Maximize your benefits with a Cloud Strategy

Many organizations are running workloads in a cloud and are migrating probably more over the coming months and years, however not many organizations have a solid cloud strategy in place yet.

Although it’s best to craft a cloud strategy before adopting cloud computing, that’s rare. Most organizations devise their cloud strategy after they’ve gained some experience with the cloud. But the sooner you establish a cloud strategy, the more issues you’ll avoid. It’s never too late to develop a cloud strategy. If you don’t have one already, today’s the best time to start creating one.

A cloud strategy is not the same as a cloud-first principle or a cloud migration plan or adoption framework. A cloud strategy should be a short, consumable document and should always involve the business. A Cloud strategy answers the what and why questions, while a cloud adoption- or cloud implementation plan answers the how questions.

Business and cloud computing baselines

Establish an effective cloud strategy by creating baselines for cloud computing and the desired business outcomes. Document service strategy, financial considerations and any other considerations.

Organizations need to answer fundamental questions in their Cloud Strategy in order to make it clear what benefits are to be delivered aligned with the business strategy.

* Purpose: Why are we moving to the cloud?

* Business Needs: What key business priorities does technology need to support?

* Technology Challenges: What technology challenges are limiting our ability to meet business objectives?

* BizTech goals: What is the desired future state of our business-enabling technology?

Principles and prioritization

Devising a cloud strategy leads to many secondary questions about principles and prioritization. Effective cloud strategies align these questions with other strategies.

Nearly all companies will have a cloud-first principle by 2025 and cloud spend will surpass non-cloud spend. In the Gartner 2020 Cloud End User Behavior study, nearly 70% of respondents indicated they will increase cloud spend in the next year. Cloud will become the ubiquitous style of computing and any noncloud applications or infrastructure will be considered legacy by the time we reach 2025.

Plan for your cloud strategy to be the launching point for all subsequent cloud activities, such as architecture, assessment, migration and operations and achieve this by keeping those activities in mind when devising your cloud strategy.

Don't forget about your Exit strategy

Safeguard your organization from any potential problems if you subsequently withdraw from the cloud. Therefore include an exit strategy that describes the dependencies and choices involved in cloud computing.

The future of cloud includes with multicloud and distributed clouds

* In a 2018 Gartner survey, more than 80% of respondents indicated that their organization runs workloads in multiple clouds. Gartner characterizes this approach as unintentional multicloud.

* In 2020, in another Gartner study, respondents were asked to identify the top reasons their organization uses multiple public clouds. They included improving availability, selecting best-of-breed capabilities and satisfying compliance requirements.

* By 2025, 50% of enterprises will adopt intentional multicloud where they use cloud services from multiple public cloud providers for the same purpose (up from fewer than 10% today). This approach offers several benefits to organizations, such as reducing risk of vendor lock-in, maximizing commercial leverage and addressing broader compliance requirements.

If you want to learn more about how to build or optimize your cloud strategy, please contact:

Mark Jansen
Service Strategy Consultant
+31 30 303 2900