Make confident cloud decisions with a strategy grounded in patterns, principles, and purpose.

Turn cloud decisions into competitive advantage with a strategic, pattern-driven approach.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst perspective

A structured approach to aligning cloud decisions with strategic goals

As cloud adoption continues to accelerate, the challenge is no longer whether to use the cloud but how to use it with insight, vision and direction. Without a cohesive strategy, organizations risk fragmented deployments, uncontrolled costs, and misaligned investments.

This blueprint presents a practical approach to building a cloud strategy rooted in business alignment, governance maturity, and pattern-driven decision-making. By identifying best-practice patterns – and proactively avoiding common antipatterns – IT leaders can transform cloud complexity into a structured framework for execution.

Through a balance of vision, policy, and technical readiness, organizations can leverage the cloud not only as an infrastructure solution but as a strategic enabler of agility, innovation, and competitive differentiation.

In addition, to be able to govern effectively, organizations must first ensure observability – through a combination of tagging discipline, identity-aware dashboards, cost allocation frameworks, and platform-native tools (like Azure Resource Graph, AWS Config, or GCP Asset Inventory). These provide the factual baseline from which patterns and antipatterns can be identified, measured, and managed.

John Donovan
Principal Research Director, I&O
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive summary

Your Challenge

Cloud strategies often falter not because of technical failure but due to inconsistent or uninformed deployment decisions, such as:

• Inconsistent implementations across business units.
• Security misconfigurations due to antipatterns like over-provisioned access or unmanaged IAM.
• Poor workload placement that impacts performance, cost, and scalability.
• Low reusability or automation, especially when patterns aren't codified across teams.

Common Obstacles

• Decision-Making Without Context: Cloud decisions are often driven by short-term pressures (e.g. contract expiration, “move fast”) instead of long-term strategic value.
• Siloed Knowledge and Inconsistent Adoption: Different teams use different tools, IAM models, deployment processes, or security controls, leading to operational inefficiencies.
• Tooling Without Governance: DevOps, AI/ML, and cloud-native tools are deployed without architectural standards, introducing risk and debt.

Info-Tech’s Approach

Info-Tech shifts cloud strategy from tactical enablement to pattern-based alignment that informs when and why to adopt specific cloud models across IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS.

• Define Strategic Patterns: Build a shared library of patterns and antipatterns that apply across cloud deployment models, including security, networking, access control, cost optimization, and workload architecture.
• Map Patterns to Deployment Decisions: Align each cloud decision (rehost, refactor, rebuild, buy) with the most applicable patterns to guide architecture and governance choices.

Info-Tech Insight

To build a strong cloud strategy, organizations must align deployment decisions – whether rehosting, refactoring, rebuilding, or buying – with a clear understanding of strategic patterns and antipatterns. Each decision introduces risks and opportunities, and success depends on adopting best-practice patterns (e.g. least privilege access) while avoiding antipatterns like broad permissions or manual IAM. A pattern-informed strategy ensures the right choices are made, at the right time, for the right reasons – enabling secure, scalable, and goal-aligned cloud adoption.

Challenges

Cloud spend spirals out of control without a strategy or governance.

Global investment wasted.

50% — According to a global survey reported by Broadcom, nearly half of organizations estimate that more than a quarter of their public cloud investment is wasted, and 31% believe waste exceeds 50%. (Source: Broadcom, 2025)

35% — KPMG states that many organizations overspend by 35% relative to what is needed to meet business objectives, often because they default to “lift-and-shift” migrations and neglect optimization or architectural discipline. (Source: KPMG)

Most IT leaders recognize that their cloud usage has grown substantially, but many still struggle to realize its full value. The mismatch often stems from fragmented decision-making, lack of governance, and absence of a unifying framework (patterns) to steer adoption.

Info-Tech Insight

Without a strategic framework to guide workload placement, identity governance, architecture choices, and cost control, organizations may scale their cloud usage but not their cloud value. Strategy is not a delay; it’s a multiplier.

Obstacles

Cloud spend spirals out of control without a strategy or governance.

Over 70% of cloud migrations fail or stall due to strategy gaps.

