Cloud adoption is becoming an essential requirement for digital transformation and time‑to‑market of new online services. Therefore, it is no surprise that the cloud market continues its worldwide ascent.
According to Gartner, it is forecasted that the IT market will grow by 5.1 percent in 2023, whilst the move to the cloud will be responsible for a much higher 11.3 percent increase in software spending. The cloud is driving the business application market, with Gartner predicting it could be twice the size of the non‑cloud solutions market by 2025. According to Eurostat data, 41% of enterprises in the EU region have deployed cloud technology in the past year, in 73% of cases to support critical services.
While the cloud is proving to be a valuable resource for business, it remains a challenge for enterprises to be able to employ it to its full potential. This requires an effective Cloud Strategy.
In this blog post, we will illustrate what a Cloud Strategy is and we will point out some suggestions to make it as successful as possible.
What is the Cloud Strategy
According to Gartner’s definition, A cloud strategy is a concise point of view on the role of cloud within the organization. It is a living document, designed to bridge between a high‑level corporate strategy and a cloud implementation/adoption/migration plan. A cloud strategy is different from a cloud adoption or migration plan
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To summarize, it is a strategic document based on business needs, whose goal is to improve the business capabilities of the organization, and it is not the same as the cloud migration plan.
Without a Cloud Strategy driven by business needs, the enterprise risks wasting its resources on projects that do not bring the desired economic return or other tangible benefits.
For it to be effective, Cloud Strategy should not only involve the IT department, which undoubtedly remains one of the most important as it will be in charge of the technical implementation. It should include the entire company since the Cloud Strategy originates from the sharing of the company's strategic business objectives.
Putting in place an effective Cloud Strategy is essential to achieve economic returns and business benefits in cloud adoption, so it is important to set the Cloud Strategy before starting. However, enterprises already using cloud computing and services should define their Cloud Strategy too, as using the cloud without a strategy is one of the most common mistakes made by companies in the adoption and changes involving cloud services.
The business drivers of a successful Cloud Strategy
As previously mentioned, Cloud Strategy involves defining business objectives, which must be aligned with the company's long‑term strategy. So here are some tips to keep in mind when defining your Cloud Strategy goals.
Where legacy business systems are present, one of the indispensable steps involves legacy modernization. Legacy systems typically managed on‑premise have major limitations in terms of scalability, flexibility, and performance, so it is useful to provide a plan to modernize these systems and thus adapt to the needs of today's market.
A very important goal is to simplify business processes. The choice of cloud services should be aimed at speeding up operations, fostering collaboration, decreasing the time‑to‑market of newly developed services, and increasing the overall business agility of the enterprise.
Another goal is cost predictability. This is the ability to leverage the cloud, management tools that come with services, and methodologies such as FinOps to govern and more accurately predict the operating costs of cloud services and resources needed for new projects and business initiatives.
Another important selection principle is zero lock‑in, to retain the ability to change vendors in a non‑burdensome manner while retaining full ownership of the software artifacts created.
Last but certainly not least, the goal of sustainability should be considered. The cloud is going to be an increasingly important asset for the company and, as such, must contribute to making the company more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.
How to design an effective Cloud Strategy
We have seen what Cloud Strategy is, its role in maximizing business returns related to cloud adoption, why it should not be confused with technical implementation plans, and what goals cannot be missing. An effective strategy cannot be generalized but should start from an understanding of both the short‑term and long‑term needs of the company's business and the resources available in the cloud today.
Mia‑Platform helps you achieve all the goals of your Cloud Strategy, from simplification to legacy modernization, not forgetting cost predictability, zero lock‑in, and sustainability. Book a free demo and learn how to realize your Cloud Strategy!
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