The steps or processes an enterprise follows during a cloud migration vary based on factors such as the type of migration it wants to perform and the specific resources it wants to move. That said, common elements of a cloud migration strategy include evaluating performance and security requirements, choosing a cloud provider, calculating costs and making any necessary organizational changes.

Common challenges an enterprise faces during a cloud migration include interoperability, data and application portability, data integrity and security, and business continuity. Without proper planning, a migration could negatively affect workload performance and lead to higher IT costs -- thereby negating some of the main benefits of cloud computing.

Depending on the details of the migration, an enterprise may choose to move an application to its new hosting environment without any modifications -- a model sometimes referred to as a lift-and-shift migration. In other cases, it might be more beneficial to make changes to an application's code or architecture before performing the migration.

In terms of data transfers from its local data center to the public cloud, an enterprise also has several options. These include the use of the public internet, a private/dedicated network connection or an offline transfer, in which an organization uploads its local data onto an appliance and then physically ships that appliance to a public cloud provider, which then uploads the data to the cloud. The type of data migration an enterprise chooses -- online or offline -- depends on the amount and type of data it wants to move, as well as how fast it needs to complete the migration.