The cloud permeates the enterprise technology discussion. It can be difficult to separate the hype from the value. Should everything go to the cloud, or is that sentiment stoked by vendors looking to boost their bottom lines? Not everything should go to the cloud, but coming up with a systematic way to determine what belongs where is increasingly difficult as offerings get more complex.
Don’t think about the cloud as an inevitable next step for all workloads. The cloud is merely another tool in the toolbox, ready to be used when appropriate and put away when it’s not needed. Cloud-first isn’t always the way to go.
Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
The cloud vision storyboard walks readers through the process of generating, validating and formalizing a cloud vision, providing a framework and tools to assess workloads for their cloud suitability and risk.
The executive summary captures the results of the vision exercise, including decision criteria for moving to the cloud, risks, roadblocks, and mitigations.
The cloud vision workbook comprises several assessments that will help you understand what service model, delivery model, support model, and risks and roadblocks you can expect to encounter at the workload level.
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Align organizational goals to cloud characteristics.
An understanding of how the characteristics particular to cloud can support organizational goals.
1.1 Generate corporate goals and cloud drivers.
1.2 Identify success indicators.
1.3 Explore cloud characteristics.
1.4 Explore cloud service and delivery models.
1.5 Define cloud support models and strategy components.
1.6 Create state summaries for the different service and delivery models.
1.7 Select workloads for further analysis.
Corporate cloud goals and drivers
Success indicators
Current state summaries
List of workloads for further analysis
Evaluate workloads for cloud value and action plan.
Action plan for each workload.
2.1 Conduct workload assessment using the Cloud Strategy Workbook tool.
2.2 Discuss assessments and make preliminary determinations about the workloads.
Completed workload assessments
Workload summary statements
Identify and plan to mitigate potential risks in the cloud project.
A list of potential risks and plans to mitigate them.
3.1 Generate a list of risks and potential roadblocks associated with the cloud.
3.2 Sort risks and roadblocks and define categories.
3.3 Identify mitigations for each identified risk and roadblock
3.4 Generate initiatives from the mitigations.
List of risks and roadblocks, categorized
List of mitigations
List of initiatives
Clarify your vision of how the organization can best make use of cloud and build a project roadmap.
A clear vision and a concrete action plan to move forward with the project.
4.1 Review and assign work items.
4.2 Finalize the decision framework for each of the following areas: service model, delivery model, and support model.
4.3 Create a cloud vision statement
Cloud roadmap
Finalized task list
Formal cloud decision rubric
Cloud vision statement
Complete your cloud vision by building a compelling executive-facing presentation.
Simple, straightforward communication of your cloud vision to key stakeholders.
5.1 Build the Cloud Vision Executive Presentation
Completed cloud strategy executive presentation
Completed Cloud Vision Workbook.
The cloud isn’t magic. It’s not necessarily cheaper, better, or even available for the thing you want it to do. It’s not mysterious or a cure-all, and it does take a bit of effort to systematize your approach and make consistent, defensible decisions about your cloud services. That’s where this blueprint comes in.
Your cloud vision is the culmination of this effort all boiled down into a single statement: “This is how we want to use the cloud.” That simple statement should, of course, be representative of – and built from – a broader, contextual strategy discussion that answers the following questions: What should go to the cloud? What kind of cloud makes sense? Should the cloud deployment be public, private, or hybrid? What does a migration look like? What risks and roadblocks need to be considered when exploring your cloud migration options? What are the “day 2” activities that you will need to undertake after you’ve gotten the ball rolling?
Taken as a whole, answering these questions is difficult task. But with the framework provided here, it’s as easy as – well, let’s just say it’s easier.
Jeremy Roberts
Research Director, Infrastructure and Operations
Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Insight: 1) Base migration decisions on cloud characteristics. If your justification for the migration is simply getting your workload out of the data center, think again. 2) Address the risks up front in your migration plan. 3) The cloud changes roles and calls for different skill sets, but Ops is here to stay.
