Busting 5 Myths About Business IT Cloud Migration

Are you ready to migrate all or most of your business IT to the cloud? Where your business is concerned, fact-checking what’s on offer from current cloud-based services is vital. Make sure you know how enterprise cloud computing might help you achieve your business aims. But also make sure you don’t make a mistake because you bought into the following five myths about what migrating your business IT to the cloud means.

Myth 1: All Service Level Agreements Are Equal

If you take a cursory glance at the SLAs (service level agreements) several cloud service vendors offer, you might be forgiven for thinking they all offer 99.95% availability. It’s a common claim. But it’s worth digging a little deeper and scrutinizing the small print.

While it’s true that most vendors offer close to 100% availability of services, always examine the terms. Many SLAs require obligatory opt-ins to features you don’t want or need, or lock you in for extended time periods, which may not be to your advantage. Others do offer genuine, no-strings-attached availability. But it’s vital you do your due diligence before signing on the dotted line. Not all SLAs are equal.

Myth 2: VMs (Virtual Machines) Need Less Management than On-Premise Servers

VMs offer advantages over on-premise solutions at set-up. There’s no physical procurement process to go through, and there’s no need to deal with racks and stacks. Setting up your OS is also a breeze with a VM. But once you’re up and running, you still need to manage operations.

A VM, just like a physical server, is still just an empty box. You need to do the same work to deploy your applications, manage your processes, upload and organize your data, and everything else. While a virtual machine can represent significant efficiencies, there’s no such thing as a “hands-free” enterprise IT solution.

Myth 3: With Cloud-Based IT Solutions, You Can Ditch the Data Center

Small- to medium-sized businesses may migrate their complete data center to the cloud. But it’s the exception rather than the rule. If you have a medium- to large-scale enterprise, you’re probably looking at a hybrid IT infrastructure solution. Hybrid, where an enterprise has workloads in both a data center and in the cloud, is fasting becoming the norm. By 2025, 85% of infrastructure strategies are expected to integrate on-premises, colocation, cloud and edge delivery options, compared with 20% in 2020.¹

Migrating legacy systems, data centers, third-party application program interface (API) integrations, and long-chain business processes may not be helpful even if it’s possible. While partial migrations can lead to more responsive enterprise IT operations, certain applications may not work well in a cloud environment, and you’ll likely want to keep your client-sensitive data in-house. For larger or expanding businesses, the benefits of enterprise cloud computing are more likely to come from partial migrations and hybridization. Next-generation DCIM software is designed to remove the complexity around managing hybrid IT infrastructure solutions.

Myth 4: Enterprise Cloud Computing Is More Cost-Effective than On-Premise

There’s no doubt that most businesses can save money by migrating all or some IT to the cloud. The cost benefits are often touted as the main advantage of SaaS (software-as-a-service), PaaS (platform-as-a-service), IaaS (infrastructure-as-a-service), and so on. But, depending on how you operate, you may end up spending more during and immediately after the transition.

But saving money is only one incentive to migrate your business IT to the cloud. You need to look into all the pros and cons before you decide. Even if you’re not cutting costs by migrating, the increased responsiveness, scalability, reduced development to market time, and moving from a capital expenditure to operational expenses model could still make it worth your while.

Myth 5: Once You’ve Migrated to the Cloud, You Can Retire Your IT Team

The claim that a cloud service vendor will take care of all your business IT is one of the most common and disastrous myths doing the rounds. Most reputable service providers will take care of a lot, but the idea that they should handle all your IT processes and data management is as unlikely as it is undesirable.

When looking for cloud-based solutions and deciding what and how much to migrate, always remember the devil’s in the detail. Read the SLA with great care and don’t be shy about striking a bespoke arrangement tailored to your business’s specific needs. Most good vendors are happy to draw up a tailor-made solution for you. But whatever you decide, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to retire your whole IT team, even if you wanted.

The buzz around enterprise cloud computing solutions is understandable. IT as a service has transformed the way businesses operate. But it isn’t the panacea that some over-enthusiastic cloud vendors may claim. Whatever the size and shape of your business, migrating to the cloud is a good idea. But be sure to check your facts first to make sure you’re getting the services you need.

¹ D. Cappuccio, H. Cecci. (17 September 2020) Gartner: Your Data Center May Not be Dead, but It’s Morphing