Common consequences of inadequate assessment include unexpected costs from underestimated total cost of ownership (TCO), performance issues from overlooked dependencies, compliance violations, security vulnerabilities and operational disruptions. Organizations can mitigate these risks by engaging key stakeholders early, using automated discovery tools and conducting pilot migrations before full deployment.

The pay-as-you-go model of cloud computing can indeed be deceptively complex, and organizations often underestimate TCO when migrating to the cloud. While basic compute and storage costs are generally straightforward, numerous hidden expenses can significantly impact an organization's cloud budget.

Data transfer costs, particularly egress fees, are a prime example of these often-overlooked expenses. Cloud providers typically charge nothing for data ingress but can charge substantial fees for data egress. Some organizations spend up to 27% of their cloud budget on egrees fees, according to Cloudflare, a cloud platform provider. This asymmetry in pricing can lead to significant financial surprises, especially for data-intensive applications or those with high outbound traffic.

Storage costs can also be more complex than they initially appear. While the base cost per gigabyte is usually clear, organizations might not fully account for the different storage tiers that are available -- e.g., hot, cool and archive storage -- and their associated retrieval fees. For instance, retrieving data from archive storage can incur hefty charges, which may not be immediately apparent when choosing a storage option.

Operational costs are another area where expenses can accumulate quickly. This category includes costs for monitoring tools, managed services and other operational support functions. These tools and services, while often necessary for maintaining a reliable cloud infrastructure, can add up to a significant portion of the overall cloud spend.

Training and upskilling staff is yet another hidden cost of cloud migration. As organizations transition to cloud-based systems, they often need to invest in training their IT teams on new technologies and methodologies. This can include formal certification programs, which can be time-consuming and expensive.