Article summary:
Discover the top 11 reasons why cloud migrations fail and learn how to ensure a successful transition. Avoid costly mistakes and achieve your cloud goals.
Product Owner, Ispirer Systems
Migrating to the cloud may sound like a dream with more flexibility, less hardware maintenance, faster scaling, and cost savings promised. Yet, for many companies, that dream turns into a nightmare fast, as their cloud migrations end up over budget, delayed, or outright failing to deliver the expected results.
Let's see why this happens and, more importantly, how to avoid the most common traps.
1. No Clear Strategy
Imagine packing up your entire house for a move without knowing where you're going or why you're moving. You'd probably end up with a box labeled 'miscellaneous’ that’s heavier than all your other boxes combined. That’s what companies do when they migrate to the cloud without a clear strategy.
Many start with a vague goal like We need to be more agile or Everyone's doing it, so we should too. But without a detailed plan, businesses wind up lifting and shifting on-premise chaos into the cloud — now it's just expensive chaos.
How to fix it:
Define your "why." Is it cost savings? Faster innovation? Improved disaster recovery? Once you've pinned that down, work backward to outline the steps, migration tools, and timelines to get there.
For example, Netflix didn't move to AWS for its own sake, they wanted to scale globally without service interruptions. That's a goal with a clear, measurable outcome.
Read more: Should You Move to the Cloud? Top Questions to Consider
2. Not Assessing the Costs and Time First
There's a persistent myth that the cloud is always cheaper. Spoiler alert: it's not unless you manage it carefully.
Companies often lift and shift their on-premise setup to the cloud without optimization. As a result, they're renting the same bulky, inefficient architecture, but now it's on someone else's servers with a big monthly bill. And, as Gartner says, 70% of cloud all cloud costs are unnecessary.
How to fix it:
Treat the cloud like a new environment, not a copy-paste job. Optimize workloads, autoscale where you can, and watch those data transfer fees. Plus, you can use the InsightWays free database assessment tool to evaluate the complexity of the future migration.
3. Thinking It's Just an IT Project
Cloud migration affects everyone, from IT to finance to customer support. Yet many companies treat it like purely the IT team's headache. This approach results in mismatched expectations, broken processes, and employees left in the dark.
How to fix it:
Involve all departments early. Finance needs to understand costs, security needs to assess risks, and end-users need to know how the changes affect their daily work. You can get inspiration from Capital One. When they went all-in on AWS, they retrained IT and thousands of other employees on cloud concepts to foster a cloud-first mindset.
4. Underestimating Data Migration
Moving data sounds easy until you realize you have terabytes or petabytes of interconnected databases, legacy formats, and sensitive information. That's why the project's budget and timeline often tap out way before the finish line.
How to fix it:
Plan data migration as a project of its own, such as assessing what to keep, archive, or toss. Also, consider automating part of the process with tools SQLWays that automate database migration and transformation, especially for complex moves like Sybase ASE to Microsoft Azure SQL.
5. Forgetting Security and Compliance
When systems move fast, security often lags behind. Misconfigured cloud storage, weak identity controls, or forgotten backup policies become open invitations for cyberattacks. Assuming the cloud provider has security covered is a risky gamble, one that often ends in breaches.
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) even warns these incidents “likely occur more frequently than reported.” To make matters worse, 82% of breaches in 2023 involved cloud data.
How to fix it:
Build security into the plan from day one. Encrypt data at rest and in transit, set up role-based access, and continuously monitor for vulnerabilities.
6. Relying on Lift-and-Shift Alone
Lift-and-shift, or moving apps to the cloud without modifications, is fast but rarely effective long-term. This way, you risk losing vital cost, performance, and scalability optimization opportunities.
How to fix it:
For mission-critical apps, aim for re-platforming (upgrading components) or refactoring (modernizing the architecture).
7. Lack of Cloud Skills
Cloud expertise is in short supply, as 78% of organizations say they lack one. Companies that assume their on-prem engineers can fast become cloud wizards often face costly mistakes and slow progress.
How to fix it:
Invest in training or hire experienced cloud migration engineers. Many providers, like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, offer certification programs.
8. Skipping Testing
Rushing to production without rigorous testing is like launching a rocket without a final safety check: It might work, or it might explode. Pre-data migration testing is one of the best ways to avoid cloud migration risks when you're already halfway through.
How to fix it:
Test workloads in a controlled environment pre- and post-migration. Simulate failure scenarios, ensure performance meets expectations, and validate security measures.
9. Misjudging Legacy Systems
Legacy systems are like old houses because they are full of surprises behind the walls. Assuming they'll run as is in the cloud without modifications is the fastest track to failure.
How to fix it:
Audit legacy applications thoroughly. Decide which to refactor, replace, or retire before migrating. The InsightWays assessment tool will also help decide which legacy system components can be migrated automatically.
10. Picking the Wrong Cloud Provider
Not all clouds are created equal. Some providers excel in performance, others in flexibility, and some offer better pricing for specific workloads. You may also need specific integrations with your other systems, like ERP.
How to fix it:
Evaluate providers based on your business needs, not just on how popular their brand is.
11. Skipping Post-Migration Optimization
Migration isn't the finish line, it's just the start. If you stop there, you miss opportunities to optimize costs, improve performance, and strengthen security. Remember about 70% unnecessarily paid cloud bills?
How to fix it:
Set up continuous monitoring. Use cloud-native tools to analyze performance, scale down unused resources, and manage expenses.
The Bottom Line
Like any digital transformation, cloud migration isn't a one-size-fits-all journey. Companies that succeed plan ahead, involve the right people, and stay flexible. The good news is that with the right strategy and tools, you can avoid becoming part of the failure statistics.
Still think cloud migration is your biggest headache? Reach out and we'll break down your case to set the path for painless transition!
