Document Your Cloud Strategy
Drive consensus by outlining how your organization will use the cloud.
- Cloud services can be thrust into the lap of IT by business users who bought applications that they now expect IT to manage.
- It is impractical and inefficient to build out a robust cloud strategy before your organization has experience with the cloud, but at the same time it may also be difficult to explain to the business why IT is putting in effort after the fact.
- Finally, when tackling the cloud strategy question, it can be hard to identify what needs to be spelled out and what components of governance should have clear strategic statements.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Beware of the sunk cost fallacy. Start with a blank slate! Despite sunk costs into already existing cloud services, don’t try to retrofit your strategy. Rather, ensure the strategy contains the necessary guideposts for decision making moving forward.
- Use of the cloud is business driven. Moving to cloud is not an IT project. Start with the business needs or else fall into the unfavorable position of having to maintain applications resulting from shadow IT.
- Strategy is different than tactics. Don’t use this project to focus on action items; instead, focus on high-level statements that will stand the test of time. Writing your strategy is similar to writing a law, and the tactics on how to enforce the law should be part of a separate project.
Impact and Result
- People: Get the right individuals at the table; decisions around cloud strategy should not be made in isolation. Start with a steering committee that comprises representation from IT, business, and leadership teams.
- Process: Governing the use of cloud is crucial to successful cloud strategy. Effective governance will keep data safe, cost in check, the environment safe, services verified, and operations running smoothly.
- Technology: Lastly, decisions around getting to the cloud by way of migration or adoption must be made, as well as how to provision and monitor the established cloud environment(s).
Document Your Cloud Strategy
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read this Executive Brief to understand why you should document your cloud strategy and how to begin.
1. Empower your team to use the cloud
Read Phase 1 to ensure you have the right people making the right decisions to drive the success of the cloud strategy. This phase will help you create a cloud council, prepare your staff for changing skills, and determine guidelines for insourcing versus outsourcing necessary skills.
2. Establish appropriate governance for the cloud
Read Phase 2 in order to mitigate risks associated with cloud by establishing proper governance.
3. Determine guidelines for cloud technology
Read Phase 3 in order to establish when you will migrate versus adopt a new cloud service and how you will provision and monitor the environment.
Member Testimonials
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.
8.8/10
Overall Impact
$45,654
Average $ Saved
13
Average Days Saved
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
University of Kansas Hospital Authority
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
10
Spark Therapeutics, Inc.
Workshop
9/10
$30,989
10
Renown Health
Guided Implementation
8/10
$60,319
20
Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation
Workshop
8/10
N/A
N/A
Deltec Bank & Trust Limited
Workshop
9/10
$123K
47
Onsite Workshop: Document Your Cloud Strategy
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Empower Your People to Use the Cloud
The Purpose
- Determine how to effectively leverage stakeholders and staff to take advantage of the cloud.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Consensus around cloud council, required IT skills, and talent acquisition approach.
Activities
Outputs
Identify individuals for your cloud council.
- Sections 3 and 4 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Discuss messaging to staff around skills that will accompany use of cloud services.
- Sections 3 and 4 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Discuss your hiring strategy.
- Sections 3 and 4 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Module 2: Establish Appropriate Governance for the Cloud (Part 1)
The Purpose
- Develop the cloud strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Strategic statements around key governance areas.
Activities
Outputs
Determine appropriate strategic statements for cloud data and security.
- Section 5 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Determine appropriate strategic statements for finance and vendor management.
- Section 5 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Module 3: Establish Appropriate Governance for the Cloud (Part 2)
The Purpose
- Develop the cloud strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Strategic statements around key governance areas.
Activities
Outputs
Determine appropriate strategic statements for cloud portfolio management.
- Section 5 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Determine appropriate strategic statements for integration, architecture, and ops management.
- Section 5 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Module 4: Determine Guidelines for Your Technology
The Purpose
- Determine the approach for managing the cloud lifecycle.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Strategic statements for managing cloud assets from provisioning to migration and adoption through monitoring.
Activities
Outputs
Discuss when to migrate existing vs. adopt new cloud solutions.
- Section 6 of the Cloud Strategy Template
Identify necessary controls for provisioning and monitoring the cloud environment.
- Section 6 of the Cloud Strategy Template