A few weeks ago, I used this space to wonder how top-of-mind content migration is among organizations whose legacy solutions are more than 8 years old – which, it turns out, accounts for more than 75% of those in service. There was nothing scientific about this query, but the core responses received were illuminating nonetheless, and I thought I’d share them here.
- Our premise that these older systems are in need of urgent attention is correct. There is a clear and growing danger that they will break or die before plans can be implemented to move the content they contain to someplace safe.
- Our presumption that this urgency is driving organizations to make the necessary preparations before a calamity befalls them is incorrect. It’s not that no one is taking the risk seriously, but rather than they don’t share our sense of impending doom about it and are content to let events unfold as they may.
- One reason this may be so is that many with aging legacy systems and plans to migrate seem unlikely to consider taking the on-premises route again, instead adopting a cloud-first mentality because moving to the cloud is “easy.” Which, of course, it’s not!
If these sentiments indeed are representative of the broader marketplace, then I fear for those organizations who were early-ish jumpers onto the content bandwagon – especially the smaller ones, who may not have the resources to deal with the migration emergency that will soon land on their heads.
The simple fact is that they – and you – are going to have to move your stuff, likely sooner rather than later. And you’re going to find out the hard way – because no one will tell you ahead of time – that the cloud is no easier to move to than anyplace else. So the time to start thinking about all this is now, or last month, or last year. Waiting for something to happen to then force your hand just isn’t in your best interest.