Transforming operations for successful cloud adoption

To achieve benefits of cloud adoption such as enhanced skillsets, a timely provisioning process and improved end-user satisfaction levels, CIOs need to lay the proper groundwork. Cloud management readiness as described above is key, as is establishing the following cloud-centric processes and connections to drive operational success:

• Form a cloud team with clearly designated roles and skillsets

Start your cloud adoption Several of the new roles required for an optimal and scalable cloud operation may be sourced from existing roles and skillsets, particularly if the organization is prepared to make an investment in training existing, capable resources. For example, a solid enterprise architecture organization can evolve its skillsets with the help of additional training on DevOps principles and cloud architecture best practices within their industry.

• Standardize cloud policies

Standardize processes and templates for cloud requests across all company sectors and business units. To establish proper cloud policies, create automated provisioning for cloud services and collectively develop and optimize strategies that meet the organization’s usage, security and budget needs. This includes building repeatable automation capabilities and services that are isolated for independent availability, elastic scalability and built-in tooling for security controls.

• Institute proper governance

Build a robust cloud center of excellence (CCoE) with the capability to scale as needed. A CCoE can help establish and enforce success criteria for cloud governance including architectural performance, cost management, asset management, security and rate of cloud adoption. Cloud management platforms (CMPs) are used to enforce policies and ensure compliance. The keys here are to adhere to industry best practices and engage your security and compliance stakeholders in building the CCoE.

• Form a cloud concierge

Some CIOs have also opted to establish a “cloud concierge,” which serves as the intermediary between business units and their cloud service providers. Specifically, this role is responsible for gathering requirements for review and the placement of potential cloud workloads. Further, enterprise architecture governance processes can be effective for validating workload requests to guarantee review from multiple discipline areas.

• Leverage architecture standardization

Be sure to update and enhance current IT architectural standards to align with the new cloud adoption strategy. Also take the time to develop cloud-native architectures rather than applying a lift-and-shift approach for existing standards. Lastly, prioritize the development of an enterprise architecture roadmap for all required cloud capabilities.

• Create a FinOps team for driving cost savings strategies

A new discipline called “FinOps” has arisen within enterprise cloud teams, with the purpose of optimally monitoring and managing cloud expenditures, as cloud forecasting is very different from forecasting a centrally managed legacy infrastructure. Monitoring individual workloads and the telemetry available for tracking them in the public cloud is also key.

CIOs should designate FinOps experts who are responsible for maintaining visibility for cloud utilization and cost allocation models and collaborating with finance to establish value realization, tracking and accountability frameworks to drive cost savings. This team will implement best practices including optimization analysis, reserved instance management, tiered optimization modeling, multi-cloud billing analysis and showback and chargeback analysis.

Cloud pitfalls are aplenty, but allocating enough resources during the cloud adoption planning phase will help mitigate potential landmines, reveal the economics of cloud adoption and help establish the leadership, communication, people, processes and technology required to achieve such economics.

With the right models, methodologies, strategies and best practices in place, CIOs can overcome these challenges with a value governance approach that enables their organizations to implement a sound cloud implementation.