• 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).