The current macroeconomic climate has brought about significant changes in the way businesses operate.
As companies push for resilience and speed, cloud adoption keeps climbing. In Foundry’s 2025 Cloud Computing Study, 70% of IT decision-makers say their enterprises accelerated cloud migration in the past 12 months, and 70% report they’re defaulting to cloud-based services for new capabilities. Flexera’s 2024 State of the Cloud echoes this momentum: 61% of enterprises plan to migrate more workloads to the cloud, and “heavy” cloud users now represent 71%, up from 65% year over year—evidence of a sustained shift away from legacy, on-premises systems to modern, cloud-first tools and workloads.
This trend underscores the significance of transferring data to the cloud as companies endeavor to maintain their competitive edge and adjust to evolving market conditions. Nonetheless, migrating data to the cloud can be intimidating and intricate, emphasizing the need to tackle it with compassion and comprehension of the obstacles. Let us explore these challenges and discover effective strategies to surmount them.
What is Cloud Data Migration?
Cloud data migration involves transferring data storage and workloads from on-premises data warehouses to cloud-based infrastructure. It offers numerous benefits, such as agility, scalability, cost optimization, and rapid innovation. As enterprises generate vast amounts of data, efficient storage and accessibility play a vital role in business success.
Choosing the right data migration solution is crucial and should be considered early in planning. Factors like data volume, migration time, workload types, and security requirements influence the choice. There are two main types of data migration solutions: online migration, which involves data movement over the internet or through a private or dedicated WAN connection, and offline migration, which physically transfers data using a storage device.
Challenges of Data Migration in the Cloud
Cloud migration significantly benefits enterprises seeking to increase service availability and scalability while reducing costs. However, it also presents various challenges that must be carefully managed to ensure a successful transition to the cloud. This technical overview will examine the top challenges enterprises face when migrating to the cloud and the strategies to overcome them.
Data Volume
Moving large amounts of data to the cloud isn’t a small task. It can take time and significant resources. Careful planning helps avoid disruptions and ensures that all data remains accurate and intact throughout the migration.
Data Formats and Structures
Legacy systems often store data in different formats, with varying quality and incompatible structures. Before migration, it’s vital to clean, transform, and standardize this data so it fits seamlessly into the new cloud environment.
Data Security and Compliance
Security can’t be an afterthought. It’s essential to evaluate a cloud provider’s security and compliance standards. Protecting sensitive data during transfer and storage requires encryption, strict access controls, and compliance with regulatory guidelines.
Bandwidth and Network Connectivity
Weak or unstable network connections can slow down the migration process. Assessing network capacity and using techniques like data compression or incremental backups can make data transfer faster and more reliable.
Application Compatibility
Not all applications are ready for the cloud right away. Some may need to be reconfigured or customized, which can extend timelines and add costs. Identifying and addressing these challenges early ensures smoother transitions.
Project Management and Coordination
A well-structured migration plan is the backbone of success. Clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and communication channels help teams stay aligned. Strong coordination across departments ensures migration stays on track and meets business goals.
By proactively addressing these challenges, enterprises can navigate the cloud data migration process more effectively. This approach ensures a successful transition while preserving data integrity, security, and operational efficiency.
The Seven Steps for Successful Cloud Data Migration
Cloud computing has become a necessary strategic methodology for enterprises to maintain and gain a competitive advantage. However, cloud data migrations can be complex, particularly when a company’s IT infrastructure comprises myriad vintages of systems designed internally or with third-party developers and internal and external service providers. Here is a carefully considered seven-step plan crucial for a successful cloud data migration.
Step 1: Create a Data Migration Plan
A data migration plan helps mitigate the risks associated with data loss and security breaches and ensures that the enterprise’s expectations are clear from the beginning. It is advisable to connect the on-premises and cloud databases with a bi-directional syncing mechanism and only delete the database once users have access to the cloud and have tested this new environment.
Alternatively, an on-premises database with a one-way synchronization to a cloud-based database can only allow users to access the on-premises version during the migration process. Utilizing the services of a cloud-migration service provider can be helpful if an enterprise needs to gain the skill set to perform this process in-house.
Step 2: Understand the Data Before Starting
It is crucial to understand the data’s scope and context before beginning the data migration process. An incomplete understanding of data can lead to code errors, extensive data remodeling, and extra work from transferring obsolete or duplicate data to the new cloud environment. Therefore, understanding the data allows for the elimination of unnecessary additions, making the migration task more straightforward, streamlined, and valuable in the long run.
Step 3: Choose the Level of Cloud Integration
Cloud integration happens at various levels. Enterprises can explore the range of cloud migration methods before selecting the one that best meets their needs. The two most common data integration methods are shallow integration and deep integration. Shallow integration methods, more commonly known as lift-and-shift, involve simply copying all data and applications from an on-premises architecture and pasting it into the cloud platform as they are.
On the other hand, deep integration requires decoupling resources from their original operating system and making necessary adjustments before integrating them into the cloud. Deep integration may be initially more expensive, but it leads to cloud-optimized resources, saving maintenance costs in the long run.
