4 Cloud Migration Challenges

Choosing experienced specialists is key to effective cloud migration. Skilled teams can handle the complexities of the process and can manage challenges such as post-migration cost spikes, uncontrolled spending, sudden charges caused by making changes in production and the pitfalls of rapid, single-phase migration. The right expertise is prepared for these issues and transforms potential obstacles into effortless transitions. Their proficiency guarantees a cost-effective project and timely completion, avoiding extra expenses and delays caused by unforeseen migration challenges.

Unexpected high costs post-migration challenge

To mitigate the risk of unexpected cost increases after moving to the cloud, our team employs the following strategies:

✅ Smart budget planning. To manage and predict these costs, we use tools like the Azure Pricing Calculator and AWS Pricing Calculator. We meticulously consider all important cost factors such as resource types, size, features, services, scalability, backup and recovery options. This way, you can anticipate and limit cloud costs.

✅ Cloud-native cost control methods. We professionally configure the auto de-provisioning feature, that turns off resources when they are no longer needed, and elastic pools, the set of resources like CPU, memory, and storage that automatically adjust resources based on actual demand. These methods help prevent overpaying. While cloud providers offer these tools, effective cost management requires expertise of specialized third-party or in-house professionals. They can help you select resources, integrate with existing systems, and enhance them regularly to optimize cost control.

Challenge of uncontrolled cloud spending due to poor access management

In some on-premises scenarios, especially in smaller organizations with fewer than 500 employees, in-house developers often have sysadmin-level privileges. This means they have almost unlimited control over the system, including the ability to delete databases. The financial implications of this are generally limited to the existing infrastructure in on-premises setups.

In cloud computing these control issues present more significant challenges, where costs directly correlate with usage. Developers with extensive cloud privileges can unintentionally activate expensive features, leading to uncontrolled spending.

✅ Strict role-based access. This ensures only authorized personnel have specific data access, reducing the risk of unplanned expenses. Using systems to track who accesses what data and when provides oversight and helps in maintaining control over cloud spending and data security. See the full guide on Cloud Security and Compliance for more insights.

Sudden costs challenge by making changes in production

Organizations accustomed to implementing live changes in on-premises production environments may encounter immediate cost implications when they move to the cloud without modifying their practice.

Consider an IT engineer adjusting auto-scaling settings to enhance system responsiveness during peak traffic. Incorrect thresholds can cause the cloud system to deploy more servers than necessary, significantly increasing the monthly bill and straining the budget.

Prioritizing data migration testing before deploying the system is key to identifying and addressing cost-related issues early. This testing phase ensures cost-effective cloud modifications.

In such cases, we focus on keeping the service available by temporarily increasing resources, even at higher costs. Once the demand returns to normal, it is important to quickly optimize the settings for cost-efficiency.

The broad cloud access often granted to developers, particularly those with sysadmin privileges, poses additional risks. Unintended access can trigger expensive cloud features, causing unforeseen costs and uncontrolled spending.

Furthermore, allowing the IT department unrestricted ability to make live changes in the cloud can invite operational challenges, including service disruptions from unresolved bugs.

✅ A robust change management process is crucial for cloud migration strategy, requiring review and approval of changes, particularly in production. This process includes thorough impact assessments, with a focus on potential cost implications. Changes should first be tested in development or staging environments. For instance, simulating peak traffic in staging can effectively evaluate auto-scaling responses, identifying any issues before they affect the production environment.

Increased cost challenge due to pursuing a swift single-phase migration

Many inexperienced IT managers rush their cloud migration, often transferring the entire on-premises setup in one move. This overlooks key differences in cloud architecture, impacting storage and computing needs. Additionally, such a fast migration approach strains the IT team, and the lack of historical data is causing further challenges. This can cause either paying for unnecessary cloud resources (over-provisioning) or not having enough resources to handle the workload (under-provisioning). Both scenarios can lead to avoidable expenses and operational issues.

✅ Progress in application modernization can be achieved with less funding. We recommend incremental migration for complex on-premises applications. This method involves breaking migration projects into smaller chunks that require fewer resources. At the technology stack level, each iteration adds modernized code, gradually reducing the percentage of legacy code until the legacy system is completely modernized. Throughout this process, the system remains fully operational.

Cloud migration experts also use time-tested approaches, such as API-first modernization approach, migrating customizations separately from the core app to microservices, or modernizing critical user journeys first – all minimizing risks and costs.

Why Belitsoft

For your cloud migration project, we provide skilled and experienced cloud migration experts. They are trained to analyze project requirements, assess alternatives, and make the best choices.

Here are some of the core responsibilities of our cloud migration experts that are pivotal to the project's success:

• assess current data estate, infrastructure, and application(s) to be migrated and, in response, develop a migration plan
• compare pilot requirements to technical implementation options and recommend a migration strategy to the team
• deploy the production application with adjustments from earlier migration stages
• conduct a post-migration analysis with an eye on future enhancements, such as recoverability at a cheaper cost

Belitsoft provides external talent to navigate complex technical and management challenges, ensuring a smooth and successful migration of your enterprise applications. Contact us for more details.