A study from Lemongrass has found that IT leaders are migrating systems to the Cloud despite challenges as the benefits are too good to pass up…
Technological innovations have meant Cloud computing has become a popular and efficient way to handle your data. Companies are migrating to the Cloud from legacy systems, despite concerns about cost and complexity.
That’s the suggestion from a survey by Lemongrass of more than 150 IT leaders from companies with an annual IT budget of at least $1 million.
Respondents cited reasons for migrating to the Cloud such as securing data and saving money despite concerns about challenges including having the right skills in-house and sufficient planning.
The survey performed by Upwave covered the goals and challenges of enterprise IT leaders who have moved legacy systems onto Cloud infrastructure. Participants were from all major industries, with the majority (43%) working for technology companies.
The Findings
In response to the survey, 77% of IT leaders said their primary motivation for migrating legacy systems to Cloud infrastructure was either a desire to secure data, save money or maintain data access. Among other top reasons was to optimize storage and to accelerate digital transformation.
Data security is an important issue to all IT leaders, and 59% said that security and compliance was the top challenge facing enterprises when moving legacy systems to the Cloud. The research also found that additional issues respondents faced were that the cost was too high and there was a lack of in-house skills.
In regards to costs, 69% of the respondents said that the average cost for legacy to Cloud migration was between $100,000 and $250,000, and 57% stated that it was extremely rare for the project to come in under budget.
Once legacy systems were then running on the Cloud Lemongrass found people’s top challenges using the infrastructure were problems training end users, security issues not being sufficiently dealt with and Cloud platforms not doing as expected.
Lessons Learned
The survey found that the top three lessons learned when migrating to Cloud were:
- Allowing for sufficient time (54%)
- Dedicating adequate resources, financial and people (52%)
- Ensuring you have the correct skills/people in-house (52%)
The top three lessons learned when running legacy systems on Cloud infrastructure were:
- Allowing for enough time to manage the application (53%)
- Ensuring you have the correct skills/people in-house (52%)
- Ensuring you achieve the outline business goals (46%)
“The survey findings are very consistent with feedback we receive from our customers,” said Vince Lubsey, CTO at Lemongrass. “Enterprises are anxious to reap the benefits of moving legacy systems to the Cloud. They understand there are challenges but the benefits far outweigh the obstacles. The key to success is following best practices, proper training and time management. It also helps to have the guidance of an experienced partner to create the required Cloud operating model.”
IT leaders said that the top lessons they learned while migrating systems to the Cloud were:
- Dedicate sufficient financial resources
- Allow for sufficient time
- Ensure there are the right people and skills in-house
- Ensure the outlined business goals are achieved
Successful migrations to the Cloud can lead to a wealth of benefits, surveys show. For example, according to OpsRamp, the average savings from Cloud migration come to around 15% on all IT spending. Small and medium businesses benefit the most, as they spend 36% less money on IT that way. Moreover, 59% of companies report an increase in productivity after migrating apps and service to the Cloud, Microsoft says.
“The survey findings are very consistent with feedback we receive from our customers,” Lemongrass CTO Vince Lubsey said. “Enterprises … understand there are challenges but the benefits far outweigh the obstacles. The key to success is following best practices, proper training and time management. It also helps to have the guidance of an experienced partner to create the required Cloud operating model.”
Published: Technology Magazine