70% — EPI‑USE (citing industry practice) claims that more than 70% of cloud migration initiatives fail or stall (including missed goals, cost overruns, performance gaps, or rollback), often due to inadequate planning, strategic misalignment, or underestimated complexity. (Source: EPI-USE, 2024)

80% — Crayon reports that 80% of organizations globally overspend on their cloud infrastructure budgets – often attributed to a lack of strategy, poor cost control, or misaligned deployments. (Source: Crayon, 2022)

The promise of cloud transformation often falls short of reality. Even when migrations succeed technically, 80% of organizations overspend

Info-Tech Insight

Cloud success isn’t just about getting there – it’s about getting there the right way. Without a strategy to align goals, guide decisions, and enforce guardrails, organizations risk delays, overruns, and disappointment. A structured strategy rooted in best practices and reusable patterns turns cloud investment into long-term value.

Components of a strategy

Info-Tech’s working definition of a cloud strategy has six major areas.

1. Mission: To define a strategy and have it understood in context, you must first define your function (in the strategic context) and reason for existence.
2. Vision: The strategic vision encompasses the desired future state, focusing on the ends – not the means used to get there.
3. Goals: The goals are broad statements of direction that support the vision and mission of a strategy.
4. Drivers: The drivers of a strategy describe the “why now?” and outline the reasons for the strategic direction.
5. Guiding Principles: The guiding principles outline the boundaries of the strategy. In the absence of a specific strategic direction, they provide guidance.
6. Strategic Initiatives: The strategic initiatives are the major programs that will encompass the initiatives needed to execute the strategy and adhere to standards.

Info-Tech’s methodology for empowering your business with a cloud strategy

Insight summary

Develop a strategic framework

Without a strategic framework to guide workload placement, identity governance, architecture choices, and cost control, organizations may scale their cloud usage but not their cloud value. Strategy is not a delay; it’s a multiplier.

Cloud waste is a strategy problem

Organizations without a unified cloud strategy often overspend by 25%-35% due to a mix of overprovisioning, shadow IT, and lift-and-shift approaches with no optimization layer. This isn’t a cost problem – it’s a strategic alignment failure.

Cloud success isn’t about where you host, it’s about how you adopt

To evolve from fragmented cloud adoption to a scalable program, organizations must embed strategic cloud patterns aligned with business goals. Avoiding antipatterns reduces waste, risk, and rework – ensuring every cloud decision is timely, governed, and fit for purpose.

You can’t govern what you can’t see

In many organizations, cloud environments evolve faster than the governance structures designed to control them. Misconfigurations, compliance violations, orphaned resources, and runaway costs often go unnoticed until they become audit findings or budget crises.

Tactical insight

Antipatterns drain budgets and delay outcomes. Identifying and correcting misaligned practices early prevents cost overruns and rework.

Tactical insight

A successful cloud strategy isn’t just about technology – it’s about alignment, accountability, and adoption. Organizations that treat the cloud as a technology project often miss the bigger picture.

Blueprint benefits

IT Benefits

• Improved Alignment Between Workloads and Cloud Architectures
  Leveraging strategic patterns ensures the right cloud services and deployment models are chosen for each workload – minimizing complexity, improving performance, and reducing rework.
• Operational Efficiency Through Repeatable Patterns
  Standardized patterns (e.g. automation, security baselines, identity models) reduce manual effort, speed up deployment cycles, and simplify environment management.
• Stronger Governance and Risk Mitigation
  Embedding patterns into the strategy brings clarity to cloud guardrails, improving visibility, enforcing least-privilege access, and minimizing policy drift across multicloud environments.

Business Benefits

• Faster Time-to-Value for Cloud Investments
  With clear strategy and repeatable deployment patterns, business units can accelerate solution delivery while staying within guardrails, shortening the timeline between investment and outcomes.
• Cost Optimization and Predictability
  Avoiding antipatterns such as overprovisioning and siloed services helps reduce cloud waste, prevent budget overruns, and drive financial accountability for cloud spend.
• Strategic Agility and Innovation Enablement
  A well-structured cloud strategy empowers the business to adapt quickly – whether by scaling up services, integrating AI/ML, or pivoting delivery models – without being constrained by fragmented infrastructure decisions.

