The use of cloud-based solutions is now a major component of the process of digital transformation for many organizations. Organizations are migrating applications, databases, infrastructure, and other critical business functions to cloud-based solutions from providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, which will provide them with greater scalability, flexibility, and operational efficiency.
However, when an organization decides to move their enterprise applications and/or data to the cloud, there is more than just simply copying information from one location to another. If organizations do not have a plan for how they will manage this transition, then they could potentially face several issues, including but not limited to: high cost increases; increased security risks; decreased application availability; lost data; and performance issues with the new environment.
The business continuity, the customer experience, and the regulatory compliance of a company can be affected by these challenges. In some cases, a migration to the cloud may result in higher than expected costs if the workload design is poor, or if the management of the cloud resources is ineffective.
Understanding cloud migration risks prior to beginning the migration will help companies take educated actions and prevent costly errors. Organizations must evaluate their current systems, determine what apps are dependent on other apps, implement security measures, and create a strong plan for migrating to the cloud.
This article examines the most prevalent enterprise cloud migration risks and the reasons for their occurrence, and offers concrete steps that companies can utilize to minimize these risks.
The transition from on-premises infrastructure or other current hosting options to enterprise cloud platforms involves migrating applications, databases, data, and IT workloads.
Depending upon the business requirements of an organization, it may choose to relocate its workloads into either a public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid cloud environment. Organizations can either migrate existing applications to the cloud as-is, with little-to-no modifications, or they can modify their applications to use the benefits of cloud-native services.
Common cloud migration approaches include:
The appropriate method is determined by several factors, including the level of complexity of the application being developed; what the security needs are for that application; how much the application will need to perform; and what the goals of the company developing the application.
An improper choice of a migration strategy will cause more risks for businesses; therefore, it is recommended that they evaluate each workload on its own.
Loss of data, or loss of the quality/reliability of that data while being transferred, is a major concern when moving your data to a cloud-based environment.
Enterprise systems typically contain many large databases, customer data, accounting records, applications, and archives of previous years’ business activity. If the migration process has been stopped or was not well validated, then there is a risk that some of these records could be lost, duplicated, damaged, or inconsistent.
A firm moving over their customer database could find that some of the files were not moved correctly due to either inconsistent file formats (data type) or incomplete migration scripts. If the error is overlooked, then the applications used by customers and reports will generate incorrect outputs.
How to reduce the risk
Identify each data source, dependency, format, and where it is stored. Then write a plan for the migration of data to the new system. The plan should include what will happen to the data when it is transferred, how the data will be checked for accuracy, and how the data will be reconciled.
Before moving your data, verify that you have dependable backup methods established and that your data can be restored from those backups. When moving large volumes of data, it may be beneficial to move the data incrementally (by stages) and confirm that all data in each stage was transferred correctly prior to initiating the next stage.
Compare the record count on the source and destination sides, check for checksums on both sides if applicable, and compare critical business-related data elements. Perform application-level testing to verify that the newly moved data is performing correctly.
When migrating a database that is continually updated, you should determine how you will sync the data updates and reduce the likelihood of having conflicting data.
Successful data migration is about more than just verifying that the files made it to the right place. Businesses must confirm that the data is still complete, correct, and usable.
When organizations move their applications/workloads into the cloud without first establishing appropriate access controls, network perimeters, encryption, and monitoring systems, it can create new security vulnerabilities.
Unauthorized access may occur due to incorrect configuration of storage permissions, as well as the existence of open administrative interfaces, too many user privileges, or weak protection for credentials.
A business can take its internal documents and put them into a cloud storage solution. However, if they set up the cloud storage resources incorrectly, it will provide more access to the document than what was originally planned. This would lead to the document being able to be seen by people who should not have access to the document or systems that should not have access to the document.
The shared responsibility model must be understood when dealing with cloud security. Cloud providers are responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure based on their service models. Customers are still responsible for configuring workloads, managing identities, protecting data, and securing applications.
How to reduce the risk
Conduct a security review prior to moving your workloads, and then determine what security controls are needed for each workload.
Apply the principle of least privilege, allowing users and applications only the permissions they require. For users who have access to sensitive information or systems, utilize multi-factor authentication. Secure sensitive data by encrypting it while moving through a network (in-transit) and when stored on a computer or server (at-rest). Store credentials in a secrets management system that is designed to protect those credentials.
Configure network access correctly and enable applicable security logging and alerting. Before you allow workloads to be run in production, review all storage permissions, public access configurations, firewalls, and identities that are used by your workloads.
