What is cloud strategy? 

Cloud strategy is a plan for how you intend to use cloud computing services. It is about making deliberate, informed decisions about where and when, and sometimes even whether, to use cloud computing services. Technical considerations are important for any cloud strategy. You need to know what data you can move to the cloud without breaking compliance laws, as well as how business processes are impacted by moving them into a cloud environment.

However, technical considerations are not the only things that matter. An organization’s culture can be deeply affected by moving to a public cloud such as AWS or Azure. It is important to understand the potential impact of such a move on privacy and public perception of your company.

It is also important to remember that creating a cloud strategy is not a one-time event. These strategies should be updated over time because circumstances change – new applications may require new capabilities which may not fit well with existing infrastructure or there may be new applications available from third party providers which could replace part of your architecture and provide better performance at lower cost or there could be a radical change in the nature and requirements of your infrastructure.

Why do you need a cloud strategy? 

Many companies are moving to the cloud because it makes sense for them. They want to reduce costs and increase efficiency. But in doing so, they sometimes skip the step of creating a formal cloud strategy because they feel it is unnecessary. This can lead to wasted time and resources.

Most businesses are transitioning to the cloud in one way or another, whether by leveraging applications in Office 365 or migrating their on-premises data centers to Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In adopting these solutions, many IT organizations have taken an ad hoc approach, treating each deployment as a separate project with no overarching strategy guiding their decisions. While this might work for smaller projects, such as rolling out individual business applications, without an overarching plan, these organizations risk missing out on opportunities to simplify management and reduce costs.

Understanding your organization

To create a cloud strategy, you must first understand your organization.

• Understand business needs and requirements. Do you have a large amount of data? Do you need to connect with partners and suppliers? Do you need support for mobile devices? Are you spending too much on hardware maintenance? Does storage space limit productivity? Before developing a strategy, it is essential to understand your company’s unique needs.
• Understand current cloud usage and costs. How much are you spending now on public clouds? How about SaaS, PaaS, or private cloud services? Understanding how much money is being spent will help inform how much money could be saved by moving to an integrated cloud service architecture.
• Understand your current applications. What applications are running in your organization right now? It is important to understand which ones are critical, which ones are candidates for migration, and what they cost along with their associated databases and data storage demands. When creating the strategy, the application portfolio may also influence which specific clouds or services are chosen.
• Understand your current infrastructure: Is it virtualized or not yet virtualized? Does the existing infrastructure need to be re-architected before migration into the cloud happens?

Choosing the appropriate cloud services.

Choose the appropriate cloud services for your organization. There are several factors to consider as you evaluate different options.

• Consider the kinds of cloud services available, including public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud. Each strategic option has its benefits and drawbacks. For example, a public cloud or hybrid cloud might not be an option depending on your industry’s compliance regulations. Still, these two options offer greater cost savings than a private or virtual private cloud (VPC).
• Consider the security risks of each service and how they align with your business needs. A VPC provides a layer of security closer to what you would have in an on-premises environment than a public cloud. Still, it will also cost more because you have dedicated resources that you are paying for even when users in your organization are not using them.
• Think about the type of business you are running. Suppose you are highly regulated or store sensitive data such as credit card information or patient health records (PHI). In that case, a VPC might be your only viable option because public clouds typically do not meet minimum requirements for compliance regulations like HIPAA and PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard).

Drawing up an action plan.

Action plans are the organizational expression of a roadmap that details how you will tackle every aspect of your cloud strategy. Once it is completed, you will have identified which issues need to be tackled first and been crystal clear about what it will take to get things done.

In addition to specifying the steps required for execution, an action plan lays out who is responsible for each step, when each task needs to be completed, whether the time frame is acceptable given your larger goals and any cost estimates associated with each piece of work.

A cloud strategy describes how your IT resources should be used to improve efficiency and innovation to meet your organization’s business needs.

A cloud strategy describes how your IT resources should be used to improve efficiency and innovation to meet your organization’s business needs. It guides the direction of cloud adoption and implementation within your company. It helps inform decisions about what resources should be provisioned, what applications should be built/modified and moved to the cloud, and how they will all work together.

_{“Written by Faham Zia – Business Development Executive”}