MFT cloud migration: 5 reasons not to lift-and-shift — and what to do instead

In the race to move systems and applications to the cloud, many businesses rely on a “lift-and-shift” approach to accelerate their efforts. While this strategy successfully moves digital assets — in this case, business files — from one environment to the next, it fails to look at the larger picture and, in doing so, leads to some common pitfalls.

Here are 5 reasons why lift-and-shift isn’t the best choice for MFT cloud migration and how to pivot your thinking to a more modern, future-proof solution.

1. Performance issues

A lift-and-shift migration strategy operates under the assumption that if it worked on-premises, it should also work in the cloud. However, that’s not always the case. For instance, your on premises workloads could have higher latency in the cloud, making it more challenging to adhere to SLAs from the on-premises environment.

2. Missed opportunities

While lift-and-shift strategies provide a path to digital transformation, they fail to realize the full potential of cloud-native operations. Because technical debt is carried to the cloud — whether it’s a matter of unused or outdated code — there is much less agility and scalability gained with a lift-and-shift approach.

3. Security concerns

Just as the performance of digital assets can change in the cloud, the same can be said for their security. One issue with a lift-and-shift strategy is it doesn’t account for adapting your security posture for these new cloud configurations. For instance, on-premises workloads with weaker access rights can be migrated over to the cloud and expose this vulnerability in a more costly way.

4. Heightened costs

Moving digital assets as-is can seem like a cost-effective option from a time standpoint. But in reality, a lift-and-shift strategy often has a much higher total cost of ownership. That’s because the assets are not optimized for the cloud. While offboarding on-premises storage and computing costs, the workloads can carry more computer power and memory with them to the cloud than they need to perform — and that can increase subsequent storage costs.

5. Limited agility

By nature, cloud migration is meant to modernize business operations for the future. When legacy operating systems and architectures are simply moved to the cloud, the cloud becomes more of a data center and less of a means for digital transformation. It fails to identify ways to optimize performance, security, and other elements that are key to long-term success.

Move away from lift-and-shift to a new train of thought

Rather than making MFT cloud migration a matter of simply moving files, use this as an opportunity to modernize and future-proof your MFT solution. After all, MFT is the lifeblood of your organization, so you want to ensure it functions at the optimal level and delivers long-term value to the business in the form of agility, competitiveness, and profitability.

For more MFT cloud migration best practices, watch this on-demand webinar.