Everyone is moving data from one location to another directly or indirectly, this process is known as Data Migration. Nowadays, the concept of data migration has changed a lot due to the advancement in technology. In most of the cases, data migration involves combining two different databases or data sources into one. On the other hand, cloud data migration is becoming very popular among organizations and businesses. As both small and large organizations are frequently moving data to their own private and public cloud. With the cloud, various tasks such as data storage, management, security have become more efficient.
However, there is a large section of people who still think that cloud data management is effective or not. Just like everything, cloud data migration also has some pros and cons. Now, it becomes important for the user to understand the pros and cons of data migration.
Table of Contents
Advantages of Data Migration to Cloud
There are numerous benefits associated with data migration to the cloud. Moreover, there several organizations that are already availing the advantages of the data migration to the cloud. Some of the pros are explained in the section given below:
1. Save Huge Data Storage Costs
The company can eliminate the investments on servers, PCs, and other data storage devices by moving data to the cloud. Additionally, the company can store a large amount of data on the cloud without investing in IT infrastructure.
2. Flexible Scalability and Increased Collaboration
With data migration to the cloud, collaboration tasks are no more pain for the companies or businesses. One can easily collaborate on projects by sharing data over the cloud. Moreover, the cloud environment also allows the employees to access the shared data and work simultaneously on it. With cloud computing, the team member of an organization can easily log in, access data and work on it from anywhere.
3. Reliable Backup Facility
Most of the companies, often neglect the task of taking regular backup of data stored on the local server or personal computers. As a result of which they have to face data loss issues. But with data migration to the cloud, the user does not have to worry about the backups. Cloud providers offer data backup solutions on a regular basis to avoid all the data loss issues.
4. Pay-per-user Billing
On the cloud, the company can pay for resources or applications they are using. The cost depends on what they are using and how much amount. The software used by the company is upgraded timely without any extra costs via the cloud service providers.
5. Superior Disaster Recovery
Automatic data backup is created by Cloud system at regular intervals. This makes disaster recovery much easier for the user who uses the cloud platform to store and manage data. Additionally, the user can recover all the data stored on the cloud in case of any catastrophic situation.
Disadvantages of Data Migration to Cloud
Cloud data management has numerous advantages associated with it. Still, there are many organizations who face various cloud migration issues while moving their data to the cloud. This is due to the challenges that occur Due the data migration process. Some of the major cons of data migration are explained in the section given below
1. Business Downtime
To access data on the cloud, download/upload files from and to the cloud and to perform other tasks on the cloud an Internet connection with good bandwidth is very important. Sometimes, situations occur in which the cloud service provider loses connectivity, the company face an Internet outage, etc. In these scenarios, there is business downtime until the connectivity is restored. Therefore, it is very essential to maintain the consistent Internet connection while migrating data to the cloud.
2. Unexpected Initial Migration Issues
In case, if the organization is having a large amount of data to be migrated to the cloud then the organization will be charged if the data outbound transfer goes beyond the basic monthly allowance. The organization will be charged mostly on the per GB basis. Moreover, the businesses that need to download data from cloud data storage or cloud applications on Thee regular basis might have to pay additional costs.
3. Data Security can be Compromised
However, cloud providers always guarantee to provide the most sophisticated and latest data security systems. But activities such as data breach, hacking, etc. can lead to leakage of all the critical and confidential data stored on the cloud.
4. Cloud Apps Cloud be Inflexible at Times
There are some cloud apps that are inflexible as a result of which the organization has to face the major problem. This is one of the most serious disadvantages for a company or business. Additionally, there are few cloud vendors that have various data formats, and Application, which cannot be converted easily into other file formats.
5. Platform Dependency
Sometimes, various differences occur between the business and the vendor system which makes it difficult to switch from one platform to another. There are few vendors also who lock their customers from using prime software by making it very expensive. When the company needs to reconfigure applications to meet the specific requirements, cloud providers make this task expensive.
Summing Up
With all the drawbacks or cloud migration risks, the cloud platform still has numerous capabilities and features to support different business models. It offers a cost-effective and hassle-free IT management to the organizations. Moreover, the best way is to analyze and understand the requirements of a business or company and then migrate data to the cloud. It will help the organizations to prevent security issues related to Cloud.
