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Forbes Technology Council

With so much buzz about cloud-based software, it’s easy to believe that most businesses are already operating in the cloud. Cloud adoption has indeed increased significantly — in fact, the number of organizations using hybrid cloud solutions grew from 19% in 2016 to 57% in 2017. However, that still means a significant number of companies haven’t yet joined the cloud.

It’s not entirely surprising: Despite the convenience and affordability of cloud solutions, the actual migration process presents a number of challenges, including training, security and lag time. We asked 10 members Forbes Technology Council to discuss the biggest challenge of moving over to the cloud and how businesses can overcome these obstacles.

1. Train IT Personnel For The Transition 

If your IT department has maintained its own servers for a long time, moving to the cloud can be a challenge, particularly because the personnel on staff may or may not have the skills necessary. This is where leveraging consultants from cloud providers can help make the transition and train your team to leverage the power of the cloud service you use. – Anand Sampat, Datmo

2. Deployment Strategy, Integration And Adoption 

These are the key challenges every company faces when migrating to the cloud. The business essentially will need to be rearchitected properly with a proper deployment strategy to take advantage of the technology being installed, and that’s more than just implementing software. It’s integrating process, software and business. Once the software is up and running, it’s adoption, adoption, adoption. – Tony Colon, Salesforce

3. Addressing Skill Gaps 

One of the biggest challenges companies face when migrating to the cloud is the gap in skills required in order to operate cloud workloads efficiently and securely at scale. Modern software architectures, cloud security concepts, virtualization tools, optimization patterns for metered services and auto-scaling techniques are areas of competence that many organizations struggle with. – Mark Benson, Exosite

4. Speed And Bandwidth 

Once all your services are in the cloud, your internet connection is even more critical. Not only will reliability be a concern but bandwidth will be as well. Sending copious amounts of data over a local network is fast and easy, but when your whole company has to work through a single connection to a cloud server, you need to be thoughtful of how much data is moving around and prepare accordingly. – Luke Wallace, Bottle Rocket

5. Security Maintenance And Management 

One of the key components of cloud management is security. It is often challenging to continue to maintain security in a cloud-based migration, and the endeavor should be managed very carefully. It is often easy to forget compliance to stored and migrated data requirements and regulations; however, it is essential to ensure protocols are met in the midst of migration versus post-migration. – Maria Clemens, Management and Network Services