Cloud adoption among business enterprises is surging, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic significantly heightened remote work, expanding the need for digital connectivity. According to Flexera’s 2021 State of the Cloud report, more than half of the 753 decision-makers surveyed use cloud heavily and have reached the advanced cloud maturity level. Regarding workloads, respondents stated that about 50 percent of their workloads are running in the cloud, with another 7% shifting over within a year. Another 40 percent of respondents were at various stages of cloud adoption. As the statistics indicate, It’s becoming harder to find businesses that don’t use cloud strategy in their digital infrastructure, if only in part.
As more businesses take the plunge into cloud computing as part of their IT enterprise strategy, it’s important to avoid some of the most common pitfalls of cloud adoption:
– Not Developing a Plan: When considering cloud adoption, enterprise leaders would be wise to start by analyzing their needs. Among questions to consider are: What would be the best use of cloud resources? Which workloads make sense to move to the cloud? How much data storage does the organization need, and which applications should be deployed in the cloud? While it’s logical to think that any workload would benefit from the scalability and ease of use offered by the cloud, the truth is that some workloads are better suited to the cloud, while others have differing priorities such as user management and are best kept on-premises.
Many business and IT leaders make decisions about the various aspects of cloud adoption without doing their due diligence and considering key issues such as performance, compliance and cost. This can result in companies having a myriad of applications in the cloud that they may not actually need, leading to unnecessary expense.
– Failure to Carefully Evaluate Costs: Many companies adopt an OpEx cloud storage model in which they pay a fixed, predictable, recurring (usually monthly) cost. But it’s important to read the fine print as many OpEx plans include additional charges that can add up for the business, such as fees to upload and download files charged either per instance or per byte, fees for copying data, creating data, moving data, and reading data – even charges for support or to acquire a list of stored data items. Be aware of the full range of potential charges before deciding on an OpEx cloud provider.
– Failure to Consider Your Operating System: Anticipation about heading into the world of the cloud can leave behind thoughts of legacy equipment like your standard operating system (OS). However, the #1 mistake we see with enterprises operating in the cloud is that they’re often operating on systems that are no longer supported. In that case, there’s only so far you can go with patching a workstation or server that houses that application, for example. Significant security risks creep in quickly in these circumstances. Be sure the OS system you’re using is supported before you embark on a cloud adoption strategy. An operating system is a critical part of your infrastructure foundation, controlling areas such as security settings, user access, system automation and management; it’s important to keep it in mind as you integrate cloud functions, and then reassess continuously down the line.
– Not Properly Planning for Business Migration Downtime: Some IT decision-makers put off moving to the cloud due to concerns about business downtime during data migration. While downtime is a valid concern, careful planning can ensure minimal business disruption. A solid business continuity strategy should be part of your cloud adoption plan, with failover addressed, as well as logistics such as transferring data during off hours or during times of lowest use.
– Not Having the Technical Experience Needed to Ensure Successful Cloud Adoption: Many organizations don’t have the internal IT expertise to plan and manage cloud adoption. It’s a complex process and enlisting the assistance of a cloud partner, with significant experience in all sorts of cloud approaches, could be the best solution. Pick a provider that can consult with your internal team to develop a cloud strategy that is right for your organization’s specific needs. LightEdge is extremely experienced in consulting with companies considering a move to the cloud and has successfully implemented a variety of cloud strategies.
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