Cloud Migration Pitfalls & Fixes: A Practical Guide for SMBs

Moving to the cloud should reduce risk, increase agility, and lower costs. In practice, many migrations stall, overspend, or introduce new security exposures. This guide breaks down the most common pitfalls—and the fixes that work for small and mid-sized organizations.

At TEC Services Consulting, Inc., we plan and execute cloud migrations with a focus on business outcomes: predictable cost, resilience, and speed. Here’s how to avoid the traps and realize value quickly.

Pitfall 1: Budget Blowouts (and “Surprise” Egress Fees)

What goes wrong: Teams underestimate run-rate and get blindsided by data transfer (egress) charges, inter-region traffic, and idle resources.

Fixes that work:

• Bake in FinOps early. Define owners, budgets, and tagging standards before the first VM moves. Use cost anomaly alerts and chargeback/showback. See AWS Well-Architected – Cost Optimization (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/welcome.html) and Azure Well-Architected – Cost Optimization principles (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/principles).

• Model network costs. Egress and cross-region traffic aren’t trivial. Review provider guidance before splitting workloads across regions or pushing large volumes to the internet: AWS Architecture Blog – data transfer costs (https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/architecture/overview-of-data-transfer-costs-for-common-architectures/), Azure Bandwidth pricing (https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/details/bandwidth/), and Google Cloud VPC network pricing (https://cloud.google.com/vpc/network-pricing).

• Reality check from industry data. Managing cloud spend remains a top challenge; see Flexera 2024 State of the Cloud press release (https://www.flexera.com/about-us/press-center/flexera-2024-state-of-the-cloud-managing-spending-top-challenge) and report PDF (https://marketplace.itassetmanagement.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Flexera-State-of-the-Cloud-Report-2024.pdf).

TEC Tip: Turn on cost anomaly detection from day one and tag everything (owner, environment, application).

Pitfall 2: “Lift-and-Shift” Without Modernization

What goes wrong: Rehosting legacy stacks 1:1 often raises costs and misses cloud benefits like autoscaling and managed PaaS.

Fixes that work:

• Choose the right “R” per app. Rehost, replatform, refactor, replace—the strategy should match the business case. See AWS Prescriptive Guidance – Migration strategies (7 Rs) (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-guide/migration-strategies.html) and Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework – select migration strategy (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/plan/select-cloud-migration-strategy).

• Target quick-win modernization. Containerize chatty services, move databases to managed platforms, and cut dead middleware. CAF – modernization (replatform/refactor/rearchitect): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/modernize/modernization-cloud-replatform-refactor-rearchitect.

TEC Tip: Build a “modernization backlog” alongside the migration plan so you don’t stop at rehost.

Pitfall 3: Hidden App Dependencies = Weekend Cutover Chaos

What goes wrong: Inter-app calls, DNS, firewalls, schedulers, and identity flows get missed. Cutover windows stretch; rollbacks get messy.

Fixes that work:

• Migrate in waves. Group dependent workloads and learn with each wave. CAF – migration wave planning: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/migrate/migration-wave-planning.

• Use a formal cutover runbook (and rehearse). Define owners, checkpoints, rollback criteria, and comms. AWS Prescriptive Guidance – cutover runbook (includes template): https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/cutover-runbook/welcome.html.

TEC Tip: Do a dress rehearsal with production-like data paths and DNS. Don’t discover dependencies at 1 a.m.

Pitfall 4: Security Misconfigurations Follow You to the Cloud

What goes wrong: Excessive permissions, public buckets, default settings, and unencrypted data create easy openings.

Fixes that work:

• Baseline and scan continuously. Enforce CIS Benchmarks (https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks), enable encryption by default, require MFA for admins, and use CSPM tooling to catch drift. CIS

• Least-privilege IAM from day one. Map roles to duties; remove wildcards; rotate keys; separate prod/non-prod.

• Shift-left threat modeling. Review internet exposure, cross-region access, and data stores before migrating. For context on prevalence, see OWASP Top 10 – A05:2021 Security Misconfiguration (https://owasp.org/Top10/A05_2021-Security_Misconfiguration/) and IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2024 (https://newsroom.ibm.com/2024-07-30-ibm-report-escalating-data-breach-disruption-pushes-costs-to-new-highs?asPDF=1).

TEC Tip: Treat security guardrails as part of the landing zone—not an afterthought.

Pitfall 5: Governance Gaps (No Owners, No Guardrails)

What goes wrong: Without clear ownership, costs, standards, and reliability stay ad-hoc.

Fixes that work:

• Name owners by domain. Platform (landing zone, networking), Security, Operations/SRE, and FinOps—with a simple RACI and escalation.

• Promote financial accountability. Require cost reviews in architecture approvals; tie budgets to product lines. Use AWS Well-Architected – Cost design principles (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/design-principles.html) and Azure Well-Architected – Cost maturity model (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/maturity-model).

• Make optimization ongoing. Keep an eye on Azure Well-Architected – Cost hub (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/) and Azure Advisor – Cost recommendations (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-reference-cost-recommendations).

TEC Tip: Make tagging standards and budget thresholds policy—not suggestion.

Pitfall 6: “We’ll Document Later”

What goes wrong: Tribal knowledge disappears as teams rotate. Six months later, no one remembers why that peering or NAT rule exists.

Fixes that work:

• Document as you go. Architecture decisions, runbooks, and rollback steps should live in source control and be part of “Definition of Done.”

• Automate what you document. Use IaC (Terraform/Bicep/CloudFormation) so documentation and environment stay aligned.

TEC Tip: If it isn’t in code or a runbook, it doesn’t exist.

Your Migration Game Plan (Condensed)

1. Assess & Map dependencies, RTO/RPO, compliance, and data gravity.

2. Choose Strategies per workload (7 Rs) and keep a modernization backlog: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/large-migration-guide/migration-strategies.htmlMicrosoft CAF – strategies: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/plan/select-cloud-migration-strategy

3. Design Guardrails for landing zones, IAM, networking, and encryption.

4. Plan the Money (budgets, tags, commitments, anomaly detection):AWS Cost pillar: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/cost-optimization-pillar/welcome.htmlAzure cost principles: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/principles

5. Migrate in Waves with a rehearsed cutover runbook and clear rollback:https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/migrate/migration-wave-planning cutover runbook: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/cutover-runbook/welcome.html

6. Optimize Post-Cutover (rightsize, retire, autoscale, re-platform):AWS Cost pillar details: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/framework/cost-optimization.htmlAzure cost hub & Advisor: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/ and https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-reference-cost-recommendations

Why TEC Services

We combine migration engineering with FinOps and security to keep your move on-time and on-budget—without exposing your business.

• Readiness & Business Case: inventory, cost modeling, target-state design

• Landing Zone Build: network, identity, security baselines

• Wave Planning & Cutover: rehearsal, runbook, rollback readiness

• Optimization: tagging, commitments, rightsizing, modernization roadmap

Contact TEC Services Consulting, Inc. — info@tecsinc.com | 630-305-7486