5 ‘Blockers’ to Moving to the Cloud and Overcoming Them

Ask any organisation what their digital transformation goal is, and undoubtedly the majority will say it includes a move to the cloud.

There are many reasons for this such as coming off legacy systems, improving productivity and collaboration and cost saving.

But there are still many concerns when it comes to cloud adoption, or as we call them, the perceived ‘migration blockers’ which hold an organisation back.

In this blog Automated Intelligence’s Principal Solution Strategist Paul Hudson looks at 5 common concerns…and how organisations can overcome them.

  • We don’t have a clear data strategy: Manyorganisations believe that they cannot move to the cloud because they have not defined a clear vision or data strategy outlining how they intend to use their data. That can seem overwhelming, problematic and a lengthy project. Organisations absolutely need a data strategy but cannot wait for completion as it will be obsolete by the time of implementation. They need to understand that this can be done as part of the program of work by focusing on a minimum viable strategy.  Now is the time to address points such as what data you actually use, what data has value, and what data is needed to answer key questions emerging from your business strategy.
  • We don’t have C-Level buy-in: Migration to a new platform is driven by the need to improve productivity and collaboration, or to save costs of legacy platforms. Key stakeholders at C-Level and Board level understand these drivers and need to recognise that the change required to deliver this involves migration. Getting that buy-in and clearly communicating what it means and how it fits in with the strategic objectives of the business is essential and reduces the impression by users that this is another fad without real tangible benefits. If you are talking about implementing a change of this level within an organisation you need to identify the current challenges, the issues that are impacting your business, and tie in your data strategy to what the C-Level and Board care about.
  • It’s going to cost too much money: Digital transformation seems like a huge undertaking and therefore, many organisations believe it is going to be too costly a program. The reality is that the cost of being in the cloud is not as significant as maintaining your own on-premise infrastructure (including costs such as storing unnecessary data if the information isn’t cleansed as part of the migration exercise, and the cost of maintaining legacy systems.) As well as cheaper storage, with cloud migration you get a return on investment through improved productivity- that’s things like the workforce being able to collaborative, less duplication, and more trust and confidence in the data.
  • We don’t want to put our information in the cloud: Security in the cloud was often a concern, but that fear has reduced dramatically. Many businesses do not know how many cyber-attacks they have suffered in the past year and as the number of attacks increases, the impact and costs are rising. This presents a significant drain on cyber security budgets to protect data.  Data centres provide infrastructure, support and security wrappers with experts in cloud services delivering greater security than conventional storage. If you look at the biggest Cloud providers, they invest so much money, time, resources and specialist skills, and they are focused on delivering the highest level of security. In fact, Microsoft invests over a billion dollars every year into security so that data and business assets can be protected.
  • Users are resistant to change: People are naturally resistant to change, especially if there are no clear advantages or benefits and so introducing change to the way people work presents challenges for user adoption. If an organisation has been through a technical transformation in the past, and it hasn’t gone well for whatever reason, then employees will have a stronger resistance to working with any new technology.  People do not like to be told, “this is the new system, and this is how you’re going to use it.” If they have had no input and did not feel engaged in the change programme, they will not be on the same journey and adoption will be greatly reduced. Make sure you engage employees, seek out champions, and equally, motivate people to become champions. Every organisation has people who love to explore new tech and you should encourage that. Train them, give them time to learn the new skills, and you will find that productivity spreads.

If you want to know more about how your organisation can overcome its migration blockers, speak to us today at info@automated-intelligence.com and enquiries@risual.com

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