Cloud Migration Cost Traps

Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner, Lydia Leong's point of view -  

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An increasing number of cloud mass migrations are technical successes but business failures -- that is, the applications work, but organizations haven't gotten their desired outcomes. This trend is the result of multiple different types of shifts in the market, and both customers and vendors are at fault.

But cloud repatriation (mass migration reversal) is not a thing -- no enterprises are deciding to bring their workloads back on-premises after exiting their data centers in favor of cloud. Instead, organizations endure, revisit or redo ("remigrate") their post-migration situation.

The most common missing desired outcome is TCO reduction, and there are four key things to blame:

1. Poorly-conceived migrations (FOMO on provider migration deals, resume-driven migrations, etc.)

2. The deterioration of the cloud MSP ecosystem (useless cloud provider MSP partner badging programs, horrifyingly inconsistent MSP delivery quality, etc.)

3. Systematic oversizing of workloads ("for more headroom") and unwillingness to commit to RIs/saving plans/other commitment-based incentives.

4. Failure to transform operations (since renting cloud IaaS is more expensive than purchasing on-prem assets, TCO reduction must be ops-focused, largely through achieving labor cost savings).