You have the idea and the data. You understand the need for cloud-native technology. What’s stopping you from completing your cloud migration journey?
Like many business modernization efforts, cloud migrations create disruption in the enterprise. Not only are you moving your company’s infrastructure and applications — you are lifting the business from traditional brick and mortar to the cloud.
Get started on your cloud journey by mapping it out. Before you take that first step to business modernization success consider what obstacles you need to understand and solve for to avoid disruption.
- While turning to cloud-native technologies creates agility for the enterprise, it comes with unanticipated costs.
- In order to implement and maintain an efficient cloud system, you’ll need a workforce with updated skills to keep up with the more advanced technology.
- Cloud migration increases flexibility, improves automation and improves speed to market but neglecting to manage this change for your workforce can prove detrimental.
- Changing technology requires adjusting your security measures.
Understand the obstacles:
1. Unanticipated Costs
Gartner predicts that through 2024, 60% of infrastructure and operations leaders will encounter public cloud cost overruns that negatively impact their on-premises budgets.
Budgeting for a cloud transformation may appear straightforward. AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud all offer pricing calculators that estimate the costs for many aspects of cloud migration. But indirect project costs, such as reskilling existing teams, transforming the organization to take maximum advantage of the public cloud and the residual costs of a legacy data center capacity won’t show up in those estimates.
To uncover the indirect costs your organization is most likely to face, identify a resource with deep experience in cloud transformation to help identify and develop strategies that address them.
2. Lack of Skills and Expertise
With the right teams and skills in place, a cloud migration nets positive. However, failure to identify gaps in your organization’s technical talent before you start can slow your cloud journey when you least expect it. Data from the most recent TEKsystems State of Digital Transformation report show that some of the most critical skills needed for successful transformation, such as cybersecurity, analytics and data science, also account for the largest skills gaps.
The report’s findings tell us that two out of five organizations believe they need to make major changes to their workforce to ensure success for their digital initiatives. In my experience, organizations tend to overstep the consideration of needing to change or upskill their workforce to succeed. That makes it imperative to identify any skills gaps early in your transformation planning.
3. Underestimated Change Management
Organizational change management is critical for cloud transformation success. As a leader, you may understand why the infrastructure needs to transform, but neglecting to effectively manage change can slow adoption by the rest of the enterprise.
Internal stakeholders, including your employees, deserve to have the rationale of a significant change explained to them to ensure their buy-in, which, in turn, will maximize the return on your investment. Consider building a network of change agents and champions who’ll model appropriate behaviors and encourage others to embrace change to add significant value to your cloud transformation.
4. Data Privacy and Security Challenges
Moving to the cloud brings undeniable efficiencies, but it requires new approaches to data security, privacy and compliance, such as content security policies and information and event management systems. Overlooking which tools and approaches work best for your organization can present late-stage roadblocks to successful transformation.
Don’t make the mistake to assume that since the cloud provider includes cloud security that it is all you need to consider. Utilizing an outside source with a holistic approach can ensure all bases are covered.
Now create the solutions.
To avoid the kind of backsliding these four obstacles can bring to your transformation effort, your team will need to analyze your capabilities. You have a responsibility to call out your shortcomings to identify your organization’s strengths and weaknesses before moving forward. It’s not easy to find what’s wrong with your business. That’s why many organizations turn to a trusted partner for help.
Finding an experienced partner to help assess readiness and build your plan can streamline the entire process, end-to-end. Collaboration like this results in a journey map that captures exactly how you can navigate these typical but often unexpected detours. By tapping a partner with full-stack expertise on cloud journeys, you’ll be better equipped to gauge the cloud landscape, engage IT and business stakeholders and chart a course that avoids the four common pitfalls.
About the Author: Brian Copeland, Executive Director, Solutions and Sales Enablement, TEKsystems Global Services
Brian brings over 35 years of senior-level experience in the software development industry, specializing in organizational transformation and development. His career has included 10 years as the test operations manager for the Titan II, 34D, IVA and IVB rocket programs, managing both flight and ground software-testing facilities for Lockheed Martin. He also served as the senior manager of quality assurance for shared services with Deloitte & Touché, LLP. His experiences range across a wide range of industries, including aerospace, medical device, title insurance, legal services software, Big Four consulting firm, healthcare and banking industries. Brian is currently an executive director in Solutions & Sales Enablement for TEKsystems Global Service
