Why Cloud Migration Project Fails

Gartner forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud spending to grow 18% in 2021 to a total of 304.9 billion, up from $257.5 billion in 2020. It shows a trend of hyper-scale cloud adoption (thanks to Covid-19?). However,  according to research conducted by many companies like Unisys, Velostrata & Dimensional Research, the cloud migration failure rate is increasing too. Some believe it's between 40% to 55%, so let's safely say that the One in Three cloud migration project fails. Research further shows that over 70%  of cloud migration projects take a year or more. 

What can we do differently to be more successful?  So let's break it down and try to understand where it goes wrong. 

A typical cloud transformation project has four phases. 

• Strategy and Portfolio Assessment (Or typically a Business Case Phase) 
• Design and Planning 
• Migration and Transformation 
• Management and Optimisation

We will  only focus on the first phase in this discussion as it is the foundation for any cloud transformation. 

 

Is your Cloud Strategy right? 

"Why you are moving to Cloud" is the first question you should ask. Several factors can motivate you to look at cloud technologies, e.g. Datacentre Exit, Cost Savings, Scaling to meet market demand etc. Each motive will have different success criteria. Don't measure them with a single logic.

Success needs to be measured against your motives, e.g. if your motive was Innovation or meeting market demand, then the competitive advantage your cloud adoption is bringing for your business must be reflected in your TCO.  

Is your Architecture right?

Every major cloud provider gives you some tools and framework to help you make the decision. You have all heard the terms "Cloud Adoption Framework"  and related tools like 5R's or 7R's, but remember, your architecture will depend on your cloud adoption motive.  The fundamental principles will remain the same, but your treatment may differ based on your business goals and objectives. 

Cloud is a journey, not a destination, so plan properly and don't rush. Many time businesses rush into finalising the business case without looking at the bigger picture. Things such as constraints, legacy systems, current processes are often ignored at a business case level to make a business case more attractive for project sponsors. 

Take some time to understand the motives and business outcomes you are after. Align them with your corporate strategy, understand your partners/customer ecosystem and ensure you are making decisions for all the right reasons before finalising your business case. 

Focus on Migration Assessment

Often, the project fails/delays due to a wrong treatment plan for your workloads. While it is always good to have a fresh pair of eyes, input from SME's is also pivotal for success. Understanding of application environment, current pain points, constraints, and product roadmap must be a part of your evaluation process. A  common mistake we make while doing a rationalisation assessment is by mapping an application to our preferred target state instead of what's right for that particular application. 

Let's look at some common consideration while planning your migration.

• Don't just rely on institutional knowledge - take a data-driven approach. Use tools to discover your environment, understand the dependencies and application behaviour. 
• Document the interfaces and ensure you are assessing them as a part of the process (you may don't want to do it at the business case phase, but factor in additional time to do this during your detail design) 
• Engage with application SEM's to understand application constraints as you are defining the migration approach. Refactoring may be a good approach but make an informed decision.
• Most importantly, focus on your business objectives and ensure your approach will deliver business benefits. 

The other key consideration at this stage is your delivery approach. Understand your internal organisational capabilities, identify gaps and plan how you will deliver the project. 

Ask yourself, 

• Do you have the skills and capabilities to deliver this internally?
• Do you need to bring a partner/s to deliver for you?
• Are your teams ready to take cloud operations?
• How the service transition will work if project and operations teams are separate 
• How you will manage the interim state of operations 

All these are important considerations and need to be formalised as most of them have financial implications. 

 

You are still in the business case phase, and you may have many unknowns at this stage. It is still ok to carry this risk, but your business case should plan to mitigate these risks. A solid business case set the foundation for successful project delivery. 

In our next discussion, we will focus on Design and Planning phase.