More businesses are switching to database-as-a-service platforms for faster and more scalable deployments at a lower cost, making AWS cloud migration more compelling. Statistics suggest that the public cloud marketing enterprise will make 14% of the IT revenue by 2024. However, a common set of overlooked or grey areas still cause problems for enterprises.
In this article, you should be able to identify and understand the top 10 AWS cloud migration mistakes, so you can put together an escape plan when the problems arise.
Underestimating cloud migration and support budget
The return on investment and cost together are considered to be one of the biggest benefits of cloud migration. However, this could be a misconception as some businesses that don’t calculate an estimated timeline might face issues like unanticipated delays or exceeding budgets. Therefore, companies should try and stick to a calculated plan to make the most of the circumstances.
Absence of AWS cloud migration strategy
It is a basic requirement to have a plan in place while moving your apps, data, and infrastructure from on-premise architecture to the cloud. You must also understand that a cloud migration plan is never a one-size-fits-all approach and takes a lot of diligence to find what might be the best for your business.
Make sure that you are mindful of the size of your organization, the complexity of the infrastructure, the benefits you seek from the process, and if there is any data that you might want to retain on-premise.
Insufficient cloud security
Implementing 24/7 security in on-premise systems can be costly to the extent of being impossible. However, with AWS you only have one in 100 billion chances to lose data in a given year with a 99.999999999% durability. This makes cloud security one of the major reasons for migration. However, there is no time when you shall stop securing your data even after your shift to the cloud. You must evaluate cyber security risks, threats, and boundaries of your cloud provider. Some critical steps include data encryption during transit and rest, multi-factor authentication, security controls, and configurations.
Migrating sensitive data first
Since mistakes are not uncommon during cloud migration, one needs to be careful about making the sequence in which data is moved. Moving business-critical or confidential data first can get you in trouble if there are the tiniest of errors in the process, directly hampering the working of your business. It is suggested to avoid shifting sensitive data first if you’re new to the process and not entirely comfortable yet or, just starting out with the provider.
Migrating the whole infrastructure at the same time
As mentioned earlier, estimating a timeline is crucial and you might be tempted to rush the process to get faster results. However, depending on the quantity of data, applications, and infrastructure shifting might take somewhere between a few months to years. You must evaluate and plan the migration in stages starting from non-essential and moving towards the most crucial data.
Lack of effective interpersonal training
With new technology comes the need for training. A good chunk of 53% of companies have difficulty finding cloud-centric skills in their team. Untrained staff can lead to a lot of misconfigurations, accidental data leaks, and other disastrous consequences essentially setting you up for failure.
Inefficient testing
Cloud migration in itself is a time-consuming process. However, the work is not yet over once you’ve moved your data and applications to the cloud. You might have to reconfigure a few applications as you go to ensure smooth working in the cloud. Although some features might be new to the team, with regular testing you can ensure that the services work efficiently later.
Absence of a Reserved Instance (RI) strategy
Purchasing an RI is not enough and you also need a process to continuously monitor RI utilization and modify unused RI to maximize usage. A common AWS billing model called centralized account with consolidated billing helps you purchase RIs for individual topographic locations according to their needs.
Unused reserved capacity on AWS
One must be accurate in their reservations as it might optimize the AWS costs but if you try selling an RI in the market, you’ll be charged a fee. Remember that these can be purchased in 1- and 3-year variants only and need proper planning to match your utilization with the terms of reservation.
Unwanted latency
The process of cloud migration is still heavily dependent on physical servers across the globe. Accessing applications, databases, and services can sometimes result in unwanted latency because of the geographical distance between the servers and your devices. One fool proof way to get rid of the latency is to look for providers with servers/data centres near your location. Keeping a few critical applications on-premise might also be an easy solution to reduce latency.
Conclusion
Although companies that are in the process face the most difficulties, companies that have previous experience in AWS cloud migration services might also face difficulties if the steps are not well-planned. Before a company decides to migrate its data and applications to the cloud, it must understand the risks associated with cloud migration. This is essential to prepare for the cloud migration beforehand and avoid downtime and data loss. With the right planning, strategies and best practices, enterprises can easily avoid these mistakes and reach great success with the help of AWS cloud migration services.
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