The security testing needs to be continued after the migration is completed. The secure configuration of the system when it was launched may change to being less secure over time as changes are made to the systems, permissions, and infrastructure.
Cloud computing reduces the amount of physical infrastructure required to operate and maintain; however, it does not mean that cloud computing will always result in less expensive IT operations.
Businesses may underestimate how much they use computers, how fast their storage will grow, what it costs to send data over a network, what is required to back up their data, how expensive it is to license software, and how much it will cost to maintain those systems.
An example of this would be if an organization moved a large application to the cloud but did not adjust its infrastructure setup. In addition, the organization might use over-sized virtual machines, run development environments all of the time, and therefore spend money on things that they do not need.
The cost of moving data (data transfer charges) can also impact the economics of migrating to the cloud, especially if your application regularly sends and receives large amounts of data from one region to another or between various cloud providers.
How to reduce the risk
The first step is to develop a cloud migration cost estimate before beginning the migration process. This includes all of the components of your current environment (infrastructure, storage, networking, licensing, security tools, monitoring, backups, etc.) as well as any operational support that will be required during the migration process.
Do not simply copy the hardware specifications from your current infrastructure. Instead, use workload measurements to determine what resources will be required.
After completing the migration process, use cloud cost management tools like budgets, usage alerts, resource tags, rightsizing, and continuous cost monitoring to help manage costs.
For those workloads that are well-suited to autoscale or to shut down on a schedule, you may want to consider using autoscaling or scheduled shutdowns. When evaluating reserved capacity or commitment-based pricing models, only use them if your workload’s utilization justifies making a commitment.
Rather than simply comparing costs associated with your cloud service provider, you should track the total cost of ownership (TCO) for using the cloud. Your goal is to determine if the cloud provides the same business value as anticipated by management over the course of time.
Enterprise applications are typically not developed or executed independently. There are many dependencies such as an OS, DB, Library, Network Config, Authentication Service, and 3rd Party Integrations.
An application that has been functioning well on-premises will likely function differently after it has been migrated, either due to a dependency not being available in the target environment or due to latency issues with the way dependencies work together.
An example of this would be if an enterprise app used an older DB driver which was not supported by the chosen cloud provider. On the other hand, moving the app server while keeping the database separate could create a lot of delay in communicating between the two.
How to reduce the risk
You should do an application dependency assessment prior to choosing a migration method.
Documenting your application’s architecture, as well as its database connections, third-party integration points, operating systems required for use, and networking dependencies is essential.
Use a representative cloud environment to test application(s) before migrating into production. Verify that the application(s) function as expected, can authenticate users correctly, perform within acceptable limits, and interact appropriately with other systems.
Determine which of the following approaches (rehost, replat, refactor, or replace) is best when there are compatibility issues.
Avoid assuming all applications will be migrated similarly. Legacy systems with many dependencies can be moved using different methods than applications developed to run on distributed architectures.
Enterprise workloads run many critical business processes. Some of these include sales, billing/payment processing, customer support, inventory control, and accounting/financial reporting.
Poorly planned migrations could result in application outages during data transfer, system changes, or configuration updates. Even a brief outage could impact revenue, customer satisfaction, and employees’ productivity.
For instance, a retailer that moves its ordering system at a time of high demand may experience delays in processing orders and/or be unable to provide customers with accurate information about what is available for purchase.
How to reduce the risk
Define how long you can allow for each application’s downtime, prior to defining your migration plan.
Plan your migration schedule around when your business is operating, and let everyone who will be impacted by the migration know about any possible service disruptions.
If critical applications are being migrated, then you may wish to consider a phased migration approach, a replication strategy, an environment where two identical versions of the application can run in parallel, or even a controlled cut-over. If possible, then you should also look into using an incremental synchronization technique to minimize the amount of data that needs to be moved when the actual switchover occurs.
Create a comprehensive Cutover Plan with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, validation requirements, decision-making processes, and contingency planning (rollback) procedures.
Do not take down the old environment until you’re sure the new one is working properly, and the organization is satisfied with the results of your migration.
Organizations operating in regulated environments often have contracts and laws that govern the storage, processing, accessibility, and retention of organization-owned data.
Compliance may become complex as organizations migrate their most valuable assets (sensitive data) to the cloud without considering regional regulatory limitations, auditing needs, retention guidelines, and/or third-party vendor relationships.
