“Read me a story about cloud migration.” (And How It Can Cost a Fortune) [new eBook]

“Read me a story about cloud migration,” said the teddy bear to the little girl.

“I left that one at home," said the girl. "But I can read this one to you.”

The little girl opened her favorite book.

“Once upon a time . . .

. . . there was a princess who lived in a castle,” she read out loud. “She had gold and a fortune and a purple pony. And she lived happily ever after.”

“I’ll bet it wasn’t happily ever after her cloud migration,” the teddy bear said. “I’ve never heard of one yet that resulted in happily ever after.”

“Really?”

“Well, it’s happily ever after for some people. Like the application developers and QA teams and backup admins. But you know who has to pay for it all?”

“Who?” asked the little girl.

“Why, the princess in the castle does.”

“Oh, no! Not the princess!”

“That’s right,” said the teddy bear gravely. “Oh, at first she may not have to pay very much. But over time, she has to pay more of her gold and fortune to manage and maintain cloud workloads.”

“Oh, no! Does she get to keep her purple pony?”

“Not always,” answered the teddy bear.

“But why does she have to pay so much?” the little girl asked, greatly concerned.

“Because most cloud migrations are poorly planned. Companies end up with virtual machines that nobody ever uses and long-term storage in the wrong tier. They have to pay huge storage and network usage fees.”

“Why does that happen?”

Sometimes, people dive into the cloud before they understand everything,” answered the teddy bear, “even their own infrastructure. They rush into the cloud without planning properly.”

“Why don’t they plan?”

“It’s not always easy to plan cloud migration. The best way is to figure out current data center expenses, compare costs among cloud providers, estimate execution costs and build a model of post-migration expenses. But it’s hard to see all of the costs involved in a single place and figure them out.”

“I hope the princess knows how to figure them out.”

Cloud migration tales

Many of our customers — princesses and non-princesses — have related tales about migrating to the cloud (and inadvertently paying through the nose for it). So many, in fact, that we’ve released a new eBook called The Tricky Business of Cloud Migration Costs. It’s a cautionary tale about moving to (or from) the cloud, while paying for it without unpleasant surprises.

As we point out in the eBook, the cloud may be the greatest thing since talking teddy bears, but it’s not always the least expensive option. Successful migration happens when you figure out which cloud provider is the best fit (cost, features, technology, performance), take a hard look at which workloads to migrate, and then monitor diligently.

Now, where were we?

Read yourself a story about cloud migration

If the princess is as smart as you and downloads the eBook, she can figure out her cloud migration costs. She’ll spend less of her gold and her fortune, and her purple pony will be safe.

Have a look at The Tricky Business of Cloud Migration Costs, the cautionary tale we’ve based on the experiences of our own customers. Learn from a few migration lessons so you can get the most out of cloud computing through better planning.

And who knew teddy bears had so much to say about cloud migration?

Photo credit: Photo by Andy Kuzma from Pexels