In the post-pandemic age of digital transformation, the business case for cloud migration is often taken as read. It's all silver linings, no cloud – and when done successfully, it is.

But here's a startling stat for you. In 2020, a survey found that 74% of IT decision-makers had moved a cloud-based app back to their own infrastructure. Why? Because it didn't give them the ROI they'd anticipated.

Sometimes buyer's remorse happens because a service is dodgy. But if you partner up with a reputable cloud consultant, this shouldn't be the case. What, then, is driving these botched cloud migrations? And more importantly, how can you avoid them?

Money talk

Overspend is a big problem in the cloud world. This is partly because of the age-old temptation to throw money at a problem and hope it goes away. But it's also because companies don't always do their homework before choosing a provider.

The endpoint of digital transformation is that virtually all your operations are on the cloud. It's like buying a home – you're not going to go for the first result on Zoopla. You're going to look at your options carefully and decide which is the best for you.

That means looking closely at what cloud providers offer – and how it changes from tier to tier. You don't want to be paying for space you don't use any more than you want to be chucking out food waste every week. 

You've got options. You can make the move bit by bit, moving high-earning operations first, taking stock and then migrating a little more. Or you can "lift and shift" everything onto the cloud and optimise later.

Either way, you can only know the best service for you if you've done a thorough cost analysis.

This brings us to a crucial part of any successful cloud migration: planning.

The readiness is all

How can Abraham Lincoln help with your cloud migration project? Well, he had some sage words that all of us should take on board: "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

Embarking on a cloud migration project without a thorough, costed, functional plan is unlikely to end well. You're basically swinging a blunt axe at a mighty oak and wondering why your arms are hurting but you still haven't made a dent.

You can avoid this by doing a thorough network analysis before IT – or your cloud consultant – gets to work.

An easy way to botch your cloud migration is to overload your servers. This leads to further costs down the line as you pay to patch things up.

Another important part of the process is creating a realistic, detailed timeline – including buffer time in case things get held up.

Migrations typically take place in waves. These waves need to fit in with your other activities and deadlines. Minimising disruption is key – so you need to carve out time, juggle diaries and generally keep on top of timekeeping.

Following the leader

Where does the buck stop with your cloud migration project? Who, in other words, is in charge?

A rudderless ship is far more likely to run aground than one with a nominated leader. It could be an individual or a team – but accountability needs to be baked into the project.

This is one advantage of outsourcing the job to a cloud consultant. As well as leveraging their expertise, you know where responsibility lies. And that means less chance of friction in your teams.

Minding the skills gap

According to technology research company Gartner, skills gaps are a major reason for migration holdups.

Cloud technology is about as specialist as it gets. It's up there with harvest patterns in mediaeval Cork or the life and times of John Deacon.

And it's constantly changing as solutions are rolled out and fine-tuned. Getting up to speed with the cloud involves taking notes fast – super-fast. So it's no wonder that many enterprises are faced with a choice: upskill your team or bring in outside help.

There's no one way to do it. But a crucial advantage of getting a cloud consultant onboard is that the skills are already there – they just need to be deployed according to your business objectives and technical requirements.

How can a cloud consultant help?

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we have a tried-and-tested five-step solution. These five steps can benefit you whether you're a close-knit team or a sprawling enterprise.

1. Discover

A good cloud consultant won't see the technical side and the business side as separate. They're two sides of the same coin. What your business is trying to gain is as important as your network capacity and existing workloads.

2. Design

Pen, meet paper. This design stage is linked at every stage to your technical and business requirements.

3. Plan

A cloud migration needs to fit with your other deadlines. That's why we create a detailed, personalised timeline – to minimise disruption and give you a clear picture of how it all works.

4. Build

Time to deploy the infrastructure that will handle your cloud migration.

5. Execute

The big day arrives. Because of all the work that's gone into steps one to four, any roadblocks can be dealt with swiftly.

Cloud migration is a complex process – but if you have an experienced consultant on board, you're not dealing with that complexity yourself. Instead, your workloads are migrated on time, to budget and with a minimum of disruption to your business.

Here at Ascend Cloud Solutions, we're migration services experts. We've handled more than 400 successful migrations for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Want to find out more? Get in touch for a free initial consultation.