Five common myths about Cloud Migration

Owing to an increase in investments, many small and medium enterprises are adopting cloud and reaping its advantages. Cloud migration is expected to reach a CAGR of 28.89% in the next five years starting 2022. Cloud as a storage, computation, analysis and solutions platform provides a wide range of benefits regardless of the size and scale of a business.

Given the rise in competition and digital transformation across industries, cloud has become a necessity. However, like any other new technology, cloud faces skepticism too and migration to cloud comes with challenges that need to be dealt with strategically. Although not technical, the myths about migrating to cloud is a major challenge for migration due to which many businesses are stuck in the dilemma of whether or not to migrate.

It is essential to debunk the myths surrounding cloud migration so as to clear your doubts and push your business towards a key step to digital transformation- Cloud migration!

Here are the top 5 common myths:

Myth #1. Cloud Migration is too complex to carry out business simultaneously

A very common myth that many people believe in. The thought of not being able to transact and having long downtime while migrating makes many skeptical about moving their data and software to cloud. Well, migrating data is not the complex part, planning is. With proper planning and preparation, you can not only migrate smoothly, but also reduce downtime and migrate in the background while carrying out your usual transactions.

You could choose a low-traffic business day, a festive holiday or maybe zero-traffic hours in the mid-night to carry out essential software or application migration and move the rest of the data and archives during your regular hours in the background.  If well-planned, you can reduce your inconveniences to a great extent, followed by an improvement in your operations.

Myth #2. Data is less secure in the Cloud than on-premise

Security concerns top the list when considering moving your business online or even moving a part of your essential transactions or data online. It is crucial to ensure security for consequential gain in customer trust and loyalty. The myth about Cloud not being secure and reliable makes the migration look risky.

However, you must keep in mind that with increasing digitization and demand for Cloud, service providers have invested a significant amount into improving the security and compliance of it and have made it more reliable than ever. Moreover, hosting your own data server and application consumes not only your financial and spatial resources, but also demands your expertise and for you to be around the clock checking for breaches, firewall protection, software updates, etc. You also still risk losing your data to power failure or failing server

When you collaborate with a cloud-service provider, you are aided with their experience and expertise, you save your work space and invest that in your core operation, and also a well-established team of cloud architects, security experts, and engineers are working towards ensuring security for you. Cloud service providers also have multiple data centers where your data is replicated. So even when one of them fails, you can rely on the others.

Myth #3. Cloud is more expensive than an on-premise center

One might think having an on-premise data is less expensive than cloud. On the contrary, there are many things one needs to spend on an on-premise center such as its security, upgrades, maintenance, expertise and consultations, performance optimization, infrastructure components, etc. All these add-up to make your on-premise set-up more expensive. Moreover, many resources also go unused many times while you are still paying for their maintenance and you also become responsible for their physical security.

When opting for cloud, you not only cut-down your responsibility of maintaining and safeguarding the components and infrastructure physically, you also cut-down your costs since you have the option of only paying for what you use. You may find the initial cost of migration to be substantial, but once set-up, Cloud actually saves your money.

Consider the total cost of ownership (TCO) using the calculators that most cloud service providers offer to compare the cost of ownership vs cloud for the exact same resources for using for a certain duration. This allows you to allocate your budgets in a better way. A good migration strategy, a great cloud partner and planned execution will further help you save more. Although you must remember that Cloud does much more than saving money.

Myth #4. Cloud is only for prevailing and entrenched enterprises

One of the main reasons why many small and mid-scale businesses hesitate to opt for cloud is because they don’t think it is for them. They believe it is only for well-established enterprises with complex computing & infrastructure needs, massive transactions and handsome revenue to be able to afford it.

The market being as it is today- fast-paced, competitive, technology-dominant and result-oriented, even small and mid-size businesses could largely benefit from migrating to cloud. In fact, many start-ups are already embracing the technology to get competitive.

Cloud is a cost-effective solution, in addition to providing many other services without the need to worry about its security and maintenance. It is in fact, more convenient to small and mid-sized organizations considering that they could operate and opt for services according to their convenience and demand, and opt out of it when not in use, seamlessly.

Myth #5. Cloud is only for storage

 Although storage is one of the most popular use-cases of cloud, the technology is not limited to just that. Cloud is also popular for advanced analytics and automation. With cloud process automation, one can avoid monotonous tasks and errors and utilize their human expertise in more fruitful areas. Cloud also focuses on marketing solutions, sales, operations management, live streaming, security and compliance measures, and much more.

It is a one-stop solution for all businesses irrespective of their size, looking forward to make informed real-time decisions using cloud resources and stay in and ahead of the competition. Cloud helps you to improve productivity, save financial and spatial resources and avail all the benefits according to your convenience.

Conclusion

It is essential to debunk all the myths and false interpretations of cloud technology in order to prepare for change within an organization. For many, migrating to cloud is still a dilemma until made aware of the benefits one could reap from the technology.

Mindful planning and strategic implementation help avoid risks and save resources and energy. Choosing the right cloud partner and service provider is crucial in the process. Most of the migration challenges can be solved with expertise and the right consultation. However, to reach that far, it is important to first uncloak the myths surrounding cloud migration and decide to migrate!