“We’re moving from a world where companies like Oracle and Microsoft and HP and Dell were all critically important to a world where Microsoft is still important, but Amazon is now really important, and Google also matters. The technology has changed, but most of the major vendors they’re betting their business on have also changed. And that’s super hard for people..” –David Chappell, Author and Speaker
30% of all cloud spend is self-reported as waste. Many workloads that end up in the cloud don’t belong there. Many workloads that do belong in the cloud aren’t properly migrated. (Flexera, 2021)
44% of respondents report themselves as under-skilled in the cloud management space. (Pluralsight, 2021)
Goals and drivers
Highlight risks and roadblocks
Formalize cloud vision
Document your cloud strategy
The Info-Tech difference:
Cloud Characteristics
Service Model:
Delivery Model
(National Institute of Standards and Technology)
A workload-first approach will allow you to take full advantage of the cloud’s strengths
In a 2016 blog post, Amazon introduced a framework for understanding cloud migration strategies. The framework presented here is slightly modified – including a “relocate” component rather than a “retire” component – but otherwise hews close to the standard.
These migration paths reflect organizational capabilities and desired outcomes in terms of service models – cloud or otherwise. Retention means keeping the workload where it is, in a datacenter or a colocation service, or relocating to a colocation or hosted software environment. These represent the “non-cloud” migration paths.
In the graphic on the right, the paths within the red box lead to the cloud. Rehosting means lifting and shifting to an infrastructure environment. Migrating a virtual machine from your VMware environment on premises to Azure Virtual machines is a quick way to realize some benefits from the cloud. Migrating from SQL Server on premises to a cloud-based SQL solution looks a bit more like changing platforms (replatforming). It involves basic infrastructure modification without a substantial architectural component.
Refactoring is the most expensive of the options and involves engaging the software development lifecycle to build a custom solution, fundamentally rewriting the solution to be cloud native and take advantage of cloud-native architectures. This can result in a PaaS or an IaaS solution.
Finally, repurchasing means simply going to market and procuring a new solution. This may involve migrating data, but it does not require the migration of components.
Migration Paths
Retain (Revisit)
Relocate
Rehost
Replatform
Refactor
Repurchase
Duration of engagement | Specialization | Flexibility | |
---|---|---|---|
Internal IT | Indefinite | Varies based on nature of business | Fixed, permanent staff |
Managed Service Provider | Contractually defined | General, some specialization | Standard offering |
Consultant | Project-based | Specific, domain-based | Entirely negotiable |
IT services, including cloud services, can be delivered and managed in multiple ways depending on the nature of the workload and the organization’s intended path forward. Three high-level options are presented here and may be more or less valuable based on the duration of the expected engagement with the service (temporary or permanent), the skills specialization required, and the flexibility necessary to complete the job.
By way of example, a highly technical, short-term project with significant flexibility requirements might be a good fit for an expensive consultant, whereas post-implementation maintenance of a cloud email system requires relatively little specialization and flexibility and would therefore be a better fit for internal management.
There is no universally applicable rule here, but there are some workloads that are generally a good fit for the cloud and others that are not as effective, with that fit being conditional on the appropriate support model being employed.
No two cloud strategies are exactly alike, but all should address 14 key areas. A key step in defining your cloud vision is an assessment of these strategy components. Lower maturity does not preclude an aggressive cloud strategy, but it does indicate that higher effort will be required to make the transition.
Component | Description | Component | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Monitoring | What will system owners/administrators need visibility into? How will they achieve this? | Vendor Management | What practices must change to ensure effective management of cloud vendors? |
Provisioning | Who will be responsible for deploying cloud workloads? What governance will this process be subject to? | Finance Management | How will costs be managed with the transition away from capital expenditure? |
Migration | How will cloud migrations be conducted? What best practices/standards must be employed? | Security | What steps must be taken to ensure that cloud services meet security requirements? |
Operations management | What is the process for managing operations as they change in the cloud? | Data Controls | How will data residency, compliance, and protection requirements be met in the cloud? |
Architecture | What general principles must apply in the cloud environment? | Skills and roles | What skills become necessary in the cloud? What steps must be taken to acquire those skills? |
Integration and interoperability | How will services be integrated? What standards must apply? | Culture and adoption | Is there a cultural aversion to the cloud? What steps must be taken to ensure broad cloud acceptance? |
Portfolio Management | Who will be responsible for managing the growth of the cloud portfolio? | Governing bodies | What formal governance must be put in place? Who will be responsible for setting standards? |
Once you understand the value of the cloud, your workloads’ general suitability for cloud, and your proposed risks and mitigations, the next step is to define your cloud archetype.
