To help your company embrace digital transformation through data migration, we’ve collected five of the most commonly cited myths about this area. By moving through each one of them and debunking them, we’ll demonstrate that data migration doesn’t have to be a scary and costly process. On the contrary, data migration can be a well-planned, efficient, and streamlined process that positively leads your business towards digital transformation.
Myth #1: Cloud Migration Costs a Lot of Money
Reality: Cloud migration is only costly to begin with, with cloud storage saving your business every single month. A huge misconception about cloud migration is that it’s simply not worth doing, as the upfront cost of migrating all of your local data will far exceed any savings you might be making. While cloud migration is certainly a fairly difficult process, it is not one that should take a lot of money when migrating. The main factors that could lead to cloud migration becoming costly are things like the cloud migration platform you use, how much data you’re moving, and how easy it is to integrate this data into the cloud data warehouse that you’ve chosen. Yet, even with all of these costs added together, they are only a temporary cost to your business. Especially if you’re working with a well-established platform that has processes in place to help you through the cloud migration process, it should only take a short amount of time to make sure that all of your data is completely migrated. From there, cloud services are significantly cheaper than any local storage. That’s not even mentioning the fact that if you need to scale your data management, on-site storage options would require you to build or rent an entire data center. When you move to the cloud, you instantly cut out every single cost of harvesting and storing that data apart from the warehouse storage itself. Operational expenses are almost minimal, meaning that after one or two months, you’ll already have made up the difference from the costly process.
Myth #2: Cloud Migration Is Extremely Difficult
Reality: Most cloud migration projects are poorly planned, which leads them to going over budget and over their intended time scale. With proper planning and structuring, the cloud migration process becomes a breeze. Data migration can be a fairly difficult process and one that often runs over budget or pushes past the original time scale expectations. In fact, over 75% of data migration projects will blow past their initial budget, demonstrating the extent to which this is commonly the fact within businesses. While one may see this statistic and instantly equate it to the perceived difficulty of cloud migration, there is actually more to the story. The main reason that these cloud data transfer programs fall behind schedule or over budget is that they are not well planned. Transferring data is not simply clicking and dragging your whole database from one site to another, there is much more to the story. If you want your cloud migration process to be as easy as possible, you should focus on creating a detailed strategy for your migration plan. What’s more, you should plan this around your own business goals, helping you to strategize the movement in a more effective manner. Once you have a good idea of what you’ll be moving and when, you’ll be in a much better position to execute a quick and easy cloud migration process.
Myth #3: Data Moved Onto The Cloud Through Migration Is Less Safe Than When On-Site
Reality: Many business owners don’t enable multi-factor authentication and other limitations on the data they migrate, missing out of the very best of what these cloud platforms have to offer. When it comes to on-site storage, your level of cyber security is only as good as the individuals that you have constructing defenses and aligning them with modern security tools. Due to business budget constraints or the simple fact that a security expert may not know that their security platform has a new update out, some businesses accidentally forego the best security available to them. On the other hand, cloud security platforms are incredibly effective as their whole job is to keep your company’s data safe. As a centralized data repository that’s accessible online, cloud data warehouses provide cutting-edge cyber security platforms and tools for all the data stored with them. When taking a look at comparisons of leading cloud data warehouses, like Snowflake Vs. Databricks, there is always a detailed section that directly comments on security. While cloud data warehouses always provide tools like encryption, separate customer keys, and table-level security, many businesses forget to enable them. For example, 71% of businesses forget to use multi-factor authentication on data they’ve moved to the cloud, with a further 56% using the same access passwords for extended periods of time. The truth of this myth isn’t that cloud warehouses have poor security; it’s that businesses aren’t putting them to use correctly. If anything, a cloud data warehouse has advanced security platforms and the highest possible level of cybersecurity support to keep your data safe. Equally, cloud platforms offer around-the-clock security coverage, something that you couldn’t access unless you hired staff to be working 24/7. While you could hire on-call security experts, this would rapidly eat into your security budget. With cloud, on the other hand, you’ll be migrating all of your data into a structure that is actively monitored. As the security and stability of the data of businesses is the core purpose of cloud data warehouses, they invest great amounts of money into top-of-the-range security platforms, as well as a team of around-the-clock cybersecurity experts. With this, your data will be much safer.
Myth #4: Data Migration to the Cloud is All-Or-Nothing
Reality: You are completely in control of the data architectures that your business relies on. If you like, you could have both on-site and cloud storage. It’s completely up to you, and the speed with which you move from one to the other can change as you warm up to cloud data storage. When some business leaders hear about data migration to the cloud, they see this as the end of on-site data locations. Especially if a business has spent a great deal of money on on-site data storage, they’re often less than excited about the idea of making the change. However, the simple fact is that you don’t have to take an all-or-nothing approach. On the contrary, your business can decide to take a hybrid approach to data storage. In fact, over 55% of businesses are currently using a hybrid approach, reflecting the truth of the matter as a matter of complete preference. While cloud storage has a range of benefits, some businesses aren’t ready to go through the transfer process just yet. But, you don’t have to wait for the moment when your business is ready to migrate all of your data. You can take a smaller approach, migrating certain aspects over time to the speed that works for you.
Myth #5 Digital Transformation Through Migration Is Just the Latest Trend
Reality: 94% of companies worldwide use cloud services, with over 50% of all total corporate data being held on cloud storage. Not to mention the vast benefits, the majority of companies have already found reasons to take the jump. The main reasons behind the move from on-site data storage to cloud data warehouse storage come down to the benefits that this new form of data storage can provide. For many businesses, cost is enough for them to make the change. But, when you migrate data, you’re also providing it with: ● Better security ● Accessibility ● Scalability ● Easy back-ups By going through the process of data migration, you’re able to bring a range of benefits to your company, using data as a core way of boosting your efficiency. This is not just some trend that has arisen out of nowhere, cloud services are all over a range of industries – there’s a reason that cloud computing is worth nearly $400 billion.
With These Myths Busted, What’s Stopping You?
While these myths are typically brought up when a business is thinking about making a change in how they manage their data, they are almost all incorrect or founded upon misinterpretations of the truth. The reality is that data migration to the cloud is not an extremely difficult and costly task, but rather one that simply requires a detailed plan in place and migration structure. The best approach your business can take when you decide to engage with the data migration process is simply not making any decisions too quickly. By planning out the data migration and ensuring that you’ve thought about every element, you’ll be in a much better position when it comes to streamlining the process. Don’t be followed by the data migration myths, embrace change and walk into this age of digital transformation.
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