What’s the real key to a successful cloud migration? Cloud migrations are crucial but challenging for businesses. Gartner predicts that over 95% of new digital workloads will be cloud-based by 2025. But despite their importance, most cloud migrations fail to meet deadlines and budgets. One survey found that 90% of CIOs have experienced failed migration projects, while another reported that only 15% of organisations successfully migrated on time and within budget.
Surprisingly, the key to success isn’t just technical expertise—it’s about securing leadership buy-in and effective change management. This insight explores why these non-technical factors are critical and how to plan a migration right from the start.
READ MORE: Discover the critical factors for cloud migration success in our new report, Cracking the Code to Cloud Migration Success: 5 Key Insights from Australian Organisations.
The Secret To Cloud Migration Success
A 2023 Red Hat Tech Outlook Report found that leading organisations prioritised security as their top investment for successful cloud migration, especially in complex hybrid environments. Strong CEO support, the right cloud experts, and comprehensive migration roadmaps were critical to their success.
The 2023 Cloud Migration Reality Check Report revealed that 99% of organisations rely on strong partnerships and leadership support for migration success. A recent McKinsey study also validates the importance of strong executive sponsorship, finding that companies were 32% more likely to succeed in cloud migrations with active CEO involvement. These leaders will likely develop a comprehensive roadmap upfront, including security and compliance frameworks. This top-down support is essential for driving clear communication and alignment across the organisation during cloud adoption.
When it comes to the long-term nature of cloud transformation, sustained success relies on ongoing security and compliance, according to the 2023 Trend Micro Cloud Security Report. Interestingly, the report also found that advanced cloud skills, like CloudDevOps and FinOps, are a priority when hiring for 59% of top-performing organisations. (Read more about why you need a CloudFinOps role for effective cloud cost management).
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Cloud Migration’s Case Studies
These findings are bolstered by some high-profile cloud migrations, with case studies showing how non-technical elements played a significant role in their cloud migration success.
The popular social media platform, founded in 2010, is a visual discovery engine that boasts over 200+ million active monthly users worldwide. To keep up with the growing demand, Pinterest started considering Amazon Web Services (AWS) as early as 2014 to scale its processing power and workloads. Pinterest successfully migrated to a next-generation cloud system in six months, improving reliability, innovation, and scalability.
According to [then] Head of Cloud Engineering, Raj Patel, this success was largely thanks to securing stakeholder buy-in early on. The cloud engineering team first engaged stakeholders who would benefit most from the migration, providing tools and dedicated consultants for a smooth transition. As early adopters shared their positive experiences, support from other key stakeholders grew, creating a snowball effect that ensured the migration’s success.
Spotify
Audio-streaming giant Spotify needed to move from its large and cumbersome in-house data centres to a cloud platform. They pulled off the move with minimal disruption and costs, and the migration increased scalability and gave Spotify’s engineers more freedom to innovate. They succeeded because they didn’t rush it, spending two years on pre-migration preparation, investigating different strategies, building use cases to present to the business, and ensuring complete readiness before moving.
They also secured stakeholder buy-in and consulted their engineers and other stakeholders on the migration, building a team of advocates and supporters. Lastly, Spotify assigned a dedicated cloud migration team to undertake the project. This ensured the cloud migration was entirely focused and completed quickly within deadlines.
Australian State Transport Authority
When an Australian state transport authority needed to retire its data centres and transition to the cloud, Kinetic IT stepped in, recognising that technical and non-technical elements were crucial for success. The team carefully planned the AWS-endorsed migration by working with stakeholders, from suppliers to executives, to understand the customer’s objectives — save costs on hardware maintenance and uplift an outdated application stack to reinvest in other areas of the organisation.
By adopting a risk-averse strategy aligned with the budget and developing a detailed migration roadmap, Kinetic IT delivered a stable, scalable cloud environment that met the authority’s environmental goals and unlocked significant cost efficiencies.
