AWS migration has moved well beyond early experimentation. For many UK organisations, it is now central to modernisation, resilience and long-term growth. But while confidence in public cloud remains high, the reality of migration is still far messier than many leaders expect.
Our new joint report, Secure by Design: The New Blueprint for Cloud Migration, created with AWS and SentinelOne, shows just how common that friction has become. 79% of organisations either use or plan to use AWS. Yet 73% say cloud migration projects have taken longer than planned, 83% have experienced security issues during or after migration, and 90% say regulation is a major source of complexity.
That tells a clear story. The challenge is not whether organisations believe in cloud. It is whether they are building the right foundations to move securely, stay compliant and maintain control as their environments scale.
The biggest AWS migration challenges are rarely about access to cloud technology. More often, they come from the gaps between migration strategy, security, governance and ownership.
In practice, the pressure points are familiar:
These are not isolated issues. They tend to stack on top of each other. When security arrives late, compliance becomes reactive. When ownership is unclear, misconfigurations survive longer. When tooling is fragmented, blind spots grow.
One of the clearest findings in the report is that 73% of organisations say their cloud migration projects have taken longer than planned.
That matters because delays are rarely just delivery issues. They are often symptoms of deeper problems in programme design. Security and compliance checks arrive too late. Teams discover gaps mid-flight. Exceptions pile up. Work has to be revisited.
In other words, the delay is not the problem. It is the result of treating migration as a technical move rather than a transformation programme with security and governance built in.
What to do instead
Build migration around a clear operating model from the start. That means defining guardrails early, aligning architecture and security teams before delivery ramps up, and removing ambiguity around how workloads will be secured and governed once live.
This is one of the most damaging patterns in the report. 57% of respondents say security teams are consulted too late in migration planning to have a meaningful impact. 52% have seen security requirements overlooked, underestimated or addressed late.
That is where avoidable risk starts to build.
When security becomes a bolt-on, teams end up redesigning controls after workloads are already in motion. Misconfigurations become harder to unwind. Audit findings grow. Delivery slows. The report also shows that 85% say post-migration audits often reveal preventable security mistakes.
This is not just a security issue. It is a delivery issue.
What to do instead
Shift security left. Bring security teams into platform design, landing zone planning and migration decision-making before workloads move. The earlier security is embedded, the less expensive it becomes to apply consistently.
83% of organisations have experienced security issues during or after cloud migration. That alone should challenge the assumption that cloud migration automatically improves security.
The report points to familiar problem areas: identity challenges, misconfigured cloud storage or services, limited visibility, data security concerns and an expanded attack surface.
These issues do not mean cloud is inherently insecure. They mean too many migration programmes still lack the consistency and control needed to manage risk as environments change.
What to do instead
Use AWS-native services as the baseline, but make sure visibility extends across workloads, identities and cloud services. Security has to scale with the environment. That means reducing fragmentation, improving detection and making controls more consistent from one migration wave to the next.
90% of respondents say regulations are a major source of complexity when migrating to public cloud. 80% say compliance requirements often delay or derail migration projects. 83% say compliance violations are often discovered only after workloads go live.
That is a strong signal that compliance is still being treated too late and too separately.
For many organisations, compliance is seen as a barrier that appears at the end of the process. In reality, it should act as a design parameter from the start. When it does not, teams end up remediating live environments instead of building compliant patterns from day one.
What to do instead
Make compliance continuous. Translate regulatory requirements into technical controls early, automate validation where possible, and build assurance into the delivery model rather than leaving it to post-migration review.
This is one of the most overlooked AWS migration challenges, and one of the most important. 77% of respondents believe their public cloud provider is responsible for securing all aspects of their environment.
That misunderstanding creates risk quickly.
AWS secures the infrastructure of the cloud. Customers remain responsible for what they run in the cloud, including data, identities, access, configurations and many operational controls. If teams do not understand that line clearly, responsibility gets blurred across IT, security and platform teams.
That is exactly where gaps thrive.
What to do instead
Define ownership clearly. Establish who owns identity, network controls, logging, workload protection, configuration assurance and incident response. Shared responsibility only works when your own internal responsibilities are also clear.
As environments grow, visibility becomes harder to maintain. The report shows that 64% of respondents say inconsistent security configuration and tooling has created blind spots, while 82% say alert fatigue has increased since migrating to public cloud.
That combination is a serious problem. More alerts, less clarity and fragmented tooling make it harder to focus on what actually matters.
This often happens when organisations scale cloud faster than they scale their security model. Different teams use different tools. Different accounts follow different patterns. Security posture becomes inconsistent by default.
What to do instead
Reduce tool sprawl and standardise controls wherever possible. A platform-led approach gives teams a stronger baseline, clearer visibility and less operational drag than a patchwork of disconnected point solutions.
The report highlights a tension many organisations will recognise. 81% believe migration success is too often measured on delivery speed rather than security or compliance outcomes. 67% say budget constraints have forced them to prioritise speed over security.
That may help short-term reporting. It rarely helps long-term outcomes.
When teams optimise for pace alone, the cost usually shows up later as remediation, rework, failed audits, overstretched teams or security incidents. The report estimates the average cost of underestimating security requirements at more than £625,000 per organisation.
Fast matters. But fast without control is just delayed cost.
What to do instead
Reframe security as a business enabler and cost-control mechanism. The more you design in up front, the less you have to repair later.
The organisations making AWS migration work at scale are not simply moving faster. They are moving with more structure.
That usually means:
Only 12% of organisations manage cloud migration security entirely in-house. That matters because successful migration is not just a cloud project. It is a platform, security and operating model shift all at once.
The biggest AWS migration challenges are not hidden. They are happening in plain sight: delayed programmes, late-stage security issues, compliance friction, unclear ownership and growing blind spots.
The organisations that get ahead are the ones that design those risks out early.
That is what secure-by-design really means in practice. Not more process. Not more tooling for its own sake. Just a stronger foundation for moving faster, more securely and with fewer surprises.
If your AWS migration programme is facing delays, complexity or mounting security pressure, Cloud Bridge can help you identify the friction points and build a migration path designed for speed, security and control.
Contact us today for your complimentary assessment.