Cloud migration has been the dominant technology initiative for Australian enterprises over the past five years. And yet, the failure rate remains stubbornly high — not because cloud is hard, but because organisations consistently make the same architectural mistakes.
Mistake 1: Lift and shift as a strategy
Moving on-premises workloads to cloud VMs without re-architecting them is sometimes a necessary first step. It should never be the final destination.
Mistake 2: Ignoring the operating model
Cloud changes how you run technology, not just where you run it. Organisations that migrate infrastructure without changing their operating model find that the cloud creates new problems faster than it solves old ones.
Mistake 3: Single-vendor lock-in without intent
Committing 100% to one cloud provider without a conscious multi-cloud strategy leaves you exposed. A well-designed architecture identifies which workloads genuinely benefit from provider-specific services and which should remain portable.