Moving applications to a public cloud, no matter why you’re making that journey, is a high-stakes proposition. As an industry, we’re focused on rapidly moving forward to give our businesses the competitive edge they need. However, when it comes to cloud migration, we often fail to stop and ask some critical questions, and as a result we end up overspending and underperforming. According to a cloud adoption survey from NetEnrich, companies are oversubscribed on average by ~40%, which means they’re not using the cloud infrastructure they’re paying for—defeating one of the main objectives of moving to the public cloud in the first place.
Companies that have made the transition from private cloud to hybrid (private and public) cloud have learned it’s not just a matter of moving applications from their private data centers to the public cloud data centers. Successful cloud migrations have C-level executive sponsorship and a cross-functional program to develop and execute a migration plan based on a clear business strategy and desired outcomes. Without a clear strategy and a comprehensive program plan, cloud migrations fail to deliver the anticipated cost savings and increased IT agility.
Achieving the optimal application configuration and performance in the cloud is particularly daunting. There are many options for migrating applications to the cloud, and companies should utilize frameworks such as Gartner’s 5Rs or Amazon’s 6Rs to determine the best approach for each application. Unfortunately, questions arising when collecting and analyzing data about the existing applications and infrastructure often stall migrations in the initial planning stages. How do you discover all the IT infrastructure that comprises an application? How do you discover and analyze the application’s dependencies? How do you put the right processes and tools in place to continuously optimize cost, performance and placement of hybrid cloud applications?
In short, how do you know if you are truly prepared for a successful migration? Or if you should migrate at all?
Stack rank your readiness
These cloud migration challenges are why we’ve created a quick and easy way to test your cloud migration readiness. In just a few minutes, you can see how you rank against your peers, access resources to help you make a smooth transition—based on where you’re at now—and weatherproof your journey into the public cloud. Take the assessment and see where you stand.
Rick Haggart
