What Are The Top Tips For Cost Savings Through Cloud Migration?

Two years of growth in two months — that’s how one tech giant’s CEO described the rapid pace of digital transformation during the COVID crisis. In just several months, businesses have more or less digitized most of their functions that would’ve taken several years to complete. One of these (and arguably the most substantial) is migrating workloads to the cloud.

Recent research shows that seven out of ten companies have performed cloud migration to some extent. Naturally, as with introducing any new tech, some are still hesitant about doing the same for various reasons, one being cost. While cloud migration definitely won’t come cheap, these top tips will prevent it from breaking the bank: (1)

The most critical step in cloud migration is typically the first: assessing a business on how ready it is for the cloud. Many business owners tend to invest in new technology without a self-review, only to realize that either they don’t need it or it doesn’t fit their needs. Knowing what a business needs and why it needs them will save it a lot of grief.

It’s interesting to note that this step will provide most of the necessary info for cloud migration. Even major cloud service providers say that the step typically involves answering these five questions:

1. What are the reasons for migrating to the cloud?
2. What are the resources the business possesses?
3. How is the current business infrastructure set up?
4. How will current security regulations affect a non-cloud business?
5. What is the timeline and budget for the migration? (2)

Another reason for heavy financial loss following cloud migration is the failure to consider it a long-term solution. One global survey found that over half of institutions said their movement to the cloud fell short of expectations because they often saw it as a one-time affair. Adopting the cloud doesn’t end in migration; if anything, it marks the beginning. (3)

Visualizing the cloud infrastructure as it is and will be in the long run can help determine its development roadmap. According to research, a well-defined roadmap consists of five stages:

1. Creating a proposition that aligns with a business’s objectives
2. Negotiating reasonable contracts with suitable service providers
3. Identifying workloads and preparing the necessary resources
4. Adopting policies that establish governance and mitigate risks
5. Evaluating the cloud’s performance and its potential for growth (4)

These stages may be clear-cut, but it’s easy to miss or underestimate any of them. For instance, having an inadequate team handle cloud migration, whether in-house or third-party, can lead to higher spending to rework the infrastructure. (1)

Getting shocked by a business’s cloud bill happens more often than not. Business owners who don’t take these surprise expenses into account tend to see their cloud migration efforts lag or stop entirely. As early as the planning phase, account for the following unexpected costs:

• Hiring in-house labour and third-party consultants
• Network fees for transitioning apps and their data
• Re-factoring or re-platforming legacy programs
• Penalty for transitioning to another service (vendor lock-in)
• More comprehensive oversight in cloud optimization

These expenses are inevitable in any cloud migration endeavour, but they’re only intimidating if someone doesn’t expect them. Taking time to understand them will mitigate their threat to the entire project.

As expensive as it is, cloud computing is quickly becoming the norm in today’s business climate. Sooner or later, organizations will have to make the big move to the cloud to remain competitive in this day and age. Following these tips may cost extra but only for the short term.

1. “6 Ways Cloud Migration Costs Go Off the Rails”, Source: https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-ways-cloud-migration-costs-go-off-the-rails
2. “How to Complete a Cloud Readiness Assessment”, Source: https://www.sdxcentral.com/cloud/definitions/how-to-complete-a-cloud-readiness-assessment/
3. “APAC expert guide to cloud migration”, Source: https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/APAC-expert-guide-to-cloud-migration
4. “Building a Roadmap to Cloud: 5 Steps You Need to Follow”, Source: https://stefanini.com/en/trends/news/building-a-roadmap-to-cloud-5-steps-you-need-to-follow
5. “73% of cloud migrations take a year or longer, report says”, Source: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/73-of-cloud-migrations-take-a-year-or-longer-report-says/