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A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public
Cloud Migration Success
Improve Migration Results Through Discovery And Planning
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Overview
Cloud adoption continues to gain momentum, but organizations are finding limited success in their cloud
migrations to date. The reason? Poor organizational planning and inaccurate cost estimates during
discovery and planning can stymie success before the migration even begins. Organizations must
re-evaluate what they are doing before they begin their migration, or success may prove elusive during it.
This CloudHealth Technologies-commissioned profile of US IT decision makers at firms that are currently
migrating or have migrated workloads to public cloud platforms investigates common strategies and
challenges associated with public cloud migration in order to identify what organizations can do during
discovery and planning to ensure a successful migration.
Demographics
Geography
› US: 100%
Demographics
Company size
› 20,000 or more: 19%
› 5,000 to 19,999: 31%
› 1,000 to 4,999: 50%
Demographics
Title
› C-level or VP: 30%
› Director: 28%
› Manager: 42%
Demographics
Workload migration status
› Currently migrating: 77%
› Already migrated: 23%
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
The Future Of Cloud Strategy Is Hybrid
Public cloud adoption continues to accelerate as organizations
migrate existing applications to the cloud and build net-new
applications in the cloud to capitalize on benefits like improved
infrastructure flexibility and cost savings. Forrester’s Business
Technographics Global Infrastructure Survey 2016 shows that one-
third of North American firms have adopted public cloud today, with
an additional 13% planning to in 2017.
But as cloud maturity increases, organizations realize that cloud is
not a one-size-fits-all solution, and that multiple cloud deployment
types are needed to best handle different workloads and satisfy
business expectations. Forrester’s data shows that using multiple
deployment types is a top priority for most organizations. In fact,
68% of firms that have adopted public cloud say that they are
pursuing a hybrid strategy.
A hybrid and multicloud strategy requires a systematic approach in
order to continually assess applications and identify the best fit
platform and architecture. Complete and comprehensive workload
profiles during the discovery and planning phase are critical to
optimize costs, maximize benefits, and ensure the overall success of
cloud migration.
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
Public cloud migration is not
easy: Less than half of
respondents (43%) considered
their most recent migration to
public cloud as a success overall.
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Less Than Half Of Firms Report Public
Cloud Migration As Successful
Many firms aggressively prioritize cloud services under the
expectation of improved performance and cost reduction. However,
less than half of firms migrating workloads to IaaS thought that their
most recent migration met or exceeded most of their goals — a
scary figure if you are the one responsible for reporting the results of
your migration to the CEO. Our survey shows that firms find the
following aspects of their migration particularly difficult:
› Costs. Less than 40% of firms met or exceeded most of the goals
related to both migration and run costs.
› Business satisfaction. Only 41% of firms met or exceeded most
goals related to business satisfaction
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OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
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Costs tend to be higher than
expected: Most firms today
underestimate costs associated
with cloud usage and migration.
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Firms Struggle To Accurately Forecast
Cloud Migration And Operational Costs
A major component of dissatisfaction with public cloud migration is
cost complexity. Cloud platforms promise greater agility and
flexibility using dynamic cost structures to align spend with usage.
While this pay-per-use model has the potential to curb spend on
transient workloads, unpredictable user patterns translate to
unpredictable costs. As a result,
› Less than 40% of firms were able to predict cloud platform costs,
with 58% claiming run costs were higher than estimated.
› Firms also underestimated nonplatform costs associated with
running and maintaining service quality on a public cloud.
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OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
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A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Unprepared organizations
struggle to leverage the
benefits of public cloud: Firms
struggle to close the skills gap
introduced by cloud, citing the
difficulty of properly training staff
both during and after migration.
Lack Of Organizational Readiness Stymies Success Both During
And After Migration
In addition to costs, organizations struggle against legacy processes and from lack of internal support and
skills. During migration, firms struggled to secure approval from the security and financial stakeholders,
and after migration, organizations took a productivity hit, underestimating developer hours required for
app redesign and time spent on staff retraining. Compounding these challenges, less than a quarter of
respondents involve their security and AppDev teams in cloud migration planning. Firms must collaborate
across all stakeholders in order to properly realign processes and skills to support cloud usage.
Base: 108 US IT decision makers responsible for public cloud (IaaS) strategy at firms migrating workloads to public cloud IaaS
Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of CloudHealth Technologies, April 2017
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
Incomplete workload
assessments invalidate cost
projections: 63% of firms
struggled with app profiling,
adding to uncertainty of cost
estimates given the relationship
between workload patterns and
platform costs.
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Migration Success Requires Deep
Understanding Of Workloads And
Interdependencies
Today’s cloud migration complexity means hidden dangers lurk in
the form of costs to rework applications for cloud infrastructure and
escalating costs from apps that are not optimized to run on cloud
platforms. To ensure a successful cloud migration, firms must make
sure they take the time in discovery and planning to identify what
workloads would run best in public cloud and understand the
interdependencies between the apps that are migrating. But these
things are easier said than done. In particular, organizations struggle
with workload dependency mapping — 69% of survey respondents
say this is challenging or very challenging.
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OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
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Continuous improvement requires continuous feedback:
While 69% of firms claimed to leverage cost modeling and
scenario analysis tools, 46% of firms require additional tools to
increase performance visibility.
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Firms Invest In Visibility And Education To
Improve Migration Success
For most organizations, cloud migration is not a one-time affair and
is often part of an ongoing modernization initiative. Not only do app-
centric strategies require upfront profiling, but continuous migration
assessments are required as architectures shift, apps reach end of
life, and new services are built. With each successive migration,
firms must learn from their prior challenges in order to increase the
success of future projects. In order to improve the outcome, during
the discovery and planning phase firms should strive to:
› Increase visibility, education, and time spent on application
profiling to ensure performance, organizational competence, and
cost optimization during and after cloud migration.
› Involve more business stakeholders in order to realign security
and budgeting processes for a cloud-first mandate.
FORRESTER.COM
OVERVIEW SITUATION CHALLENGE OPPORTUNITY CONCLUSIONS
Greater visibility will improve
success: Not only will
increased visibility help to
optimize performance and cost,
but holistic information serves
as a collaboration point across
stakeholders
A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By CloudHealth Technologies | May 2017
Due Diligence Is The Cornerstone Of Public Cloud Migration Success
Project Director
Andrew Magarie
Senior Market Impact
Consultant
Conclusions
Cloud migration should not be thought of as a one-time project, but a continuous process that requires
thoughtful re-assessment and re-alignment to maximize the potential value of cloud. For most
organizations:
› Cloud migration is not easy, and most struggle to achieve all stated goals
› Cost complexity is the largest source of confusion and misaligned expectations
› Due diligence in the discovery and planning phases are critical to identify the best fit workloads and
prepare the organization for this transition
METHODOLOGY
› This Technology Adoption Profile was commissioned by CloudHealth Technologies. To create this
profile, we leveraged Forrester’s Global Business Technographics Infrastructure Survey, 2016 and
surveyed 108 IT decision makers responsible for public cloud (IaaS) strategy. The custom survey was
completed in April 2017. For more information on Forrester’s data panel and Tech Industry Consulting
services, visit Forrester.com.
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© 2017, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on
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