Cloud migration for SMEs: 5 mistakes to avoid before you start
Cloud infrastructure is consistently presented as the solution to SME IT problems. Less hardware, less maintenance, more flexibility. That’s often true — but only when the migration is properly prepared. Here are the 5 most frequent mistakes, and what they actually cost.
Mistake 1: migrating without an inventory first
The first temptation is to “move everything to the cloud” without first listing what exists. Physical servers, software licences, application data, dependencies between systems — if you don’t know what you have, you can’t plan what can be migrated, what needs reconfiguration, and what should simply be retired.
The real cost: partial migrations that create undocumented hybrid environments, double hosting costs running for 6 to 12 months, and unplanned outages when dependencies break unexpectedly.
Mistake 2: choosing a provider without objective criteria
Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, OVH, Scaleway — each platform has its strengths and limitations. Many SMEs choose their cloud provider because a consultant recommended it, or because it’s the most recognisable name. That’s not necessarily wrong, but it’s not a method either.
The criteria that actually matter: data residency (GDPR compliance), pricing model relative to your usage patterns, available in-house skills to administer the platform, and real SLAs — not the ones featured in brochures.
Mistake 3: underestimating recurring costs
Cloud can be cheaper than physical infrastructure. It can also be significantly more expensive if the consumption model isn’t properly calibrated. The classic trap: oversized instances running 24/7, backups multiplied without a retention policy, storage services accumulating without any monitoring.
As part of our IT steering engagements, cloud cost reviews are part of the monthly routine specifically to catch silent cost drift before it compounds.
Mistake 4: ignoring security after migration
An on-premise server physically isolated in your office has a very different attack surface than cloud infrastructure exposed to the internet. Moving to the cloud must come with a review of access controls, network rules (firewalls, security groups) and multi-factor authentication.
Many SMEs migrate their servers to the cloud by replicating the same configuration they had on-premise — without adapting security rules to the new context. It’s a common mistake and potentially a serious one.
Mistake 5: not planning a rollback
A cloud migration should always be reversible, at least in its early phases. Before migrating any critical system, ask: if the migration fails or performance is unacceptable, how do we roll back? How long does it take? With what data integrity?
This rollback plan is rarely formalised. Yet it’s what allows a migration to proceed calmly and gives teams confidence throughout the project.
What good preparation changes
A well-prepared cloud migration takes longer to start — typically 4 to 6 weeks for inventory and architecture design — but executes faster and avoids costly back-and-forth. Savings materialise within the first months, without production incidents.
Planning a cloud migration? Talk to us about your current setup before deciding what to migrate, in what order, and to which platform.