Case study

INDUSTRY: Oil & Gas | SOURCE: Tech Monitor

BP adopts hybrid cloud and moves applications and datacenter operations to Azure.

Challenge

BP operated a large global datacenter footprint across 70+ countries, which created high operational overhead, capital expenses, and complexity.

Some workloads needed to remain local or on-prem due to regulatory, compliance, or data sovereignty constraints, requiring a hybrid approach rather than pure cloud.

Early in the migration, BP tried to “lift and shift” existing behaviors to the cloud, which didn’t unlock full value, forcing the organization to rethink cloud-native approaches.

Solution

BP adopted a cloud-first strategy and began moving both applications and infrastructure to Microsoft Azure.

It built a hybrid architecture, retaining on-prem or edge components (e.g. Azure Stack) where needed for locations with compliance or connectivity concerns.

It used Azure networking tools (like ExpressRoute and hub-and-spoke designs) to ensure high‑performance, low-latency, and secure connectivity between on-prem and cloud.

Results

BP has exited or decommissioned at least one mega data center and is on a path to reduce further data center overhead.

It achieved greater agility and scalability, being able to spin up resources on demand rather than preprovisioning massive infrastructure.

BP reduced operational burden, shifting resources away from pure infrastructure management toward higher-value development and innovation.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Project metrics

Track adoption. Reduce risk. Optimize value.

Measure the value of this blueprint

Don’t take our word for it:

• Document Your Cloud Strategy has been available for several years in various forms as both a workshop and as an analyst-led Guided Implementation.
• After each engagement, Info-Tech sends a survey that asks members how they benefited from the experience. Those who have worked through Info-Tech’s cloud strategy material have given overwhelmingly positive feedback.
• Additionally, members reported saving an average 41 days and $308,264.
• Measure the value by calculating the time saved as a result of using Info-Tech’s framework vs. a home-brewed cloud strategy alternative and comparing the overall cost of a Guided Implementation or workshop with the equivalent offering from another firm. We’re confident you’ll come out ahead.

9.7/10 Average reported satisfaction

41 Days Average reported time savings

$308,264 Average cost savings

Blueprint deliverables

Key deliverable:

Cloud Strategy Workbook

Drive alignment through assessment and planning. This interactive Excel workbook guides you through key activities: capability assessments, pattern selection, prioritization, and domain readiness. It enables collaborative working sessions and provides a living record of strategic decisions.

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Cloud Strategy Executive Presentation

Use this deck as a template to socialize the cloud strategy across business and IT leadership, accelerate decision-making, and build alignment on next steps.

Cloud Strategy Workbook

This interactive workbook guides you through workload selection, risk, and mitigations to form an informed strategy.

Cloud Strategy Document Template

Use this template to ensure the overall vision is executed effectively.

Cloud Strategy Roadmap

Use this roadmap to manage your short-, medium-, and long-term projects and initiatives.

Guided Implementation

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

A typical GI is 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Workshop overview

Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

Empower Your Business With a Proven Cloud Strategy

Phase 1

Align Business and IT Goals

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

Develop your organization’s:

• Corporate goals and cloud drivers
• Success indicators
• Current state summary
• Mission, vision, guiding principles, and patterns

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• Senior IT team
• Infrastructure leaders

1.1.1 Generate organizational goals

1-3 hours

Input: Strategy documentation

Output: Organizational goals

Materials: Whiteboard (digital/physical)

Participants: IT leadership, Infrastructure, Applications, Security

1. As a group, brainstorm organizational goals, ideally based on existing documentation.
   1. Review relevant corporate and IT strategies.
   2. If you do not have access to internal documentation, review the standard goals on the next slide and select those that are most relevant for you.
2. Record the most important business goals in the Cloud Strategy Executive Presentation. Include descriptions where possible to ensure wide readability.
3. Make note of these goals. They should inform the answers to prompts offered in the Cloud Strategy Workbook and should be a consistent presence in the remainder of the visioning exercise. If you’re conducting the session in person, leave the goals up on a whiteboard and refer to them throughout the workshop.

Download the Cloud Strategy Executive Presentation