The benefits of cloud migration are well documented, and few would argue that it is worth the investment and effort. However, for organisations making the transition, there will be challenges along the way.
Nevertheless, knowing the common pain points associated with cloud migration can go a long way towards helping make your organisation’s cloud journey more seamless and less problematic.
But what exactly are the common challenges to watch out for? Here are five of them:
Challenge 1: Adapting People and Updating Processes
Migrating to the cloud disrupts the status quo in such a way that members of the organisation will need to get used to new ways of doing things. This paradigm shift is bound to meet some resistance that will not only slow down your organisation’s cloud migration but also limit the effectiveness of your cloud adoption. This is why you will need an institutionalised, organisational recalibration of company culture to get everyone on the same page, along with reskilling and upskilling.
The Solution: An easy way to navigate this challenge is to keep a sense of familiarity within your IT team. To this end, organisations using VMware will have little problem if they opt for VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services (VMC on AWS) because it offers the same VMware environment as used on-prem. This means your IT team can use the same developer and automation tools they are familiar with so you can get to benefit from the public cloud right away—in conjunction with any additional training you might want.
Challenge 2: Rearchitecting Apps So They Can Run on the Public Cloud
The apps running on your on-premises data centres will probably not run on public clouds because they are likely not designed for such infrastructure. The solution is to redesign or rearchitect these same apps before migrating them—and this is a challenge in itself with several processes involved, including converting machine formats, reconfiguring networks and migrating storage.
The Solution: The right cloud strategy lets you avoid this pitfall, and VMC on AWS actually extends your on-prem infrastructure to the cloud. As a result, there is no need to redesign your apps before any migration. Plus, VMware HCX® is also available on VMC on AWS for free, and it can help you migrate your apps quickly and easily.
Learn more on how to modernise your business in the long run with Pro-Datech.
Challenge 3: Making Sure Mission-Critical Apps Are Resilient
Mission-critical apps are a special case, as they are essential to the business’s operations. Therefore, they must meet—if not exceed—performance and availability requirements after migration. This, however, can be quite challenging for apps whose resiliency is more or less tied to the infrastructure running them. Re-implementation of these mission-critical apps will also be needed so as to provide them with built-in resiliency and it will take time and re-testing to make sure all performance and availability targets are met consistently.
The Solution: VMC on AWS solves this problem by enabling live app migration to the cloud—but with little to no downtime or disruption. Once there, access to modern frameworks such as Kubernetes and cloud-native services can help you transform these same apps and automate their underlying infrastructure.
Challenge 4: Managing Costs, Time and Risks
Migrating existing apps to the cloud is a major challenge, as doing so can be complex, costly and time-consuming. But some companies seem to underestimate this process, leading to even greater costs and often under-delivered goals. Other business operations that rely on IT tend to be affected as well since poorly planned app migration can drain IT resources to the detriment of other processes.
The Solution: Because you neither need to rearchitect anything nor re-implement and re-test mission-critical apps and workloads, VMC on AWS effectively reduces both the costs of migration and the time to do it. Moreover, VMC on AWS integrates seamlessly with a range of DevOps tools and other services, thus enabling app modernisation but reducing the costs and complexities of doing so.
Challenge 5: Avoiding the “Migration Stall”
The so-called migration stall is as the name suggests: Cloud migration grounding to a halt or slowing down considerably. This happens due to a variety of reasons, including poor planning, under-provisioning, reinventing too quickly and difficulties retiring technical debt. Whatever the reasons, a stalled migration will be counterproductive to your organisation and will prevent you from realising the full benefits of cloud adoption.
The Solution: The best way to avoid migration stalls is to find the right solution that simplifies your cloud architecture and takes away the complexities that often come with cloud migration. VMC on AWS ticks all of these boxes, and given the problems it solves, it only makes perfect sense that you leverage all of its benefits, so you can have a seamless cloud journey—but at reduced costs.
VMware Cloud on AWS With Pro-Datech
A simple and convenient way to leverage VMware Cloud on AWS is to find a tech partner like Pro-Datech, a reputable, award-winning service provider that specialises in a variety of IT services, including cloud migration. Known and respected for its certified technical expertise and nearly 20 years of domain knowledge, Pro-Datech helps organisations set up their cloud and derive the most value from it.
Just as importantly, Pro-Datech also helps businesses adequately address all cloud-related challenges they may face, including the five mentioned previously. A part of the Cloudaron Group since 2016, Pro-Datech can augment all your cloud needs and bring about business digital transformation thanks to an array of best-in-class offerings that include systems consultancy, deployment and integration, hybrid IT services and 24 x 7 managed services in building the enterprise cloud.
To find out more about how VMware Cloud can help your business migrate to the cloud seamlessly, click here.
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