{
  "id": 6740737,
  "title": "What Should an IT Head Check Before Moving Critical Workloads to the Cloud?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/what-should-an-it-head-check-before-moving-critical-workloads-to-the",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-11T10:13:37.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/shalu_shrotiya_0fd9a86183/what-should-an-it-head-check-before-moving-critical-workloads-to-the-cloud-1b5l"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "When contemplating the move of critical workloads to the cloud, there are numerous crucial considerations an IT professional must address. Simply selecting a cloud service provider and relocating servers is an oversimplification of the process. Before proceeding with migration, IT leaders need to delve into more complex questions, as the stakes have never been higher, especially in India where cloud adoption is rapidly increasing.\n\nAccording to Gartner, end-user spending on public cloud services in India is projected to reach $17.5 billion by 2026, marking a 28.1% increase from 2025. This growth is being fueled by the demand for AI-ready infrastructure, application modernization, digital sovereignty, and scalable IT models. However, alongside this growth comes heightened risks. Cybersecurity incidents in India surged to 29,44,248 in 2025 from 20,41,360 in 2024, according to CERT-In, and the average total cost of a data breach hit ₹22 crore in 2025, a 13% rise from the previous year.\n\nSo, the pivotal question for an IT Head is not whether to migrate to the cloud, but whether they are prepared to do so without introducing security, compliance, cost, or business continuity issues. The complexities of cloud migration arise from the intricate web of relationships between applications and various external systems. Modern applications frequently rely on cloud databases, APIs, identity providers, SaaS platforms, third-party integrations, remote users, endpoint devices, backup environments, and multiple network paths.\n\nThis interconnectivity complicates the migration process, making it less about moving infrastructure and more about understanding these relationships. A server's migration can fail if associated dependencies like APIs, DNS settings, firewalls, and backup systems are overlooked. Recent cloud security research emphasizes the importance of identity and configuration management over merely determining the hosting location. For instance, Google Cloud's M-Trends 2025 report reveals that exploits and stolen credentials are the most common initial infection vectors during cloud migrations.\n\nGiven these challenges, a cloud migration should be approached as both an IT transformation and a security project. The process should begin with a comprehensive assessment of the existing application landscape, not just the cloud provider. This involves documenting the business purpose of the application, key stakeholders, data handled, upstream and downstream systems, APIs and integrations, databases, authentication dependencies, network needs, backup requirements, performance standards, regulatory obligations, current operating costs, and expected cloud costs. Creating a detailed application dependency map is essential to avoid overlooking critical dependencies that could lead to downtime.\n\nAt NS3, the recommended starting point for a cloud migration is not infrastructure procurement, but rather gaining a deep understanding of the current IT environment, identifying dependencies, and determining which workloads are suitable for migration. This foundational assessment informs the migration architecture rather than forcing an early technology decision.\n\nNext, data classification is critical. Not all data poses the same level of risk. Enterprises should identify and categorize data based on sensitivity, including public, internal business, financial, employee, customer, personal, intellectual property, authentication credentials, confidential contracts, and regulated information. Especially in India, where data protection regulations have tightened with the introduction of the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025, it is crucial to understand where sensitive information resides and where it will be stored post-migration. These rules mandate reasonable security safeguards, data breach notifications within 72 hours, and specific responsibilities for protecting personal data.\n\nUltimately, the success of a cloud migration hinges on meticulously addressing these multifaceted questions before deploying any workloads to the cloud.",
  "summary": "tl;dr: Moving a critical application to the cloud is not simply a matter of choosing AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud and shifting servers. Before migration, an IT Head needs to answer much harder questions: What data is moving? Who can access it? What systems does the application depend on? What happens if the cloud service becomes unavailable? How will the organization meet regulatory…",
  "key_points": [
    "IT leaders must assess application dependencies before cloud migration to avoid downtime.",
    "Data classification is crucial, with sensitivity levels determining security requirements.",
    "Cloud migration should be viewed as a security project, not just an IT transformation."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}