Your organization’s cloud archetype is the strategic posture that IT adopts to best support the organization’s goals. Info-Tech’s model recognizes seven archetypes, divided into three high-level archetypes.
After consultation with your stakeholders, and based on the results of the suitability and risk assessment activities, define your archetype. The archetype feeds into the overall cloud vision and provides simple insight into the cloud future state for all stakeholders.
The cloud vision itself is captured in a “vision statement,” a short summary of the overall approach that includes the overall cloud archetype.
We can best support the organization's goals by: | |||
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More Cloud ↑ Less Cloud |
Cloud Focused | Cloud-Centric | Providing all workloads through cloud delivery. |
Cloud-First | Using the cloud as our default deployment model. For each workload, we should ask “why NOT cloud?” | ||
Cloud Opportunistic | Hybrid | Enabling the ability to transition seamlessly between on-premises and cloud resources for many workloads. | |
Integrated | Combining cloud and traditional infrastructure resources, integrating data and applications through APIs or middleware. | ||
Split | Using the cloud for some workloads and traditional infrastructure resources for others. | ||
Cloud Averse | Cloud-Light | Using traditional infrastructure resources and limiting our use of the cloud to when it is absolutely necessary. | |
Anti-Cloud | Using traditional infrastructure resources and avoiding use of the cloud wherever possible. |
1. Understand the Cloud | 2. Assess Workloads | 3. Identify and Mitigate Risks | 4. Bridge the Gap and Create the Vision | |
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Phase Steps |
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Phase Outcomes |
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The cloud may not be right for you – and that’s okay!
Don’t think about the cloud as an inevitable next step for all workloads. The cloud is merely another tool in the toolbox, ready to be used when appropriate and put away when it’s not needed. Cloud first isn’t always the way to go.
Not all clouds are equal
It’s not “should I go to the cloud?” but “what service and delivery models make sense based on my needs and risk tolerance?” Thinking about the cloud as a binary can force workloads into the cloud that don’t belong (and vice versa).
Bottom-up is best
A workload assessment is the only way to truly understand the cloud’s value. Work from the bottom up, not the top down, understand what characteristics make a workload cloud suitable, and strategize on that basis.
Your accountability doesn’t change
You are still accountable for maintaining available, secure, functional applications and services. Cloud providers share some responsibility, but the buck stops where it always has: with you.
Don’t customize for the sake of customization
SaaS providers make money selling the same thing to everyone. When migrating a workload to SaaS, work with stakeholders to pursue standardization around a selected platform and avoid customization where possible.
Best of both worlds, worst of both worlds
Hybrid clouds are in fashion, but true hybridity comes with additional cost, administration, and other constraints. A convoy moves at the speed of its slowest member.
The journey matters as much as the destination
How you get there is as important as what “there” actually is. Any strategy that focuses solely on the destination misses out on a key part of the value conversation: the migration strategy.
Cloud Vision Executive Presentation
This presentation captures the results of the exercises and presents a complete vision to stakeholders including a desired target state, a rubric for decision making, the results of the workload assessments, and an overall risk profile.
Cloud Vision Workbook
This workbook includes the standard cloud workload assessment questionnaire along with the results of the assessment. It also includes the milestone timeline for the implementation of the cloud vision.
9.8/10 Average reported satisfaction
17 Days Average reported time savings
$37, 613 Average cost savings (adj.)
Industry: Financial
Source: Info-Tech workshop
A small East Coast financial institution was required to develop a cloud strategy. This strategy had to meet several important requirements, including alignment with strategic priorities and best practices, along with regulatory compliance, including with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The bank already had a significant cloud footprint and was looking to organize and formalize the strategy going forward.
Leadership needed a comprehensive strategy that touched on key areas including the delivery model, service models, individual workload assessments, cost management, risk management and governance. The output had to be consumable by a variety of audiences with varying levels of technical expertise and had to speak to IT’s role in the broader strategic goals articulated earlier in the year.
Results
The bank engaged Info-Tech for a cloud vision workshop and worked through four days of exercises with various IT team members. The bank ultimately decided on a multi-cloud strategy that prioritized SaaS while also allowing for PaaS and IaaS solutions, along with some non-cloud hosted solutions, based on organizational circumstances.
