Document Your Cloud Strategy

Drive consensus by outlining how your organization will use the cloud.
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Major Business Pain Points

  • 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.

Recommendations

Key Points

  • 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.

Approach

Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput.

  • 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).
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Methodology and Tools

Executive Brief

Read this Executive Brief to understand why you should document your cloud strategy and how to begin.

  • Document Your Cloud Strategy – Executive Brief
  • Document Your Cloud Strategy – Phases 1-3

1. Empower your team to use the cloud

Read Phase 1 to ensure you have the right people making the right decisions to drive the success of the cloud strategy. This phase will help you create a cloud council, prepare your staff for changing skills, and determine guidelines for insourcing versus outsourcing necessary skills.

  • Document Your Cloud Strategy – Phase 1: Empower Your Team to Use the Cloud
  • Cloud Strategy Template

2. Establish appropriate governance for the cloud

Read Phase 2 in order to mitigate risks associated with cloud by establishing proper governance.

  • Document Your Cloud Strategy – Phase 2: Establish Appropriate Governance for the Cloud

3. Determine guidelines for cloud technology

Read Phase 3 in order to establish when you will migrate versus adopt a new cloud service and how you will provision and monitor the environment.

  • Document Your Cloud Strategy – Phase 3: Determine Guidelines for Cloud Technology

All resources on this page are provided to Cyber Leadership Hub members under license from third parties including Info-Tech Research Group Inc, a global leader in providing IT research and advice.