Over these years, we have worked on numerous cloud projects and have many times seen hesitation amongst the clients for moving their Data to ‘cloud’ platforms. They are aware of the benefits of adopting cloud technology but are reluctant to make the move because of fear of getting trapped by unforeseen challenges of cloud adoption.

There is no definitive list of challenges as cloud adoption challenges come in all shapes, sizes, and nature, based on the organization. But based on our experience and what we hear the most, we have listed down certain common challenges that businesses face while planning to make their move to the cloud.

Data security

Security miseries remain the biggest hurdle to cloud adoption. Many organizations remain hesitant to migrate due to security concerns.

When a cloud service provider hosts confidential information, it means that the vendor receives a considerable amount of end user’s security and privacy controls. The service providers must ensure they understand the end user’s privacy and safety requirements. Users should ensure that their service providers are aware of the regulations governing data privacy and security. Because of this, the process of migration must be carefully completed by experts, with the right skills and experience.

Complexity
There is a layer of infrastructure complexity when migrating to the cloud. Many migrations require excessive manual support, including the writing of scripts, which demands a level of specialized cloud skills and experience that many corporate IT teams don’t have.

 

IBM’s Jon Considine shared this slide in a conference to show a typical Bank’s application. This shows how complicated IT infrastructure can be for a large enterprise, and how many parts need to be moved to the cloud. Failing to assess the complexity involved in the migration can lead to an unachievable migration plan, that will keep getting delayed.

Lack of Expertise within the Organization

According to a report, 32% of companies consider a lack of expertise as their biggest challenge in adopting cloud computing.  Moving from a single infrastructure to the cloud is a challenge for IT leaders and their teams. They need to acquire more skills, which means investing in training and educating the existing team. Lack of expertise within the organization requires hiring professionals with a required skill set or partnering with cloud-managed service providers (CSPs).

Adequate Time and Resources

The data transition process requires time. Considering the time factor, many companies postpone their decision to move their business to the Cloud. According to a report, nearly half of the organizations that migrated to the cloud took three to six months to do so. The timeline for migration is even lengthier for organizations with an abundance of data.

Cost

Usually, it is seen that companies face difficulties in estimating the cost required for migrating data to the Cloud. The uncertainty of ROI is an important challenge that needs to be overcome with proper planning. According to a survey, many of the companies in the USA have invested more than $50,000 on their cloud migration and adoption projects. The reputed cloud service providers can help organizations know the estimated cost and can help in planning and increasing the ROI.

Data Ownership

The cloud is maintained by third-party service providers that are outside the user’s environment. The cloud service provider encrypts the data when the user stores it in the cloud. In most cases, the service providers keep the ownership to themselves, letting their systems see and process the user’s data, such as indexing data for future searches. Service providers keep the ownership to themselves, and let them unlock the user data when the user logs in. Operating in a cloud environment with ownership of the service providers is much easier than vice-versa. But it is also less secure as some of these service providers might have flaws in their security practices that might leave user’s data vulnerable.

If you are adopting cloud computing services, you must accept the risk of sharing your data.

Cloud Adoption Challenges? You still deserve a Smooth Cloud Adoption!
Despite the challenges, cloud adoption benefits are immense. Take the help of experienced cloud service providers who can guide you in facing and dealing with the challenges because a smooth transition is what all businesses deserve!

So, go ahead, choose the right cloud service provider for your cloud adoption strategy, as that will be the most critical decision for your overall cloud experience.