Step 4: Ready Your Workforce for the Shift
Cloud application management and cloud data centers operate differently from local and routine virtualized resources. Thus, training staff members involved in the cloud data migration process is crucial. An enterprise can outsource staff experienced with cloud platforms or partner with IT service providers who can support & manage the end-to-end migration process. Others prefer to retrain and upskill existing staff to manage this process in-house. Cloud education should start before cloud migration begins to ensure a successful transition.
Step 5: Assess the Migration Tools Available
Choosing the right tools for cloud data migration is critical to a successful transition. Various cloud migration tools, including those that can manage specific types of data migrations, such as structured, unstructured, or semi-structured data, are available. It is essential to assess the tools available and select the most suitable for the enterprise’s needs.
Step 6: Prioritize Security and Compliance
Security and compliance should be top priorities during the cloud data migration process. Enterprises should evaluate their cloud service provider’s security measures and ensure their compliance requirements are met. It’s essential to understand the security risks and threats involved in cloud migration and take the necessary steps to protect data and applications. Encryption is one of the most critical components of cloud security, ensuring that sensitive data is protected while in transit and at rest.
Step 7: Monitor and Optimize Your Cloud
The responsibilities of an enterprise don’t stop once data is migrated to the cloud. Continuous monitoring of the cloud environment is necessary to ensure it remains optimized and any issues are quickly resolved. Enterprises should also optimize the cloud environment by automating backups and disaster recovery and scaling processes. This helps reduce operational costs and ensures companies get the most out of their cloud investment.
Benefits of Data Migration to the Cloud
Data migration to the cloud offers many benefits to enterprises of all sizes. Enterprises receive several prominent advantages when they shift to the cloud, including:
- Scalability: Flexibly scale resources to meet business needs
- Cost-Effectiveness: Reduce costs and improve budgets
- Integration: Seamlessly integrate with other systems
- Disaster Recovery: Quick and easy recovery solutions
- Flexibility: Adjust bandwidth and storage requirements
- Mobility: Access data and applications on the go
- Security: Ensure data protection and privacy
- Less Maintenance: Let cloud providers manage the infrastructure
- Competitiveness: Stay ahead of the curve with enterprise-class technology
- Environment-Friendly: Embrace sustainable solutions with less impact
Best Practices for Cloud Data Migration
Successful cloud data migration begins with a clear strategy and thorough assessment. Enterprises should start by evaluating their existing infrastructure, data dependencies, and workloads to determine the best migration approach—be it lift-and-shift, re-platforming, or re-architecting. Prioritizing data integrity and minimizing downtime are crucial. Establishing robust backup plans, conducting pilot migrations, and ensuring data validation at each stage can help avoid costly errors. Equally important is selecting the right cloud provider and services that align with performance, scalability, and compliance needs.
Equally vital is security and governance. Implementing strong encryption during transit and at rest, defining clear access controls, and maintaining compliance with industry standards (such as GDPR or HIPAA) safeguard sensitive data. Automation tools and AI-driven migration platforms can accelerate the process while reducing manual errors. Continuous monitoring and optimization post-migration ensure that systems perform efficiently and cost-effectively. Ultimately, viewing migration as an iterative, well-governed process—not a one-time event—sets the foundation for long-term cloud success.
Use Cases of Effective Cloud Data Migration
One common use case is enterprise modernization, where enterprises move legacy databases and applications to the cloud to enhance agility, performance, and scalability. For instance, financial institutions migrating their data warehouses to the cloud benefit from real-time analytics, enabling faster insights and better decision-making. Similarly, healthcare providers transferring electronic health records (EHRs) to secure cloud platforms gain improved interoperability, accessibility, and compliance management—enhancing patient care while reducing operational overhead.
Another key use case is data-driven innovation. Businesses migrating customer and operational data to cloud-native environments can leverage AI and machine learning services to unlock predictive insights and automate workflows. Retailers, for example, use migrated cloud data to personalize shopping experiences and forecast demand more accurately. Manufacturing firms employ cloud analytics to optimize supply chains and monitor production in real time. Across industries, effective cloud data migration not only reduces costs and enhances scalability but also paves the way for continuous innovation and digital transformation.
How Hexaware Drives Successful Data Cloud Migration
Our cloud transformation product suite Amaze®, an innovative homegrown end-to-end platform, modernizes cloud and data for enterprises. This breakthrough technology has the unique ability to streamline the transformation of legacy systems, on-premises infrastructure, and dated applications into cloud-ready architecture, set to be deployed across various cloud environments.
Complementing this, our data product line provides comprehensive, automated solutions for end-to-end data migration, encompassing data, pipelines, and analytics. It also offers robust and optimized data warehouse services. These features are instrumental in transitioning on-premises data warehouse ecosystems to the cloud. Furthermore, our infrastructure product line provides a systematic and efficient lift, tweak, and shift migration methodology. This approach allows for reliable infrastructure migration in a manner that ensures repeatable success.
Our approach at Hexaware is built on high levels of automation throughout the process, from discovery, assessment, and conversion to data migration. This results in significant savings in time and effort. A factory-driven, defined migration and strong strategic partnerships with different hyperscalers lend versatility to our platform-led solutions, making them cloud-agnostic and customizable to client needs.
At Hexaware, our cloud migration services span the entire cloud value chain, empowering forward-thinking enterprises to unlock value and enhance customer experiences. Our approach prioritizes your business requirements and leverages automation, AI, and analytics to develop industry-specific solutions for simplified cloud migration.
