Cloud migration is frequently heralded as the ultimate solution for businesses aiming to achieve scalability, flexibility, and significant cost reductions, but the reality often paints a far less rosy picture. Many enterprises, including Telkomsel, Indonesia’s leading telecommunications provider, have stumbled upon unforeseen obstacles that can derail budgets and disrupt operations during this transition. Drawing from a compelling case study shared at a prominent industry conference in New York City, this exploration sheds light on the gritty challenges that lie beneath the surface of cloud adoption. Insights from Telkomsel’s experts reveal how initial cost surges blindsided their teams, turning what was supposed to be a financially savvy move into a source of internal conflict. Far from a straightforward process, their journey underscores a critical truth: without meticulous planning and strategic foresight, moving to the cloud can lead to more problems than solutions. This narrative aims to unravel these hidden complexities, offering a clearer perspective on what it truly takes to succeed in such a transformative endeavor.
Navigating the Unexpected in Cloud Transitions
Financial Shocks and Internal Strife
Telkomsel’s migration to the public cloud was initially seen as a pathway to efficiency, but the aftermath brought a harsh reality check with unexpected cost increases that defied all projections of savings. Instead of reaping financial benefits, the company faced a surge in expenses that strained budgets and sparked significant tension between finance and engineering teams. This friction highlighted a disconnect in expectations, as engineering focused on technical implementation while finance grappled with ballooning bills. The broader lesson here is stark: moving to the cloud without a robust optimization strategy can lead to severe financial strain, undermining the very goals that prompted the migration. Enterprises must anticipate that costs may spike initially due to unoptimized resource usage or lack of visibility into spending patterns and prepare accordingly to avoid internal discord.
Beyond the immediate financial impact, this experience at Telkomsel serves as a cautionary tale for other organizations embarking on similar journeys. The conflict between departments underscores the necessity of aligning goals and communication from the outset to prevent operational disruptions. Budget overruns can erode trust among stakeholders if not addressed proactively, making it essential to establish clear accountability and shared objectives early on. Moreover, this scenario reveals how the promise of cost savings can be misleading if legacy systems or unsuitable applications are migrated without thorough evaluation. Companies must invest time in understanding their unique needs and potential pitfalls before committing to the cloud, ensuring that the transition does not become a source of regret rather than renewal.
Strategic Migration Decisions
Telkomsel quickly learned that not every application in their vast portfolio was ready for the cloud, and the simplest approach—often termed “lift and shift”—frequently fell short of delivering long-term value. This method, which involves rehosting applications with minimal changes, often led to inefficiencies and higher costs due to incompatibilities with cloud environments. Instead, more deliberate strategies such as replatforming, refactoring, or even rearchitecting proved to be more effective, despite requiring greater upfront effort and planning. These approaches allowed for better alignment with cloud-native capabilities, ultimately reducing operational overhead. The realization that a one-size-fits-all mindset is impractical became a cornerstone of their migration philosophy, pushing them to tailor solutions to specific application needs.
In response to these insights, Telkomsel adopted a hybrid multi-cloud model, strategically distributing workloads across different providers to optimize performance and cost. For instance, mission-critical applications were hosted on AWS to leverage its robust infrastructure, while productivity suites found a home on Azure for seamless integration. This tailored approach also considered factors like data residency requirements, ensuring compliance with local regulations without sacrificing efficiency. By balancing workloads based on specific criteria rather than spreading them indiscriminately across multiple clouds, Telkomsel avoided unnecessary complexity. This strategy highlights the importance of customization in cloud migration, demonstrating that thoughtful allocation of resources can mitigate many of the risks associated with a rushed or generic transition plan.
Building a Foundation for Sustainable Cloud Success
Cost Management with FinOps
One of the pivotal steps Telkomsel took to address spiraling expenses post-migration was the adoption of FinOps, a discipline that integrates financial accountability into cloud operations, supported by Datadog’s Cloud Cost Management tools. These solutions provided granular visibility into spending patterns, enabling the company to track costs at a microservices level and identify inefficiencies in real time. Unlike basic monitoring, FinOps offered advanced analytics that connected financial data with performance metrics, shedding light on how resource usage impacted budgets. This level of insight proved instrumental in optimizing allocations, ensuring that every dollar spent delivered measurable value. For enterprises facing similar challenges, such tools are not just helpful but essential to prevent costs from spiraling out of control.