Bank cloud vision
[Bank] will provide innovative financial and related services by taking advantage of the multiplicity of best-of-breed solutions available in the cloud. These solutions make it possible to benefit from industry-level innovations, while ensuring efficiency, redundancy, and enhanced security.
Bank cloud decision workflow
Non-cloud
Cloud
"Our team has already made this crticial project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful."
"Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track."
"We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off imediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place."
"Our team does not have the time or the knowledge the take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.
A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.
A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 4
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Offsite day | |
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Understand the cloud | Assess workloads | Identify and mitigate risks | Bridge the gap and create the strategy | Next steps and wrap-up (offsite) | |
Activities | 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Generate corporate goals and cloud drivers 1.3 Identify success indicators 1.4 Explore cloud characteristics 1.5 Explore cloud service and delivery models 1.6 Define cloud support models and strategy components 1.7 Create current state summaries for the different service and delivery models 1.8 Select workloads for further analysis |
2.1 Conduct workload assessments using the cloud strategy workbook tool 2.2 Discuss assessments and make preliminary determinations about workloads |
3.1 Generate a list of risks and potential roadblocks associated with the cloud 3.2 Sort risks and roadblocks and define categories 3.3 Identify mitigations for each identified risk and roadblock 3.4 Generate initiatives from the mitigations |
4.1 Review and assign work items 4.2 Finalize the decision framework for each of the following areas:
4.3 Create a cloud vision statement |
5.1 Build the Cloud Vision Executive Presentation |
Deliverables |
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Phase 1
Phase 1
1.1 Generate goals and drivers
1.2 Explore cloud characteristics
1.3 Create a current state summary
1.4 Select workloads for analysis
Phase 2
2.1 Conduct workload assessments
2.2 Determine workload future states
Phase 3
3.1 Generate risks and roadblocks
3.2 Mitigate risks and roadblocks
3.3 Define roadmap initiatives
Phase 4
4.1 Review and assign work items
4.2 Finalize cloud decision framework
4.3 Create cloud vision
This phase will walk you through the following activities:
1.1.1 Generate organizational goals
1.1.2 Define cloud drivers
1.1.3 Define success indicators
1.3.1 Record your current state
1.4.1 Select workloads for further assessment
This phase involves the following participants:
IT management, the core working group, security, infrastructure, operations, architecture, engineering, applications, non-IT stakeholders.
The cloud is a nebulous term that can reasonably describe services ranging from infrastructure as a service as delivered by providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft through its Azure platform, right up to software as a service solutions like Jira or Salesforce. These solutions solve different problems – just because your CRM would be a good fit for a migration to Salesforce doesn’t mean the same system would make sense in Azure or AWS.
This is important because the language we use to talk about the cloud can color our approach to cloud services. A “cloud-first” strategy will mean something different to a CEO with a concept of the cloud rooted in Salesforce than it will to a system administrator who interprets it to mean a transition to cloud-hosted virtual machines.
Add to this the fact that not all cloud services are hosted externally by providers (public clouds) and the fact that multiple delivery models can be engaged at once through hybrid or multi-cloud approaches, and it’s apparent that a shared understanding of the cloud is necessary for a coherent strategy to take form.
This phase proceeds in four steps, each governed by the principle of shared understanding. The first requires a shared understanding of corporate goals and drivers. Step 2 involves coming to a shared understanding of the cloud’s unique characteristics. Step 3 requires a review of the current state. Finally, in Step 4, participants will identify workloads that are suitable for analysis as candidates for the cloud.
Activities
1.1.1 Define organizational goals
1.1.2 Define cloud drivers
1.1.3 Define success indicators
Generate goals and drivers
Explore cloud characteristics
Create a current state summary
Select workloads for analysis
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
1-3 hours
30-60 minutes
1 hour
Activities
Understand the value of the cloud:
Understand the Cloud
Generate goals and drivers
Explore cloud characteristics
Create a current state summary
Select workloads for analysis
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
Per NIST, the cloud has five fundamental characteristics. All clouds have these characteristics, even if they are executed in somewhat different ways between delivery models, service models, and even individual providers.
On-demand self-service
Cloud customers are capable of provisioning cloud resources without human interaction (e.g. contacting sales), generally through a web console.
Broad network access
Capabilities are designed to be delivered over a network and are generally intended for access by a wide variety of platform types (cloud services are generally device-agnostic).