A firm with private or financial details, for instance, should have an understanding of the locations where its data can be stored, as well as the safety procedures that are necessary if data is to be transmitted from one country to another.
Compliance requirements differ depending on what industry you are in, where your business is located, and the type of data that you have.
Moving a workload from an on-premise system to a cloud service provider will not necessarily fulfill your company’s regulatory compliance responsibilities.
How to reduce the risk
Identify what is required by law, what you are obligated to do under contract, and what is allowed/prohibited within your company’s own guidelines prior to selecting a cloud architecture.
Store and process data locally or on the cloud; control who has access to the data, retain data for a specific period of time, and then delete the data once it is no longer needed.
Reviewing the applicable cloud provider’s certifications and contracts is recommended; however, do not use the certification(s) as a replacement for reviewing the organization’s responsibility.
In addition to maintaining adequate audit trails, access controls, retention periods, and documentation of compliance, please provide evidence of these practices.
Begin your migration planning early with help from legal, compliance, security, and IT departments, particularly if you have sensitive or regulated applications that will be migrated.
Performance of an application may be affected by the migration of applications to the cloud, as some workloads require continuous communication between component parts that reside in two distinct environments.
Moving an application server to the cloud, while maintaining the same database on-site (on-premise), could result in increased network latency, which will slow down the processing of each transaction.
Additional performance problems can be caused by inadequate computer resources, limited storage space, poor application design and/or incorrect configuration of network settings.
How to reduce the risk
Before you migrate your applications, determine how well they perform now, and establish what constitutes an “acceptable” response time for those transactions that are most vital to your business.
Analyze which components typically transfer data among each other and assess if these components need to be migrated at the same time.
The application must be tested in real-world scenarios that include the highest level of usage, multiple users at one time, and very large data sets.
The performance of your applications can be monitored by tracking response time, network latency, processor utilization (CPU), memory usage (RAM), and disk I/O (storage) following your application migration.
If performance drops, look into what is causing it prior to adding additional resources. There are many ways to improve performance, such as application tuning, workload placement, caching, and network configurations, which could result in more effective improvements than merely adding more compute power.
The use of cloud-based infrastructure will not replace the need for backups and disaster recovery.
Cloud-based applications are not immune to accidents such as accidental deletions, application malfunctions, ransomware attacks, configuration errors, and even regional outages.
When organizations make a move (migrate) to a different system without having a procedure in place for recovering data, they will likely find out too late that either all of their data wasn’t backed up correctly, or the time required to restore the data would cause undue hardship on the organization.
How to reduce the risk
Define recovery objectives for every critical workload.
The RTO is a measure of how quickly a service must be recovered after a disruption. On the other hand, the RPO is a measure of how much data the business can afford to lose, expressed in terms of time.
Select the frequency at which you would like to have your data backed up, the amount of time that you want to keep the backup copies of your data (retention period), the way that you intend to replicate your data, and the type of system architecture that you plan to use for recovering your data based upon the requirements above.
With the correct levels of control over who has access to your stored backup files, and by considering isolating or locking down your files to help prevent destructive modifications, you may be able to significantly lower the risks of such types of damage.
Most importantly, evaluate your recovery plans regularly. You should assess how effective your backup plan is, based on whether you can recover your organization’s systems and data in a timely manner, rather than just on whether or not the backup process has reported success.
Companies can become overly dependent upon proprietary cloud services, proprietary databases, and/or platform-specific application capabilities.
While providing major advantages, these services will also increase the complexity of subsequent migrations and the cost of implementing new cloud strategies.
An example of this is when you build an application using several proprietary services. This application would need a complete redesign prior to being able to function in a different cloud environment.
How to reduce the risk
Evaluate portability requirements before choosing cloud services.
You should document what you depend upon that is proprietary, and think about the costs of having to replace those items if your business model changes.
Open standards and portable components should be used whenever it would be advantageous to do so. On the other hand, do not pursue portability as if it is the ultimate goal, because having to manage multiple cloud environments may increase the complexity of your operations.
A multi-cloud architecture isn’t inherently safer nor is it necessarily more portable. You should select the level of portability that supports your organization’s long-term goals, risk tolerance, and ability to manage its operations.
Cloud migration alters how IT departments create, secure, monitor, and keep their applications running smoothly.
Employees accustomed to traditional infrastructure will likely require additional training in areas such as cloud architecture, identity management, automation, observability, and cost control.
