There are many benefits of cloud migration. Moving your business operations to the cloud can be cost-effective, increase productivity, and offer greater security, among other reasons to make this big change.
If you do decide to take the plunge and migrate to the cloud, you will need to carefully develop a cloud migration project plan. There are a number of cloud migration tools that will be helpful in this process. However, when considering moving to the cloud, there are also a number of risk factors that you will need to consider. These include:
1. Lack of a clear cloud migration strategy. Many people get caught up in the hype and the rush to move over to the cloud without fully thinking it through. Before you jump head-first into cloud computing, you will need to consider a number of questions and come up with a clear strategy for migrating to the cloud.
Consider your reasons for moving to the cloud and the benefits you are hoping to achieve. Think about what and how much data you want to migrate to the cloud - there might be especially critical or sensitive data that you want to keep on-premises. Also decide how much storage you require and how many different cloud providers you might need. Don’t skip over this necessary planning stage because rushing in without a cloud migration strategy can lead to problems such as enormous expenses or system failures.
2. Incompatibility of existing architecture. Cloud migration can be challenging for companies whose businesses depend on legacy applications, which may rely on programming languages, execution environments, and system libraries that aren’t readily available in or aren’t fully supported by the cloud. If this is a problem for you, you will have to be aware of it so you can come up with architectural solutions to circumvent the issue.
3. Security risks. These are probably the biggest risks faced by companies that are making the move to cloud computing. Migrating to the cloud involves all kinds of security risks, from compliance violations and contractual breaches to insecure APIs, accidental errors, malware, external attacks, and more. It is essential that, when moving to the cloud, you be aware of these risks and equip yourself to handle them.
When choosing a cloud provider, look for one with a strong compliance portfolio. At the same time, you’ll need experienced DevOps engineers and a security team that can take action to ensure your data’s long-term security in the cloud. This includes the encryption of data both in transit and at rest, the configuration of a firewall, the isolation of individual workloads in order to minimize potential damage, and the training of others on maintaining data security in the cloud.
4. Reduced Visibility and Control. Lack of visibility in the public cloud is a very real risk of cloud migration that can affect performance. When your data is stored on-premises, you have full control over all of your resources, policies, and infrastructure. But when migrating to external cloud services, some of these responsibilities move to the cloud service provider (CSP), which can result in reduced visibility for your company.
5. Data loss. Whenever moving data to be stored in a new location, there is always a risk of it being lost. Be it due to various technical issues or due to human error, you may find some of your files to be missing, incomplete, or corrupt. Ensure that your CSP has data backup, restoration, and fallover options. It is a good idea to have your data backed up by more than one cloud provider, so you won’t have to worry about unexpected downtime by a particular provider. In addition, it is a good idea to back up all your important data on a disk as well.
6. Incomplete deletion of data. While data loss is a real concern, there can be another issue at the other end of the spectrum. When your data is spread out over multiple storage devices, this risk is even more concerning. When you need data deleted in a timely manner but that data is saved on the same hardware as data from other clients, it’s not as simple as just destroying the disk. In addition, because procedures for deletion may differ from one provider to another, it can be difficult to verify whether your data was deleted securely and ensure that none of it remains. The more CSP services you use, the greater this threat becomes.
7. Overspending. The pricing models of cloud providers are flexible but they can often be difficult to understand. This can and sometimes does lead to the wasted expenditure of up to 70% of cloud costs.
There are various fees involved in cloud computing, and every provider is going to offer a different range of services and prices. It can be challenging to choose the best combination. If you don’t do the required calculations to figure out exactly what it is you need, you may end up wasting a great deal of money.
Be sure to optimize your costs - and if you don’t know how, hire an expert to do it for you.
8. Unwanted latency. Added latency is a risk of cloud migration that is often underestimated. A few seconds’ delay by your app can seriously damage your business. Not only is latency a cause of frustration for customers but it can gravely impact your brand reputation. There are a number of possible solutions for latency issues, but if these methods don’t work or are too expensive, it might make sense to keep some of your data on-premises.
Conclusion
Migrating to the cloud may well be the right move for your company. Before taking the plunge, though, make sure you have a clear cloud migration strategy and are aware of the risks of possible incompatibility of existing architecture, security threats, and reduced visibility and control. In addition, do your best to avoid data loss and/or incomplete data deletion, overspending, and added latency. If you can manage to fend off these issues, cloud migration can do wonders for your business.
With all the advantages of migrating to the cloud, there is a danger of jumping in too quickly or going to the cloud at all costs. From a security standpoint, and particularly an Identity Security standpoint, it is very important to ensure that your core identity security functions: identity governance and administration and privileged access management are not compromised due to a cloud-delivery strategy. So as you are evaluating cloud-based identity security solutions (PAM and IGA) do not accept anything less than full functionality, full scope, and full benefit. So move to the cloud at the pace that is best for you and in the manner that best suits your objectives, but DO NOT sacrifice anything from an Identity Security perspective. You can do it, but you have to approach the cloud with your eyes wide open. We say cloud without compromise.