Cloud Conferences

Cloud computing is not just about technology, and people outside IT have relevant skills and knowledge that IT professionals may not. HR, legal and finance departments, for example, will not only be impacted by cloud adoption but will need to be prepared, look for ways to use cloud to benefit their functions and provide expertise.

Devising a strategy and then trying to “sell” it to the business won’t be effective. Business and IT should be equal partners in defining the cloud strategy. Overlooking the input and knowledge beyond IT will prevent the effort from being truly strategic for the whole organization.

An exit strategy helps an organization to extricate itself from a cloud decision if it becomes necessary, but many organizations skip this step because they don’t expect to bring anything back from the cloud. Although this is rare, it’s vital to have an exit strategy — even if it’s never used. And in some cases, regulators mandate them, especially in the EU and in financial services.

Although creating an exit strategy can be hard, it is a best business practice to have a contingency plan for unforeseen events that may affect your cloud usage. An effective exit strategy goes beyond legal and contractual issues to address areas like data ownership, data protection, security and infrastructure, and it makes your organization more agile.

Many organizations confuse a cloud strategy with a cloud adoption or migration plan. But strategy should come before implementation. It should align with other strategic plans across the organization and also with the organization’s vision. The cloud strategy can be a catalyst for creating a broader IT or technology strategy. 

Alignment to an existing security strategy is critical and may involve negotiations among the responsible parties, particularly if devising a cloud strategy clashes with the security strategy currently in place.

If your organization’s existing “cloud strategy” is long and extremely detailed, it is likely an implementation plan instead, even if it contains some aspects of strategy. If it discusses how to select providers, manage the use of cloud or migration to the cloud, it’s not a strategy.

Even if your organization is already using cloud computing, there’s still time to create a strategy. If you can define why you’re using cloud and what its role is in your organization, you’ve already started defining your cloud strategy. Even if you haven’t documented these things, you don’t need to start from scratch. Your strategy should start from where you are and factor in what the organization has already done.

Assess your organization’s use of cloud. Examine and document achievements, mistakes and lessons learned. Your strategy should reflect these things and ensure that any mistakes already made aren’t repeated. Making this strategy a living document is critical to its success. Updating it frequently enhances its effectiveness.

A cloud strategy is not a plan to move everything to the cloud. Fear of this actually deters many organizations from devising a cloud strategy. Don’t assume that a strategy will force your organization to use cloud computing for everything. Keep an open mind and don’t jump to conclusions before you start. It’s helpful to have someone other than an in-depth cloud expert devise the strategy, and an enterprise architect is ideal for the job because of the role’s broad viewpoint. 

Remember that the best time to do a cloud strategy was five years ago — but the second best time is now.