Further deepening their approach, Telkomsel leveraged these insights to foster informed decision-making across teams, transforming raw data into actionable strategies for resource management. By understanding the financial impact of architectural choices, such as over-provisioning or underutilized instances, the company could make proactive adjustments to curb waste. This shift from reactive firefighting to strategic planning marked a significant turning point in their cloud journey, aligning expenditures with business outcomes. The emphasis on linking cost to performance also encouraged a mindset of efficiency, where every deployment decision was weighed against its budgetary implications. This case illustrates that sustainable cloud adoption hinges on robust cost management practices, empowering organizations to navigate financial complexities with confidence and precision.
Cultural and Organizational Barriers
Perhaps the most daunting challenge Telkomsel encountered was not technical in nature but cultural, as shifting mindsets across diverse teams proved to be a steeper climb than any tooling issue. Traditional habits of deploying applications and then neglecting ongoing oversight clashed with the cloud’s demand for continuous monitoring and cost awareness. As highlighted by their cloud experts, embedding a cost-conscious culture—from developers to finance staff—required persistent effort and education to break entrenched behaviors. This resistance to change often stemmed from a lack of understanding of how cloud environments differ from on-premises setups, where costs are more predictable. Overcoming this barrier meant rethinking accountability at every level, a task that remains an ongoing struggle for many enterprises in similar transformations.
Adding to this complexity, the need for cross-functional collaboration became evident as a critical factor in sustaining cloud success. Siloed departments, each with their own priorities, had to align under a unified vision of cost and performance optimization, a process that demanded open communication and shared goals. Telkomsel’s journey reflects a common pain point in digital transformation: cultural inertia can undermine even the most sophisticated technical solutions if not addressed head-on. Training programs, regular workshops, and leadership buy-in emerged as vital tools to bridge this gap, gradually fostering a mindset of vigilance over cloud resources. For other organizations, this serves as a reminder that technology alone cannot drive change; human factors play an equally decisive role in navigating the cultural shifts required for cloud adoption.
Long-Term Perspective on Cloud Adoption
Migration as an Ongoing Journey
Telkomsel’s cautious approach to cloud migration offers a pragmatic blueprint for other enterprises, as they chose to migrate only a select fraction of their over 200 applications after conducting a meticulous cost-benefit analysis. This deliberate pace allowed them to prioritize workloads that would genuinely benefit from cloud capabilities, avoiding the pitfalls of a rushed overhaul. By focusing on strategic selection rather than mass migration, the company minimized risks and ensured that each move aligned with broader business objectives. Such patience underscores a vital principle: cloud adoption is not a race to completion but a continuous process that demands ongoing evaluation and adjustment. This measured strategy can serve as a model for businesses seeking to balance innovation with stability during their digital evolution.
Equally important in this long-term perspective is the recognition that setbacks are part of the learning curve, and adaptability remains key to overcoming them. Telkomsel’s experience shows that initial missteps, like cost surges, can be corrected with the right tools and mindset over time, rather than expecting instant perfection. Their journey also highlights the value of iterative improvement, where each phase of migration builds on lessons from the previous one, refining approaches to suit evolving needs. This mindset of viewing migration as an evolving endeavor rather than a one-off project helps temper unrealistic expectations, preparing teams for the inevitable challenges ahead. For any enterprise, embracing this philosophy can transform cloud adoption from a daunting task into a manageable, progressive journey toward operational excellence.
Partnerships for Sustained Success
A critical element of Telkomsel’s ability to navigate cloud migration challenges lay in their strategic partnerships with hyperscalers like AWS and Azure, which provided not only technical infrastructure but also invaluable expertise. These collaborations enabled the company to leverage cutting-edge solutions tailored to their specific workloads, ensuring optimal performance and compliance with regional requirements. Beyond infrastructure, partnerships with observability platforms like Datadog offered deeper insights into cost and performance dynamics, equipping teams with the data needed to make informed decisions. Such alliances highlight that no organization can tackle cloud migration in isolation; external support often proves to be the linchpin for overcoming internal limitations and achieving sustainable outcomes.
Expanding on this, the role of these partnerships extended into strategic guidance, helping Telkomsel align their cloud initiatives with long-term business goals rather than short-term fixes. Regular consultations with cloud providers facilitated knowledge transfer, empowering internal teams to build expertise while addressing immediate challenges. This collaborative model also fostered innovation, as access to the latest tools and best practices kept the company ahead of industry trends. For other enterprises, this serves as a compelling argument for investing in strong vendor relationships, as they can bridge gaps in skills and resources during complex transitions. Ultimately, sustained success in the cloud often depends on leveraging external ecosystems to complement internal efforts, creating a synergy that drives lasting transformation.