When there is a lack of training for team members and a lack of accountability for team leaders, teams can improperly configure resource settings, have difficulty resolving issues, or use ineffective methods to operate.
How to reduce the risk
Evaluate current skills before migrating and determine what is required for operating the new environment.
Establish roles with specific training and define clear responsibilities for managing infrastructure, supporting applications, providing security, and controlling costs.
Consistency is improved when infrastructure is managed using code, and there are standard ways of deploying it, if applicable.
Document operational processes and define escalation paths for incidents.
Change management must also include a strategy for communicating with those individuals within the organization whose work processes will be altered due to the transition.
In order for an organization to migrate to the cloud successfully, it must have prepared itself technically and also be ready organizationally.
Before transferring business operations to the cloud, organizations should evaluate the following:
| Risk area | Questions to address |
| Data integrity | Have backups, transfer validation, and reconciliation procedures been tested? |
| Security | Are access controls, encryption, and monitoring configured correctly? |
| Costs | Have infrastructure, licensing, storage, and network charges been estimated? |
| Compatibility | Have application dependencies and integrations been assessed? |
| Downtime | Is there a tested cutover and rollback plan? |
| Compliance | Have data residency and regulatory requirements been reviewed? |
| Performance | Have workloads been tested under realistic conditions? |
| Disaster recovery | Are recovery objectives defined and restoration procedures tested? |
| Portability | Are dependencies on proprietary services understood? |
| Skills | Are teams prepared to operate and support the new environment? |
At the workload level is where this assessment should be conducted, not as a large migration project for the whole organization.
The process of cloud migration allows companies to enhance their capacity for growth and expansion (scalability), upgrade existing applications to modern standards, and develop an agile IT environment.
On the other hand, if a company migrates its workload to the cloud without first considering and mitigating potential issues related to security, data accuracy, costs, compatibility, performance, and operations, it could ultimately face challenges that negate any anticipated advantages.
Assess each workload separately, determine the organization’s business goals, test out the migration process, and establish the criteria used to measure whether a migration is successful.
The post-migration stage must be planned for as well. A reliable cloud environment will require ongoing security monitoring, cost optimization, performance management, backup testing, and employee training.
Migration of your cloud environment from an old provider to a new provider is more than just moving your hardware over to the new provider. Migration is an overall change in how you run your applications, manage your operations, and govern yourself within the new environment.
By properly managing risks and making appropriate plans for migrating business applications to the cloud, companies will be able to do so with increased confidence in the outcome of their migration efforts, less disruption to daily operations, and better protection of the long-term value of their company.
Risk factors such as data loss, improper configuration of security, unforeseen expenses, incompatibility with applications, interruption of services, non-compliance with regulatory requirements, degradation of performance, and lack of adequate disaster recovery plans are among the most serious.
Business owners may mitigate risk by evaluating workloads, testing their backup systems, reviewing their security posture, mapping out their dependencies, estimating costs, conducting pilot migrations, performing performance tests, and documenting rollback plans.
No. While cloud migration can help organizations save money on their physical infrastructure and maintenance, it may also lead to higher overall expenditures due to poor resource sizing, network fees, software licenses, and continued administration. As such, cost optimization should be included in the initial migration planning process.
Organizations can decrease the amount of time they are down by using a staged migration process, replicating data, making sure that there is control over when the transition from one system to another takes place, testing in a way that represents actual conditions, having good communication between all parties involved, and creating rollback plans that have been tested. What works best for each organization will depend on how available its workloads must be.
In re-hosting, an application is moved into a cloud environment with very few modifications. On the other hand, in replatforming, some changes are made to how the application functions in order to allow it to operate better within the cloud. Which of these two options is right for your organization will depend upon several factors including: compatibility, performance requirements, costs associated with each method, and what you want to achieve through modernizing your applications.
Cloud-based systems are susceptible to accidental deletions, application failures, security events, and service outages. Businesses can use tested backup and restore procedures to minimize downtime and data loss after an incident.
Businesses could be helped by using cloud migration consulting services if they have a lot of complex relationships between their systems, if they are under strict regulation regarding how they store and use customer data, if there is a high likelihood that their system will go down for long periods of time, if the cost of moving to the cloud is unknown, or if they need to completely modernize their current technology infrastructure. A skilled consultant can assist in analyzing the business’s existing systems, creating a plan for transitioning those systems to the cloud, and developing procedures to manage the transition process.
Follow us and get expert insights and guides right to your inbox.
By submitting this form, you agree to Ascendix Privacy Policy
