Japie Botha, business executive for iOCO Cloud Services, outlines why rushed cloud migrations fail, and planned moves succeed.
Organisations often rush to migrate to the cloud during disaster incidents, especially when they lack a disaster recovery plan. In their urgency to restore their production environment, they make quick decisions without fully considering the consequences, says Japie Botha, business executive for iOCO Cloud Services.
In contrast, migrating to the cloud is a major step that requires careful planning and informed decision-making, says Japie: “Before making the move, a business must clearly define the challenges it aims to address. Understanding the reason for the move is crucial, as cloud infrastructure can be costly, and may not always align with the business’s unique objectives.”
One such case involved a business that faced a significant outage on its storage platform, causing prolonged downtime. In an effort to restore production swiftly, it migrated to a well-known hyperscaler on its own steam. This led to unexpected challenges with network configuration, securing the environment, and restoring backups to the new cloud-based systems. The business succeeded in resuming operations, but reached out to iOCO to help manage escalating costs and predictability challenges, and obtain professional support.
“We supported the business in repatriating their volatile workloads from the hyperscaler to iOCO’s cloud platform. This not only resulted in lower costs, but also provided them with the flexibility to optimally leverage both cloud and on-prem resources – the best of both worlds,” says Japie.
Japie underlines that in a crisis, the best approach for companies without a robust disaster recovery plan is to address the immediate need by securing infrastructure based on an as-a-service solution from a hosted cloud services provider.
“Once the production environment of the business is live again and running smoothly within the hosted cloud provider’s platform, the business can make a well-informed decision on whether to fully migrate to hyperscale cloud, return to on-prem infrastructure, or continue operating within the hosted cloud. This decision should be made after thoroughly weighing the benefits and drawbacks of each alternative,” he says.
“Cloud is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Not all workloads thrive in the same environment – some perform best in hyperscale cloud, while others are more suited to hosted cloud or on-premises infrastructure. This is why thoughtful and deliberate planning is essential when determining the best infrastructure approach.”
In this regard, setting up a temporary home for workloads while the organisation evaluates its options can provide the opportunity to strategise with a cloud services partner. Such a partner can help navigate the complexities of cloud solutions – whether hosted or hyperscale – while ensuring alignment with the broader IT strategy.
Effective cloud migration strategy
While hosted cloud providers allow for quick production deployment, a full cloud journey offers broader benefits when executed correctly.
Japie explains that lift-and-shift migrations – often used for quick, short-term cloud adoption – can become costly. This is because businesses don’t always fully leverage the advanced features of cloud infrastructure. This is particularly true in the hyperscale space, where underutilised advanced automation, scalability and cost-management tools can lead to inefficiencies and higher expenses.
“Cloud migration can be a strong option for businesses looking to reduce risk, modernise infrastructure, or shift from capital to operational expenditure over capital expenditure. However, a well-defined strategy is crucial, as migration timelines can vary significantly depending on the size and complexity of the transition.”
The key steps that form the basis of a successful cloud migration plan are:
Planning and assessment: This step takes up to three months. The parties involved conduct cloud readiness assessments, evaluate the current application landscape, define migration goals and milestones, and develop a migration roadmap.
Architecting: This stage typically takes between one and two months. The cloud provider works with the business and its IT departments to architect the IT landscape. They take compliance, security, performance and costs into consideration.
Pilot/POC: This is an optional step that spans about two months. Funded by the cloud provider, the customer gets a feel for the cloud environment, while assessing their performance and ensuring their compatibility with Cloud.
Migration: Most of the work occurs during this phase, which typically lasts three to six months. Data migration is followed by workload migration. A great deal of planning is done where some workloads migrate as is, and others are newly deployed or modernised. Data migration strategies are implemented, such as lift-and-shift, re-platforming or re-architecting based on workload requirements.
Post migration testing: During this one-month phase, the parties identify and remedy any teething issues. They also perform back-up tests and put disaster recovery plans in place.
Training and change management: Training is conducted for technical staff to equip them to manage the platform. Efficient communication on the rationale and benefits of the migration also takes place.
After outlining all these stages, businesses must continuously optimise and refine their strategic plans to ensure their cloud environment operates efficiently and effectively.
“Businesses that follow this approach will be able to scale their infrastructure, improve their processes, enhance collaboration and strengthen business continuity. On the other hand, reacting to a crisis with a rushed cloud migration can lead to costly mistakes and hinder long-term success, as businesses may struggle with unforeseen challenges in data migration, security, and cost management,” Japie concludes.
