13 Cloud Migration KPIs That Reveal How Well Your Strategy Is Working

Migrating your data, digital assets, IT infrastructure, and applications to cloud-based infrastructure is not a simple process. The entire procedure is a complex endeavor that costs your business time, money, and resources.

At the same time, the benefits of cloud migration - such as superior application performance and delivery, improved security, and an enhanced customer experience - are worth it. Connecting those benefits to key performance indicators (KPIs) is essential to ensuring your cloud migration process is on track.  

As the saying goes: “What gets measured gets done”. So read on to learn what KPIs you should start tracking immediately to ensure your strategy continuously aligns with your company’s goals.  

A Quick Primer on KPIs

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that measure performance over time against a specific objective or goal. They communicate what components of your cloud migration plan are working, which ones aren’t, and what you can continuously improve. 

Tracking KPIs is Critical to the Success of Your Cloud Migration

KPIs reveal how well the various components of your cloud migration plan are working. Tracking them over time ensures your systems are improving on multiple levels.

For example, tracking mean time to recovery measures how long it takes for the system to recover from a technical issue. Technical problems compromise your operations and customer experience. Therefore, tracking this metric over time is essential to ensure that incidents are resolved quickly with minimal disruption to your systems. 

Other benefits of tracking KPIs include: 

KPIs Keep All Teams Focused on Your Organization’s Goals

Many teams are involved in a large-scale strategic cloud migration, including security, IT operations, software development, and finance departments. Focusing on common objectives unites everyone under overarching goals and ensures all team efforts are measured accordingly. 

Tracking KPIs Enables Data-Driven Decision Making

Capturing and analyzing KPI data enables management to make data-driven decisions that improve a cloud migration strategy over time. Failure to evaluate this critical data may result in minor issues turning into major long-term problems. 

KPIs Track the Overall Health of Your Cloud Migration Project

Reporting on program health using data from KPIs helps management determine if your cloud migration timeline is on track. Some key metrics that define overall progress include employee work hours and the average amount of time spent on each phase of the cloud migration. 

Cloud Migration KPI Categories 

Measuring cloud migration performance can be challenging due to multiple factors that span various aspects of cloud computing. To simplify the process and bring clarity, KPIs can be organized into the following three categories:

1. Security 
2. Performance
3. Customer Experience

Choosing KPIs to track can be difficult because there are hundreds of KPIs that measure the success of your migration. Some of the most essential metrics from the above categories include: 

Cloud Security KPIs

Security KPIs measure how safe your organization’s data is from hackers, cyberattacks, and data breaches. Some cloud migration experts consider this to be the most critical category because a data breach can have disastrous consequences for any business.

Key metrics in this category include: 

Third-Party Services

A third-party service provider is generally defined as an external entity that provides services as part of your cloud services contract. 

Monitoring third-party services tracks which contractors have access to your data. Full visibility of third-party services enables your security team to prevent data breaches by revealing anomalies and suspicious activity. 

Indicators of Compromise (IOCs)

IOCs are “red flags” that may indicate if a data breach is taking place. These include events such as an increase in data read volume, settings changes, login anomalies, and other unusual activities. 

Accessibility

Numerous parties will be accessing your cloud data as part of your cloud services contract. Maintaining control over access ensures your security teams can effectively monitor data exposure across your entire cloud infrastructure. 

Data Exposure

Knowing who is accessing your data is critical to maintaining security across your digital infrastructure. Tracking data exposure evaluates your servers and applications for data vulnerabilities and identifies any inadequacies and/or weaknesses.

Users

Moving your digital assets and applications to the cloud ultimately exposes your data to large numbers of internal and external users. Conducting a user audit periodically reveals what parties are accessing your data and is an essential protocol that minimizes data security risks.

Cloud Performance KPIs

Performance metrics track technical aspects of your cloud migration. Some commonly-used metrics in this category include: 

Load Average

The load average metric measures CPU demand. Tracking this metric enables teams to determine how the system engages resources. 

Memory Utilization 

The memory utilization metric measures the efficiency of your applications in terms of how much memory is used. 

CPU Utilization

CPU utilization is a rolling percentage average of how much your resources are being used. Each data point in this metric is typically an average captured over the last 24 hours. 

Average Response Time

Average response time is an important metric that measures how fast requests by end users are completed. 

Server Uptime

The server uptime metric measures the period of time that resources are available to end users. 

Customer Experience KPIs

Customer experience KPIs focus on how well users interact with the applications on your server. Measuring the user experience is vital because it ultimately reveals how well your applications respond to customer demands. 

Common user experience metrics in this category include:

Lag

Lag measures the speed at which user requests are fulfilled. Optimizing this metric typically requires that your cloud host is located in close proximity to users. 

Error Rate

Minimizing errors is critical to the overall customer experience. This KPI tracks how many error messages your customers experience over time. 

Net Promoter Score

Net promoter scores provide insight into customer satisfaction. Marketers typically use this customer satisfaction score to measure how well applications meet consumer demands. 

How to Track Cloud Migration KPIs 

Cloud computing KPIs can come from various sources, including your customer relationship management (CRM) software and monitoring tools provided by your cloud provider. 

It’s usually a good idea to identify what KPIs you need to track before subscribing to any cloud management services. That way, you can implement the most suitable tools required to track the KPIs most relevant to your cloud migration goals. 

Tracking KPIs is Essential to the Success of Your Cloud Migration

Cloud migration can be challenging. It is a complex undertaking that consumes significant money, time, and company resources. 

Despite the challenges, the benefits are worth it for most future-forward businesses. 

Capturing and evaluating KPIs connects those benefits to your overall business goals. By tracking these metrics, you can ensure that your strategy is working in all areas critical to your migration, including security, performance, and the overall customer experience.  

Set a Solid Foundation for Your Cloud Migration with Moonswitch 

Identifying KPIs before you move to the cloud is critical. Contact the cloud experts at Moonswitch for a complimentary consultation to learn what KPIs are most relevant to your business. 

We’ll also go over the benefits of cloud migration, outline the process, and discover if your organization is a good fit for a strategic cloud migration project.