Is Your Cloud Partner Invested in Your Success?

At the recent concluded Data Cloud India 2020 Conference, I was invited to as part of the Panel to discuss the "future of technology". Our moderator, Srinivas Velamuri, a data center and telecom veteran, had an interesting question put forth to the panel. 

 "As organizations decide to embrace the cloud for their transformation journey, what are some of the key criteria to keep in mind for choosing a future fit cloud partner for the CIO? "

 A seemingly simple question, and ones immediate response would have been to rattle of features and functionalities of major hyper scalers and their plans for the future etc. But the pace of innovation in todays times really makes all of that discussion redundant within days. So my response was really simple -

 The CIO needs to choose a cloud partner that gets them a seat in the Boardroom.

 Up until now, technology office has been more of an enabler for the business - with State of the art Infrastructure, Productivity solutions, Modern Business critical Applications, efficient and robust Mission Critical systems, add to that Business Intelligence and that makes the technology office the backbone of any business.

But now, Digital Readiness is a big game changer for traditional businesses and the only way to compete with the new age, technology savvy disruptors and deliver accelerated growth for decades to come. With every business being a digital business and every company being a software company, the technology office has the opportunity to morph itself from being the Backbone of the business to being the Brain of the business. The premise for this shift is "Data" and "Digitization" that is the essence of an organization today and therefore CIOs have a real opportunity to work with the C-Suite to develop technology driven strategies.

 Todays Boards do not consider their technology office to be a cost center anymore, instead are thinking of ways of leveraging technology and innovation for competitive advantage. Boards are asking Technology vendors to help empower their workforce, optimize operations, engage customers and transform products.

 The Board expects the Business to respond to a fast moving market quickly. CIOs now have the opportunity to architect digital strategies with agility as the foundation. Whether it is increasing customer affinity and personalization with insights and analytics to drive profitability; or Intelligent machines for predictive maintenance that helps drive operational efficiency and therefore increasing Operating margins; whether it’s the unprecedented, given that a breach not only has financial consequences but also huge repercussions on Brand reputation; Or blockchain to reduce transaction costs; CIOs and the technology office has the opportunity to Define strategies for these expectations and more.

 Boardroom decisions are driven by past data, current state and expected future trends. Using Machine Learning Models and AI, CIOs have the opportunity to validate those decisions and even make those decisions eventually.

 To make all of this happen, adopting the Cloud and all the innovation Cloud computing brings to fore is crucial. You need a technologically advanced and sound Cloud Partner that is invested in your success.

 Your Cloud Partner should be in the cloud business for the right reasons. Your cloud partner should take accountability for their actions. Trust, Privacy and Integrity should be the foundation of their business and technology stack. Your Cloud partner should supplement your business transformation and growth and not compete with you for the business you are in or the data that your business produces.

 Your Cloud partner should make your transition to the Cloud Seamless with minimal or no disruption to your everyday business. Whether your take baby steps with Hybrid implementations or go big-bang with full transformation, adopting the cloud is daunting in many ways and has an associated learning curve for optimization, modernization and leveraging the true power of the cloud native implementations. The last thing you need, is the comfort of your developers and administrators with the core technology stack, taken away.

 Your Cloud Partner should work on your terms. Transition to the cloud requires significant amount of changes to your operating model, processes and procedures. These include financial changes in procurement processes such as moving from a CapEx to an OpEx model. You cloud partner should offer enough flexibility to cater to such needs.

 And most importantly, Your Cloud Partner should be at the forefront of innovation, with significant investments in Research leading to newer, performant infrastructure and services; Is building credible partnerships with technology providers; invests in building and operating a Marketplace for ISVs and Startups to offer their services; creates an environment suitable for Any Developer, Any Platform, Any Application with tools for Agile Development on the Cloud.

With the right cloud partner, the right set of technologies and a forward thinking mindset, I truly believe CIOs can really help maximize shareholder value and perhaps earn their right to have a seat on the board. 

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