tl;dr: Moving a critical application to the cloud is not simply a matter of choosing AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud and shifting servers.
Before migration, an IT Head needs to answer much harder questions:
What data is moving? Who can access it? What systems does the application depend on? What happens if the cloud service becomes unavailable? How will the organization meet regulatory requirements? What will the migration actually cost? And, most importantly, how will security be maintained after the migration?
The questions are becoming more important in India as cloud adoption accelerates. Gartner forecasts that end-user spending on public cloud services in India will reach $17.5 billion in 2026, a 28.1% increase from 2025. Gartner identifies demand for AI-ready infrastructure, application modernization, digital sovereignty and scalable IT models as major drivers.
At the same time, the risk environment is getting harder to ignore. CERT-In recorded 29,44,248 cyber security incidents in India during 2025, up from 20,41,360 in 2024. IBM reported that the average total cost of a data breach in India reached ₹22 crore in 2025, 13% higher than the previous year.
