To the cloud! But first, how?

Customer demands are rapidly changing, and industries are transforming on both the forefront and behind the scenes to enhance their customer service and time to market measures. Fast, reliable and secure access to data is a customer expectation, and in order to provide frictionless and convenient digital experiences companies must continue to innovate and look at ways to create a digital infrastructure that can quickly and safely meet those customer demands.

Migrating applications to the cloud is becoming an increasingly popular way for companies to meet demands, add value, improve cost efficiencies and create a competitive advantage for themselves. According to IDG’s 2018 Cloud Computing Survey, nine out of 10 companies will have some part of their applications or infrastructure in the cloud by 2019, and the rest expect to follow by 2021.

Any cloud migration initiative is a fundamental change across the entire organization, and rarely is cloud migration a complete lift-and-shift scenario. Its complexity requires a great amount of research, analysis, planning and strategy before determining the type of cloud platform that will best accommodate the company’s hosting needs and support all of the various elements that come with a cloud migration strategy.

As companies develop their own cloud migration initiatives and strategies, there are a few considerations that are critical for success:

Integrate technology and business – A cloud strategy is much more than IT, and cloud implementation across a company will significantly change the way the business operates. A digital transformation such as this creates a competitive business advantage, and allows companies to devote their time, energy and resources into other opportunities such as investing in new technologies, their people or their customers. Think of how business and IT need to intersect to get the most return on your investment.

Create a governing body – Because a cloud strategy is much more than IT, it is crucial to include experts across all areas of the enterprise from beginning to end. Having this group and establishing a sustainable cadence of meetings and discussions will ensure you look at the cloud strategy from a single view that incorporates all the moving pieces and parts that make up the overall strategy. This team will also help address capacity supply and demand, discuss opportunities or concerns, create action items and accountability measures, and report on the overall health of the program to ensure deadlines and deliverables are executed on properly. 

Train and educate all stakeholders – Cloud migration and implementation also leads to a cultural change, from your employees to your customers. You have to ensure you have the appropriate talent with the correct training to execute the migration strategy. Identify skill gaps and provide the necessary resources and training to ensure your teams can support the strategy and the cloud platform is being used effectively. A major shift such as this requires education to all your stakeholders about all phases of the program. Regular reporting and communication will help increase trust and understanding across the company, gain buy-in from decision makers, create adoption from your customers and increase advocacy of the value digital transformations bring to a company.

Assess and manage risk – As cloud usage continues to grow, it’s imperative that organizations have a robust risk culture to identify, measure, monitor, and control risk within the enterprise. With the proliferation of third-party Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications within companies, there are key operational and reputational risks to be aware of and address appropriately. A detailed understanding of where your SaaS applications are hosted is critical and highlights the importance of understanding of your fourth-party risk. An analysis of your application portfolio in this regard may identify areas of concentration risk which need to be addressed. Many of the security breaches cloud service providers have identified the root cause being incorrectly configured components within various layers of the application infrastructure. It’s critical that your governance structures capture this fourth-party risk and that your cybersecurity teams work with your SaaS vendors to manage it appropriately. Protecting your enterprise is a shared responsibility so cloud services providers also have a role in driving awareness, education, and monitoring of infrastructure security practices with their application hosting partners.

Successful cloud implementation is a continuous program that requires great attention to detail and constant innovation. By integrating all the appropriate teams, having a deep and comprehensive understanding of your technology infrastructure and landscape, and having a knowledgeable and capable workforce, you will be equipped for your digital transformation journey.