Cloud Strategy
Migrate with a solid plan
Over 65% of IT workloads in highly modernised organisations now run on Public Cloud.
How do you plan to catch up?
Planning a cloud migration? Exciting times await!
Ideally, you’ll transform into a data-driven digital enterprise, automating many processes, boosting innovation, and optimising financial resources. While every organisation has the potential to become a digital enterprise, not all will achieve it.
The key to success lies in developing a robust cloud strategy in advance. This page provides valuable insights on how to do just that.
Conditions for a robust cloud strategy.
While the IT department typically handles cloud migration, it’s essential to involve the business to align with strategic goals.
Beyond technology, consider expertise from non-IT teams. Processes must also be optimised for secure and efficient work across the organisation.
Hence, cloud migration falls under the responsibility of various departments, including higher management.
Collaboratively, seek the appropriate cloud management approach (something we like to call Cloud Governance).
Keeping this story in mind, four vital conditions arise for an effective cloud strategy:
Align the Cloud goals with the overall organisational goals
Engage internal stakeholders, like the CIO and CFO, at the earliest stages
Ensure migration planning considers department and personnel resilience
Include employee retraining in the planning and business case
Conditions for a robust cloud strategy.
While the IT department typically handles cloud migration, it’s essential to involve the business to align with strategic goals.
Beyond technology, consider expertise from non-IT teams. Processes must also be optimised for secure and efficient work across the organisation.
Hence, cloud migration falls under the responsibility of various departments, including higher management.
Collaboratively, seek the appropriate cloud management approach, something we like to call Cloud Governance.
Keeping this story in mind, four vital conditions arise for an effective cloud strategy:
01
Align the Cloud goals with the overall organisational goals
02
Engage internal stakeholders, like the CIO and CFO, at the earliest stages
03
Ensure migration planning considers department and personnel resilience
04
Include employee retraining in the planning and business case
"Arrange your people and processes in a manner that allows for moving applications to the cloud while ensuring the organisation remains in control."
Cloud Strategy - the step-by-step plan
Before embarking on a cloud adventure, assess your current state.
You likely use several SaaS applications and may have initial plans. Determine your cloud maturity level to begin the process.
If unsure how to proceed, feel free to call in the help of our consultants.
Once you’ve assessed your Cloud Maturity and identified realistic goals, you can finally begin. Follow the step-by-step plan below to get started.
If unsure how to proceed with Cloud Strategy, feel free to call in the help of our consultants:
Step 1: Align Cloud goals with organiSational objectives using a strategy map
It's essential to align your cloud goals with overarching organisational objectives. The strategy map facilitates this process.
Start by using the overarching goals as a foundation and then identify the necessary cloud capabilities:
- Strategic goals – What does management want to achieve?
- Value for the customer – What value must be delivered to customers for this?
- Impact on business, IT, and Operating Model – What operational adjustments are needed for this?
- Required cloud capabilities – What requirements must the cloud strategy meet to support business and IT?
Step 2: Map your application landscape
Map your application landscape after defining the Cloud migration objectives.
Conducting an Application Landscape Assessment can be extensive since various departments work independently with applications, and you may lack comprehensive details.
Ensure communication with each department.
Step 3: Determine the appropriate landing site for each application
Determine the appropriate landing site for each application based on its nature and objectives.
For non-mission-critical applications requiring automation, opt for SaaS services. If an application is mission-critical and offers a significant competitive advantage, keep it in-house rather than SaaS.
Categorise applications into five ‘buckets’ with the same destination. Tip: Use a decision tree as a valuable tool for selecting landing sites. Find it in our e-book!
Step 4: Create a high-level design
Based on the different landing sites, you can create a high-level design, providing a helicopter view of your cloud platform's future layout.
Incorporate essential new building blocks and specify desired existing working methods.
The outcome is a comprehensive shopping list for:
- Application and platform management tools
- Network connections (e.g. bandwidth)
- Application and data integrations
- Security & Compliance
Step 5: Create a cloud business case
In this fifth step, calculate the application costs post-migration, enabling a comparison with current operating costs.
Predict the benefits of the new landing site for each application and consolidate these calculations and expectations into a Cloud Business Case.
For this purpose, use a financial model allowing different views of costs per application.
Examples include a cross-section of all costs associated with one application or the costs for a specific platform type, such as: ‘What are the costs of maintaining the Linux servers in our own data centre?’
A Cloud Business Case may involve research or benchmark data utilisation. If you’re initiating your Cloud Business Case, read this article first.
Step 6: Draw up a roadmap
Once you know the new destination for all applications, initiate the planning phase using a roadmap.
This diagram should encompass not only technical activities but also organisational considerations and the business impact.
Consider the involvement of different individuals during application moves, which may temporarily disrupt their daily routines or necessitate retraining.
Take inventory of human resources to gauge the migration’s impact on them and determine if external assistance is required.
Plan the actual migration based on this assessment, ensuring an even distribution of workload throughout the organisation. Begin by migrating applications that yield the fastest results in their new cloud form.
Non-mission critical applications that benefit from cost-effective SaaS deployment are excellent examples.
The Netherlands / Europe
Michiel de van der Schueren
Rapid Circle Advisory
Success Stories
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From government to healthcare, we have helped transform over 1000 organisations.
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Port Logistics Powerhouse ‘Portbase’ Takes to the Cloud
A cloud migration is a large project that many IT managers put off for years. But, what if you could rip the band-aid off by doing it in a day?
Migrate with a plan - download the e-book
If you need a concrete plan to begin your cloud migration, read our e-book, where we guide you through all the steps, avoiding any jargon.
In the e-book, you will:
- Learn how to determine your objectives.
- Calculate the impact of cloud on your current application landscape and organisation.
- Make a cloud business case.
- Prioritise which applications to migrate first.
Our Cloud Strategy Vision
Turn your organisation into a digital enterprise!
Rapid Circle helps companies to deploy the Microsoft Cloud in a strategic way.
This means, your cloud migration won’t become an (expensive) goal, but a means to become an agile, data-driven organisation.
Our experts will support you on a technical and process level, and help you spread cloud expertise throughout all departments.
As a result, your Cloud strategy reaches all layers of the organisation, which in turn leads to true innovation.
At Rapid Circle, we help you achieve what’s next.
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