to the cloud at varying rates, depending on the type and amount of data being transferred. The average duration for a successful cloud migration can take anywhere from 2 to 4 months.

(It can take 6 to 24 months to set up more complex server solutions and configure services native to the cloud.)

The aforementioned Glum Group Holdings did not properly plan the length of time needed for successful cloud migration. One of the most common causes behind cloud migration failure is a lack of planning. In fact, a 2021 CIO report found that 90 percent of CIOs have experienced failed or disrupted cloud migrations due to the complexities of moving from on-premise servers to the cloud. The two biggest reasons cited by CIOs for the delay in their go-live were due to poor planning prior to migration and poor communication.

4 Frightful Reasons Why Cloud Migrations Fail

Executives at a manufacturing company, Prescott Products (an alias used for the purpose of this blog) thought they had it all figured out. They had been planning to be rid of their on-premise servers for months. They spent many grueling hours strategizing and deciding which documents, emails and other forms of data would be moved to the cloud.

Finally, the day arrived for Prescott Products to begin their cloud migration. All went well until…until…let’s just say a few of their key stakeholders were not informed of the migration and reacted strongly. So strongly, in fact, many decision-makers claim they felt attacked and set upon by vicious beasts. 

What went wrong with Prescott Products? Why were certain key stakeholders left out of the decision-making process? We may never know exactly what took place inside the walls of this manufacturing plant, but we can use their failure as a stepping stone towards a successful cloud migration for your business.

Here are 4 primary reasons cloud migrations fail:

Lack of Planning

During a project as huge as cloud migration, there’s a chance you’ll have to amend or revamp some of your implementation plans as you go along. Of course, that’s a lot easier to do if you actually have one in place. When you’re trying to get from A to B, things tend to go a lot smoother if you lay down the tracks first. Trying to execute a migration without an exhaustive plan of action creates a cloud migration risk in itself; making things up as you go along is not conducive to executing a successful tech project.

The Wrong Approach

Migration is actually something of an umbrella term. There’s more than one path to the same result, but businesses often don’t shop around enough to make sure they find a method that best fits their needs. Many executives opt for the “lift and shift” approach: Porting an application or operation over from one environment to another without redesigning or restructuring. This tends to be a fairly cost-effective option for migration. However, it’s not without its drawbacks.

Moving an app to its new cloud-based home as it exists currently, means moving any existing issues or quirks right along with it. That means shifting any bugs you had on-premises to your new cloud environment. This could wreak havoc on your implementation considering cloud maintenance is a little more detached than traditional on-premises upkeep. This is due to the responsibility being split between your business and your cloud provider or business technology consultant.

Don’t make cloud migration harder on yourself than it needs to be. Opting for the less costly option can sometimes be the scariest option in the end.

No Buy-in from Key Stakeholders

Migrations often fail due to poor communication and misunderstood goals. It is important to have a clear migration communication strategy to ensure complete alignment up, down and across the entire organization. From C-Suite executives to management to end users, migrating to the cloud is a significant cultural change. Senior leaders need succinct information about the hows and whys of the migration if they’re not already directly involved. This includes costs, benefits, and expectations. 

Lack of Testing

Testing is obviously an extremely vital step toward ducking a cloud migration disaster. However, many organizations overlook this, choosing to conduct testing once their migration is almost complete and their apps and infrastructure have landed in their new home. Testing should be baked in at every stage of your migration plan, allowing you to spot any potential issues at the earliest possible moment. Essentially, testing acts as a cloud migration risk assessment, allowing you to identify any potential pitfalls in more critical areas, such as data and security. 

Avoid the Horrors of Cloud Migration: 3 Tips to Boost Productivity

Whether you want to approach cloud computing incrementally or go all in, you need a guide to walk you through the next steps. You deserve to work with an expert in identifying the right cloud solutions for your business so you can accurately migrate your data.

Here are a few tips to help start you on your journey toward a successful cloud migration:

1. Ensure that a clear communication plan is in place that will align with all stakeholders and prevent unnecessary friction.
2. Execute a migration with an exhaustive plan of action to avoid wreaking havoc at the time of your implementation.
3. Ensure you’re sufficiently and strategically backing up files PRIOR TO the testing stage so that it’s a quick fix to revert back in instances of data loss or security breaches.

Bonus tip: PLAN AHEAD and then PLAN SOME MORE to avoid the horrors of cloud migration.

Learn more about how cloud migration and integration services work, what you can expect when you make the move and how the Afidence team makes it painless. Don’t hesitate to contact us today and start planning the future of your business.