Migrating and modernizing your company’s data landscape can feel overwhelming, but each challenge presents an opportunity to unlock innovative solutions that enhance your cloud migration process.
Cloud experts use these five key strategies to help businesses overcome common obstacles when upgrading their cloud environments.
Challenge 1: Security Risks
On-premise data storage is still popular with many companies because of the perceived control over access. The idea of migrating that data to the cloud seems complicated and risky. Data can be exposed in many places along the route to the cloud, including unsecured APIs, when the data is in transit, and in the new system itself.
Learning how to properly configure security settings and building new role-based access controls (RBACs) for each new bucket can feel daunting. Industry regulatory compliance only complicates the move.
Solution 1: Expert Security Oversight
In order to minimize the risk of data exposure, companies will want to work with cloud migration and security experts who know how to protect data in transit and understand the detailed and custom nature of RBAC plans.
A seasoned cloud professional will start with a migration blueprint and tailor it to the needs of the data, the industry regulations, and the company. This migration expert would identify potential risks during the move, react with confidence to unforeseen security changes, and ensure the migrated data is securely accessible in accordance with RBACs.
Challenge 2: Uncertain Resource Usage
The sheer size of a migration project is hard to wrap one’s brain around. The unanswered questions begin to pile up:
- How much of your current IT team will need to be pulled into the migration?
- What is the cost for running the migration at the same time as running the business?
- Will the company need extra resources just for the migration?
- How long will it take?
These questions and more make it difficult to estimate the exact cost of a migration for the company in human resources as well as vendor costs.
Solution 2: Assessments and Planning
When you know your destination but aren't sure how to get there, you rely on a map. Migration and modernization experts, like EPI-USE Services for AWS, provide a clear roadmap for your cloud migration efforts. Through detailed assessments, they offer a comprehensive overview of your digital resources and projects, helping you plan a smooth, efficient migration.
Thanks to our partnership with ReluTech, we also guide you in phasing out costly, on-premise systems, turning legacy infrastructure into capital to fund your migration.
Challenge 3: Unclear Trajectory for Modernization
Many companies consider moving to the cloud for cost savings and scalability with providers like AWS. However, modernization is always on IT admins' minds. While lift-and-shift migrations require significant resources, incorporating modernization adds long-term value, driving innovation that pays for itself.
Most companies don’t have a clear trajectory for the end goal of their modernization efforts. And technology teams can waste valuable time and energy trying to agree on the ultimate route to a modern landscape.
Solution 3: Industry Knowledge as Foresight
Experts that work within AWS digital landscapes, assess digital infrastructures for migration and modernization, and map moves to the modern cloud every working day understand the potential of the AWS cloud.
Take the example of Chandler Concrete, who felt trapped in a legacy infrastructure with no documentation and an end-of-service deadline nearing for the AWS product they used, EC2 Classic. Our experts assessed the on-premises .NET application, simplified the application functions, transformed them into Lambda functions, and automated the AWS Step Functions. In addition, the EPI-USE team modernized, standardized, and streamlines the CI/CD processes to speed up future development and maintenance of the tool.
Because of the industry knowledge and experience of our experts, Chandler Concrete’s migration took less time and resulted in a more modernized system than traditional methods.
Challenge 4: Skills gaps
Your technology team knows how to keep the business systems running. Do they also know the intricacies of cloud migration? Chances are, your technology team has been migration-adjacent in the past, but it’s not their specialty—and that’s expected. Your company doesn’t migrate to the cloud every quarter, so your IT team is likely out of practice. And a lack of practice opens the process to delays, oversights, and possibly even data loss.
Solution 4: Partner with Migration Experts
Instead of training your team to become migration and modernization experts, partner with a company that specializes in these processes and will work beside your team. EPI-USE offers Experience Based Acceleration that gives your technology team hands-on practice working on and in the tools throughout the entire process. This process folds upskilling into the modernization plan, helping your technology team to become the experts that run your business on the new systems.
Challenge 5: Innovation in Practice
A tech team’s work is never done. After the migration is complete, employees need to learn to use the tools. And change is hard for everyone, even those who have already bought in on the usefulness and innovative possibilities of the new technology.
Not only is it difficult to tear people away from their own systems, but many companies also struggle to get their employees to do the necessary research and discovery within the tools. Employees use their same systems, not taking advantage of time and resource-saving innovations that would speed company growth.
Solution 5: Change Management Partner
A migration partner like EPI-USE Services for AWS recognizes that people are the biggest factor in a successful migration and is ready to assist. Their Organizational Cloud Adoption Assessment evaluates the change readiness of each user stakeholder, helping identify employees who need extra support during the migration-to-innovation process—an essential factor for success.
Migration Success Begins with A Plan
Deciding to modernize and move your systems to the cloud is just the beginning. The next critical step is evaluating your technology team's strengths and limitations. What skills and resources can you dedicate to the migration while maintaining your core business operations?
Request a free assessment to get a clear view of your digital landscape, the ROI of migration, and the potential of a modern architecture. Schedule yours today.