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The Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has called on cloud service providers (CSPs) to do more to assist with the process of cloud migration for their customers after new research reveals difficulties associated with moving to the cloud.
The CIF survey, which polled 250 senior IT and business decision-makers from the public and private sectors, found only 10% of respondents saying their transition to cloud services “could not have been improved.” 38% of those polled said they had issues relating to the complexity of migration, while a further 30% had difficulties with data sovereignty.
The challenges don’t begin once migration is underway, either: more than a quarter (27%) said they had contractual obstacles from the start, such as clarity of liability. A similar number (28%) said they encountered a brief drop in employee productivity.
Previous research from the CIF has focused predominantly on the growth in cloud adoption. Yet this time around, cloud providers are urged to give more focus on their customers to aid their migration. Michel Robert, Claranet UK managing director, said: “In spite of the growing maturity of the delivery model, cloud migration issues haven’t gone away and are increasing along with adoption levels.
“The IT arrangements of many businesses, particularly those in the mid-market, are incredibly complex, and, increasingly, service providers need to take more of an active role in helping businesses to unpick them and devise migration strategies for their customers,” he added.
In May, the CIF argued the uptake of cloud computing services in business will increase due to the impending shutdown of Windows Server 2003 (WS2003) support, with CRM the most likely application to become cloud-based in the next 12 months. This migration path is long and twisted, as Nick East, CEO of hybrid cloud provider Zynstra, told this publication in April.
Alex Hilton, Cloud Industry Forum CEO, explained how customers should ask their service provider to have appropriate credentials, but equally should have sufficient knowledge on how cloud services can support their business objectives. Elsewhere, Oscar Arean, technical operations manager at Databarracks, argues the “slow” migration from WS2003 so far has been driven by caution, rather than complacency.