Read the complete case study: Unlocking scalability and cost optimisation with AWS cloud.
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The Most Common Reasons Cloud Migrations Fail
Cloud services hyperscaler AWS backs these sentiments. Controlling 32% of the entire cloud infrastructure services market and with thousands of migrations, AWS attests that one of the most common reasons cloud migrations fail is because they concentrate on the technical elements and neglect other essential, non-technical perspectives, such as people and governance.
So, how do you apply all this wisdom to your organisation’s cloud migration? How do you ensure you’ve got the winning recipe and are ready to migrate?
The short answer is: Assess.
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Assessing Your Cloud Readiness
To ensure cloud migration success, businesses must conduct a comprehensive readiness assessment covering all these facets. Cloud migration readiness involves an in-depth analysis of your organisation’s current and desired states about both technical and non-technical factors. This can guide decision-making, reveal potential issues, and ensure all stakeholders understand their roles and responsibilities.
The AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (AWS CAF) is the gold standard in cloud migration readiness assessment. Leveraging extensive AWS knowledge and experience, the AWS CAF has identified several skills and capabilities your business needs to transition to the cloud successfully. AWS has grouped these capabilities into six perspectives: Business, People, Governance, Platform, Security, and Operations.
The critical non-technical perspectives are Business, People, Governance and Operations. Ignoring these facets can result in suboptimal performance, bill shock, or even the stalling of your migration project.
- Business: Whether your goal is cost optimisation, market speed or modernising your infrastructure, a cloud migration strategy must match your business needs—or it can quickly turn from an investment into a costly failure.
- People: A shift to the cloud inevitably means changes within your teams. Failing to engage employees with good training and effective change communication positively can derail a cloud migration project and break trust.
- Governance: Cloud migration often changes governance models, including managing and controlling IT services. Managing risk and enforcing compliance policies are vital to avoiding legal or financial trouble.
- Operations: It’s vital to anticipate how your IT services will evolve post-cloud migration, especially regarding service management, incident management, and change management processes. Thinking ahead can help avoid disruptions to your services and day-to-day operations.
However, while we highlight the importance of non-technical perspectives, this doesn’t diminish the significance of the technical aspects. They remain the backbone of any cloud migration process. Here’s why:
- Platform: Compatibility between your current and cloud platforms is crucial. If overlooked, it may lead to unresolvable conflicts or the need for time-consuming and expensive workarounds.
- Security: In today’s digital world, security cannot be overstated. When migrating to the cloud, stringent security measures must be in place to protect your data and maintain your customers’ trust. Failing to secure your data adequately can have devastating effects on your business.
Cloud migration success is about striking a balance. Organisations must ensure technical considerations align with business objectives, people’s capabilities, governance policies, and operational models. Conducting a thorough cloud migration readiness assessment sets the stage for a successful transition to the cloud.
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How to access your cloud readiness in 5 minutes
We know organisations must address both technical and non-technical elements of cloud migration. We also know you must conduct a comprehensive assessment before moving. However, the AWS CAF is a whopping 54-page document, while the AWS Migration Readiness Assessment (MRA) is a three-day immersive workshop. The AWS Cloud Adoption Readiness Tool (CART) is an extensive 47 questionnaire. While these are all highly effective resources at various points in your cloud migration journey, businesses often need a fast and simple tool to kickstart their planning process.
We cut through the noise and get straight to the point with our 5-minute Cloud Readiness Assessment. In just 17 truly essential questions based on the AWS CAF, you’ll get a clear picture of your organisation’s cloud migration readiness.
We’ll send you a detailed report outlining your recommended and actionable next steps, plus the very best AWS resources hand-selected by our cloud migration team, so you don’t have to sift through the mountain of documents. It’s quick, simple, and tells you everything you need to know about your fitness for cloud migration.
Start your assessment or connect with our expert cloud team. We’re here to answer your questions and guide you through the process in person.
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