Cloud adoption has accelerated rapidly, but many organisations still underestimate how complex and risky cloud migration can be from a security perspective. While moving workloads away from on-premises setups can unlock flexibility, scalability, and cost savings, cloud environments introduce a new set of security challenges that traditional infrastructure teams are not always prepared for.
For many organisations, cloud migration becomes a race to modernise rather than a carefully planned migration journey. That’s where common cloud migration security mistakes start to appear. According to Pulsion, a cloud migration service provider, customers should always choose experienced partners and solutions that guarantee a secure, compliant migration aligned with business objectives from day one.
Below, we break down the most common pitfalls, why they happen, and how security teams and IT leaders can avoid them.
1. Treating cloud migration as a simple lift and shift
One of the most common mistakes is assuming cloud migration is just a technical exercise. A lift and shift approach, moving applications exactly as they are from a data center into a new cloud environment, often creates security gaps rather than removing them.
Legacy applications may carry technical debt, outdated security controls, and poor access controls into distributed environments. Cloud providers operate on shared responsibility models, meaning many security requirements remain with the organisation.
How to avoid it: Assess each workload individually. A successful cloud migration considers refactoring, re-platforming, and re-architecting critical systems rather than relying solely on lift and shift.
2. Weak access management and identity controls
Access management failures remain one of the leading causes of data breaches in cloud environments. Migrating to the cloud without properly redesigning access controls can result in excessive permissions, poor data access policies, and exposed cloud resources.
Many organisations fail to enforce multi-factor authentication across cloud service providers, increasing security vulnerabilities.
How to avoid it: Implement least-privilege access, role-based access controls, and mandatory multi-factor authentication across all cloud infrastructure. Access management should be reviewed continuously, not just during data migration.
3. Poor handling of sensitive data during data migration
Data migration is one of the most fragile phases of the migration process. Without proper controls, sensitive data can be exposed, corrupted, or lost entirely. Data loss and data integrity issues are common when encryption, validation, and monitoring capabilities are overlooked.
How to avoid it: Encrypt sensitive data in transit and at rest. Perform integrity checks to ensure data flow remains accurate, ensuring data integrity throughout the migration journey.
4. Underestimating cloud security responsibilities
Many organisations assume cloud providers handle most cloud security concerns. While cloud providers secure the underlying cloud technology, responsibility for workloads, access controls, data integrity, and compliance risks remains with the customer.
This misunderstanding leads to critical gaps in security controls.
How to avoid it: Clearly define security responsibilities across cloud service providers. Conduct a security audit early in the migration journey and revisit it regularly.
5. Skipping risk assessments and compliance planning
In regulated industries such as healthcare or financial services firm environments, skipping risk assessments can result in regulatory compliance failures. Industry-specific regulations and compliance requirements do not disappear after migrating to the cloud.
How to avoid it: Perform risk assessments aligned to regulatory compliance standards before migrating to the cloud. Regular compliance audits help ensure ongoing management aligns with evolving security standards.
6. Failing to plan for post migration monitoring
Many organisations focus heavily on migration but neglect post-migration monitoring. Without continuous monitoring, security issues, service disruptions, and unexpected expenses can go unnoticed.
Cloud environments are dynamic, and they introduce constantly changing attack surfaces.
How to avoid it: Implement continuous monitoring and post migration monitoring to detect security risks, data breaches, and abnormal data access patterns early.
7. Ignoring cloud costs and cloud spending visibility
Security misconfigurations often go hand in hand with cloud costs spiralling out of control. Unused cloud resources, over-provisioned services, and poor visibility into actual usage increase both cloud spending and security risks.
How to avoid it: Ensure cloud spending models match actual usage. Monitoring capabilities should include cost tracking alongside security metrics to support cost savings without compromising protection.
8. Overlooking cloud infrastructure configuration errors
Misconfigured cloud infrastructure is a frequent cause of security vulnerabilities. Open storage buckets, exposed APIs, and weak network segmentation can all result in data breaches.
How to avoid it: Harden cloud infrastructure using automated security controls, configuration policies, and regular security audits across all cloud providers.
9. Lack of coordination between security teams and IT leaders
Cloud migration challenges often arise when security teams are involved too late. IT leaders may prioritise speed and minimal disruption, while security teams focus on risk reduction.
How to avoid it: Make cloud migration a collaborative, continuous process. Security teams, the IT team, and business stakeholders should align on security requirements, business operations, and customer demands from the outset.
10. Failing to align migration with business objectives
A successful migration is not just about technology. Migrating critical systems without understanding business objectives can lead to service disruptions, compliance risks, and lost trust.
How to avoid it: Define clear goals for successful cloud migration, such as scaling efficiently, improving resilience, and supporting business operations. Cloud technology should enable growth, not introduce new security issues.
Final thoughts
Cloud migration is a complex process that requires far more than moving workloads from a data center into the cloud. Many organizations fall into common pitfalls by underestimating security risks, compliance requirements, and the need for ongoing management.
By avoiding these common cloud migration security mistakes and treating migration as a continuous journey rather than a one-off project, organisations can achieve a successful migration that balances cloud security, cost savings, and performance.
For IT admins operating across AWS Cloud migration or multi-cloud strategies, getting security right early is the difference between resilient cloud environments and critical gaps that attackers are quick to exploit.
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