Cloud computing, virtual working, and globalization have accelerated the implementation of cloud platforms in most companies, and today, every organization is racing to have one.

Additionally, cloud computing has proven beneficial to every company regardless of their operation and is critical for growth, profitability, service delivery, efficiency, and other company capabilities.

Due to its benefits, companies are migrating all their systems from in-house to cloud databases. 

This process is crucial and requires expertise, diligence, and preparations due to the potential challenges that may arise, crippling the entire organization.

It should not be a rush process but based on various key considerations to avoid challenges and ensure success on the first attempt. 

Therefore, before you plan for the migration, here are some key considerations and challenges you should look for.

Key Considerations During Data Migration

Various factors determine the success of your operation; hence you must observe these guidelines and factors to avoid challenges to make the process fast and efficient.

1. Hybrid Vs. Full Cloud Migration

You can choose full or hybrid migration to the cloud, and while implementing either of them, abide by  Google Cloud migration best practices to avoid any challenges that may arise.

Therefore, you need to hire an expert skilled at implementing each to help you decide on various considerations, requirements, and achieving organizational needs. 

Before considering any of the options, you need to consider the nature of the company operation, the nature of data stored, scalability and flexibility needed to ensure the plan is implemented effectively.

For an ideal strategy, you should consider a partnership between in-house and outsourced expert teams in decision-making and implementation.

2. Relevant Costs

Data migration to the cloud involves significant costs; hence you should treat the entire process as a project with funds reserved and additional capital in case of emergency.

Some key cost determinants include experts needed, duration, resources, in-house vs. outsourced cloud space, space needed, and other factors.

During the process, focus on excellent services and work with the experts and in-house teams to holistically develop the cost and prepare all the necessary resources.

3. Data Migration Prioritization

Since the process involves migrating bulk or entire organizational functions to the cloud, you should prioritize what to consider first and create an order, beginning with the crucial operations and applications. 

The best strategy to succeed in cloud migration is to move application by application.

For instance, you can begin with human resources and then move to the next one based on their impacts. 

While moving the applications, ensure you monitor the success of each application before you move to the next; this is critical for learning some lessons and mistakes to avoid when migrating the remaining systems. 

For large organizations with multiple branches in various countries, the best strategy is to migrate from the smallest branch, learn from it then move to the next one, avoiding similar mistakes.

You can also focus on functions such as migration finance, accounting, operations, supply chain, etc., and ensure you integrate them to allow for data sharing and collaboration amongst these functions. 

4. Data Formatting

One of the critical challenges you will likely face in data migration is incompatibility issues which arise from various factors, including a lack of streamlined data format, system differences, etc. Therefore, ensure you have the right resources and tools to streamline the data format to ensure they are in the same format ideal for cloud computing.

By streamlining all the data formats, you are unlikely to incur any errors enabling the teams to transfer, share and manipulate data without any subsequent errors. 

5. Create A Balanced Team

Migration to the cloud is an intense process that could last for a long duration due to the extensive operations involved, resources needed, stages that must be completed, and other related functions.

At every stage, the goal is to ensure success; hence the team in charge must be intelligent, creative, flexible, motivated, and have the best skills to facilitate the process. 

You should have the most diverse team with the skills and expertise; if you do not have any of the expertise and skills, outsource a team with the experience and certification in various functions.

Create a system that enables both teams to collaborate and partner on various functions to ensure successful data and systems moving to the cloud and efficiency. 

A balanced team will help you avoid the challenges associated with the skills gap since you have all the relevant expertise, experience, and skills to handle mini-projects within the broader operations. 

Challenges During Cloud Migration

When migrating organizational functions and data to the cloud, you must plan and prepare for the challenges at every stage to create the best solutions and strategies and avoid mistakes. Here are some challenges to anticipate:

1. Time Constraints

Time constraints are critical when undertaking these operations due to the activities, functions, and data volume to move; therefore, you need to plan effectively for the project durations.

Have all the resources needed for functions like streamlining data format, file compression, monitoring, troubleshooting issues, and ensuring tight security. 

To save time, you should automate all the processes and the entire project and allow teams to be involved in processes that cannot be automated or require human input.

Before the process begins, plan for various roles and duties to be accomplished by everyone and all the team and ensure they have resources critical to speed up their projects and ease their roles and duties.

2. Security Concerns

Data is vulnerable to cyberattacks; hence, you should implement all the Google data migration security tools to ensure security enforced by a security expert and Google Cloud security protocols.

Constantly monitor the team and functions to ensure compliance with controls, standards, and policies to guarantee security and avoid challenges and errors. 

Have antivirus, security troubleshooting, and AI tools which can be ideal for risk identification to fix loopholes that can lead to attacks.

Before the process, ensure the cloud platform has all the relevant security protocols to avoid attacks. 

Work with central cloud DevOps and cloud engineering teams dedicated to platform security and implement access control protocols to avoid anyone accessing sensitive data.

Conclusion

Before you begin the migration, ensure you have the best plan, which is critical to cover all the key considerations and abide by the Google controls and protocols enforced. 

Planning is ideal for financial, resource, team, and time planning to ensure the process is completed within the timelines without any challenges and errors.

Also, plan for potential errors and challenges, then create ready solutions to avoid them and effectively handle the problems as soon as they occur.