When it comes to cloud migrations, having the necessary technical expertise is crucial. There are various methods for transitioning workloads to the cloud, with the simplest being a lift-and-shift approach. However, not all applications can be seamlessly moved in this manner, as some may require refactoring or complete rebuilding. Each workload must be carefully assessed to determine its suitability for cloud migration, as well as the best approach and timeline for the move.
Cloud Migrations Require Technical Know-How
There are different ways to migrate workloads to the cloud. The simplest is a lift-and-shift, where you move an application as is from one home to another. It would be great if you could do that with every application, but some workloads may need to be refactored, rebuilt entirely or replaced.
The truth is that you need to analyze each workload individually to determine if it can move to the cloud — and if so, how and on what schedule.
There’s a learning curve with the cloud. Many organizations are not ready, in the beginning, for the differences in managing and securing their workloads on cloud platforms compared with their old on-premises solutions. That’s why most security breaches of cloud-based applications are the result of misconfigurations or other errors by end users.
Businesses that work from the beginning with a partner experienced in cloud migrations and knowledgeable about all of the platforms tend to have smoother, safer transitions.
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Most Cloud Migrations Are Partial
Most organizations find that moving every application to the cloud doesn’t make sense, especially all at once. Instead, they start with the easiest workloads, then move on to others in order of complexity. For security compliance or other reasons, most businesses will maintain some workloads on-premises indefinitely.
We’re living in a cloud-first world, but few businesses are exclusively in the cloud, and few ever will be. On one hand, cloud technology delivers the flexibility and rapid scaling potential that modern businesses need, and it allows organizations a measure of control over their monthly spending on storage that on-premises solutions generally don’t offer.
On the other, a full-steam-ahead complete cloud migration, with no hardware left over, is only rarely the right approach. Whatever path you choose, be sure to get the help you need.
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Editor’s note: This article was originally published on February 18, 2025 and has been updated.
