Most companies make these 7 critical mistakes when migrating to the cloud.
MISTAKE #1
They do NOT conduct a regulatory compliance analysis. Do local laws allow me to store this data in the cloud? Do my existing contracts allow me to use the cloud?
A high-profile example: LA County signed a contract to move LA’s email to Gmail. After 2 years of planning, but before the launch, the FBI notified LAPD that their existing contracts with the FBI prevented LAPD from adopting GMAIL.
- http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9222932/Plans_to_migrate_LAPD_to_Google_s_cloud_apps_dropped
- http://breakinggov.com/2011/12/19/los-angeles-ends-google-apps-for-lapd-decision-bigger-than-you/
MISTAKE #2
Companies assume that the cloud is magically more robust, more secure than in-house systems.
Nothing could be further than the truth – http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-lost-data-2011-4
Backups & disaster recovery planning must be updated to take into account that some or all data may be lost.
MISTAKE #3
Companies fail to plan for, or conduct reverse backups.
Cloud vendors can die, or get bought out, or simple disappear.
Backing up data that stored in the cloud is critical.
MISTAKE #4
Assuming (or believing) that BIG companies must be robust.
Whether your cloud vendor is a small start up or a giant like Microsoft or Amazon, they WILL have outages. Some will be minor, lasting minutes. Others will be major and you could lose days.
Here was a RECENT (June 2014) Office365 outage that lasted for several days:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/06/24/microsoft-outlook-outage-reported-across-much-of-the-country/
MISTAKE #5
Believing (or trusting) the security promises that cloud vendors make. Cloud developers are like any other developers – their code has bugs, security flaws, and hidden assumptions.
Some vendors genuinely believe that their code is safe, secure, fault tolerant. Others lie outright.
- http://www.wired.com/2011/05/dropbox-ftc/
- http://www.pcworld.com/article/2048680/dropboxtakes-a-peek-at-files.html
- http://kevtownsend.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/dropbox-waits-almost-six-months-to-fix-a-flaw-thatprobably-took-less-than-a-day/
MISTAKE #6
Believing or expecting great, fast, responsive support.
Google does not provide phone/email/chat support for most of it’s products. Neither does Yahoo. Microsoft’s
Office365 support is laughably bad.
Unless your company is spending serious dollars (sixfigures per month or more), don’t expect any level of support.
MISTAKE #7
Assuming that moving to the cloud is cheaper or will save them money.
Moving to the cloud, like any other move, needs to be planned properly, and it will require technical, human and financial resources.
The cloud is not cheaper, and usage based billing can lead to sticker shock. As can vendor defaults that favor the use of more expensive services.
- http://kevtownsend.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/dropbox-waits-almost-six-months-to-fix-a-flaw-thatprobably-took-less-than-a-day/
- http://storageeffect.media.seagate.com/2011/06/storage-effect/in-stat-says-some-are-in-for-stickershock-using-cloud-storage/
- http://cloud-computing.learningtree.com/2010/07/30/microsoft-azure-%E2%80%A6-beware-the-stickershock/
- http://simonguest.com/2014/04/08/my-18534-25-amazon-bill/
- Cloud security flaw – http:www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/11/tutanota/
IBM, one of the largest CLOUD vendors in the world, banned SIRI, iCLOUD, Dropbox due to security concerns