Why cloud migrations go over budget — and how to avoid it

Cloud migration cost overruns are rarely caused by the migration itself — they're usually caused by underestimated dependency mapping and unplanned re-architecture discovered mid-migration.

The single biggest predictor of an on-budget migration is the quality of the discovery phase. Migrations that skip or rush application dependency mapping consistently run over budget and timeline.

FinOps discipline needs to start before migration, not after. Establishing cost visibility and tagging standards during migration prevents the common pattern of 'lift, shift, and lose track of spend'.

Our recommendation for any migration over 50 workloads: budget discovery as its own funded phase, with a go/no-go decision point before full migration begins.