The Hidden Costs of Lift-and-Shift Cloud Migration
When enterprises decide to migrate to the cloud, the lift-and-shift option usually appears to be the most expedient and painless way out. It is as easy as lifting and shifting. Lift your existing applications, data, and workloads out of the on-premises environment and shift it to the cloud in major code change, with zero disruption to the business, and minimal downtime.
On a broad face value, it seems to be a potent migration model, low work high pay. Yet, lurking under the surface is a set of latent expenses and inefficiencies and future constraints that many organizations can never consider before it is too late.
Of these softer concerns about lift-and-shift migrations, this article has discussed some of the less familiar disadvantages of such migrations, the dangers that can befall when such migration moves too fast, and how you can be smarter and more strategic than the best-known pitfalls.
When enterprises decide to migrate to the cloud, the lift-and-shift option usually appears to be the most expedient and painless way out. It is as easy as lifting and shifting. Lift your existing applications, data, and workloads out of the on-premises environment and shift it to the cloud in major code change, with zero disruption to the business, and minimal downtime.
On a broad face value, it seems to be a potent migration model, low work high pay. Yet, lurking under the surface is a set of latent expenses and inefficiencies and future constraints that many organizations can never consider before it is too late.
Of these softer concerns about lift-and-shift migrations, this article has discussed some of the less familiar disadvantages of such migrations, the dangers that can befall when such migration moves too fast, and how you can be smarter and more strategic than the best-known pitfalls.
The Hidden Costs of Lift-and-Shift Cloud Migration
When enterprises decide to migrate to the cloud, the lift-and-shift option usually appears to be the most expedient and painless way out. It is as easy as lifting and shifting. Lift your existing applications, data, and workloads out of the on-premises environment and shift it to the cloud in major code change, with zero disruption to the business, and minimal downtime.
On a broad face value, it seems to be a potent migration model, low work high pay. Yet, lurking under the surface is a set of latent expenses and inefficiencies and future constraints that many organizations can never consider before it is too late.
Of these softer concerns about lift-and-shift migrations, this article has discussed some of the less familiar disadvantages of such migrations, the dangers that can befall when such migration moves too fast, and how you can be smarter and more strategic than the best-known pitfalls.
When enterprises decide to migrate to the cloud, the lift-and-shift option usually appears to be the most expedient and painless way out. It is as easy as lifting and shifting. Lift your existing applications, data, and workloads out of the on-premises environment and shift it to the cloud in major code change, with zero disruption to the business, and minimal downtime.
On a broad face value, it seems to be a potent migration model, low work high pay. Yet, lurking under the surface is a set of latent expenses and inefficiencies and future constraints that many organizations can never consider before it is too late.
Of these softer concerns about lift-and-shift migrations, this article has discussed some of the less familiar disadvantages of such migrations, the dangers that can befall when such migration moves too fast, and how you can be smarter and more strategic than the best-known pitfalls.
Begin with a Complete Evaluation
Evaluate your whole IT environment before you migrate. Determine what applications take priority, what is not utilized and which ones can be modernized. Not every workload is suitable in the cloud, and not everyone needs an identical migration approach.
Categorize tasks by the complexity, interdependencies, the compliance needs, and costing profiles. It shall assist you in drawing up a road map that is business value oriented and long term aligned.
Right-Size and Optimize
You cannot assume that configuration fits well in the cloud. Monitor the tools and assess the real use and performance indicators. On this information, tune your instance types, network setups and storage levels to suit your need at a better scale.
This game plan of proactive right-sizing is potentially quite a cost-effective solution in addition to enhanced performance as full refactor is not required.
Think of Hybrid Approach
Not all should be moved at a time. Part of the modernization may be suitable in some applications, e.g., only migration of databases to a managed cloud service and leaving the application stack on virtual machines.
Combining lift-and-shift with selective refactoring would also ensure fewer changes in the system, but it would deliver the benefits of cloud-native support where most needed.
Cost of Governance and FinOps
After entering the cloud, the control over cost should be a constant exercise. Introduce tags, budget reminders, and report all the details of the scenery spent on clouds across teams and projects. Encourage FinOps culture across their IT and financial professionals to support responsibility and efficiency.
Without visibility and discipline, cloud costs are easily allowed to spiral. By developing cost awareness into your culture now, you will avoid many unfriendly surprises.
Finally, What I learned: Be Fast But Not Inert
Lift-and-shift may be the speediest approach to getting into the cloud, however, unless you plan and strategize, it may become an expensive distraction. It is not only a matter of swiftness, but soundness, in the movement.
CloudLogically assists companies to think past migration checklists. We are consulting based on the long-term development of efficient cloud strategies targeted at maximum performance, cost controls, and risk minimization.
Have you been thinking about migrating to the cloud? Or have you already made the-off change and found you have unplanned expenses? We can assist.
So, we can help you get the most out of your move and how to gain maximum value from the cloud.
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We’ve received your request for an AI Readiness, Safety, and Security Assessment.
A member of our advisory team will review your submission and reach out within 1–2 business days to discuss next steps. This initial conversation is exploratory and focused on understanding your context, not selling services.