Resource pooling
Multiple customers (internal, in the case of private clouds) make use of a highly abstracted shared infrastructure managed by the cloud provider.
Rapid elasticity
Customers are capable of provisioning additional resources as required, pulling from a functionally infinite pool of capacity. Cloud resources can be spun-down when no longer needed.
Measured service
Consumption is metered based on an appropriate unit of analysis (number of licenses, storage used, compute cycles, etc.) and billing is transparent and granular.
The NIST definition of cloud computing outlines four cloud delivery models: public, private, hybrid, and community clouds. A community cloud is like a private cloud, but it is provisioned for the exclusive use of a like-minded group of organizations, usually in a mutually beneficial, non-competitive arrangement. Universities and hospitals are examples of organizations that can pool their resources in this way without impacting competitiveness. The Info-Tech model covers three key delivery models – public, private, and hybrid, and an overarching model (multi-cloud) that can comprise more than one of the other models – public + public, public + hybrid, etc.
Public
The cloud service is provisioned for access by the general public (customers).
Private
A private cloud has the five key characteristics, but is provisioned for use by a single entity, like a company or organization.
Hybrid
Hybridity essentially refers to interoperability between multiple cloud delivery models (public +private).
Multi
A multi-cloud deployment requires only that multiple clouds are used without any necessary interoperability (Nutanix, 2019).
Prominent examples include:
AWS
Microsoft
Azure
Salesforce.com
Workday
SAP
VMware and Microsoft lead the pack among private cloud customers, with Amazon and Red Hat also substantially present across private cloud environments.
Hybrid cloud architectures combine multiple cloud delivery models and facilitate some level of interoperability. NIST suggests bursting and load balancing as examples of hybrid cloud use cases. Note: it is not sufficient to simply have multiple clouds running in parallel – there must be a toolset that allows for an element of cross-cloud functionality.
This delivery model is attractive because it allows users to take advantage of the strengths of multiple service models using a single management pane. Bursting across clouds to take advantage of additional capacity or disaster recovery capabilities are two obvious use cases that appeal to hybrid cloud users.
But while hybridity is all the rage (especially given the impact Covid-19 has had on the workplace), the reality is that any hybrid cloud user must take the good with the bad. Multiple clouds and a management layer can be technically complex, expensive, and require maintaining a physical infrastructure that is not especially valuable (“I thought we were moving to the cloud to get out of the datacenter!”).
Before selecting a hybrid approach through services like VMware Cloud on AWS or Microsoft’s Azure Stack, consider the cost, complexity, and actual expected benefit.
With its acquisition of Red Hat in 2019 for $34 billion, Big Blue put its money where its mouth is and acquired a substantial hybrid cloud business. At the time of the acquisition, Red Hat’s CEO, Jim Whitehurst, spoke about the benefit IBM expected to receive:
“Joining forces with IBM gives Red Hat the opportunity to bring more open source innovation to an even broader range of organizations and will enable us to scale to meet the need for hybrid cloud solutions that deliver true choice and agility” (Red Hat, 2019).
Multi-cloud is popular!
Multi-cloud solutions exist at a different layer of abstraction from public, private, and even hybrid cloud delivery models. A multi-cloud architecture, as the name suggests, requires the user to be a customer of more than one cloud provider, and it can certainly include a hybrid cloud deployment, but it is not bound by the same rules of interoperability.
Many organizations – especially those with fewer resources or a lack of a use case for a private cloud – rely on a multi-cloud architecture to build applications where they belong, and they manage each environment separately (or occasionally with the help of cloud management platforms).
If your data team wants to work in AWS and your enterprise services run on basic virtual machines in Azure, that might be the most effective architecture. As the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report suggests, this architecture is far more common than the more complicated bursting or brokering architectures characteristic of hybrid clouds.
SaaS has exploded in popularity with consumers who wish to avail themselves of the cloud’s benefits without having to manage underlying infrastructure components. SaaS is simple, generally billed per-user per-month, and is almost entirely provider-managed.
PaaS providers offer a toolset for their customers to run custom applications and services without the requirement to manage underlying infrastructure components. This service model is ideal for custom applications/services that don’t benefit from highly granular infrastructure control.
IaaS represents the sale of components. Instead of a service, IaaS providers sell access to components, like compute, storage, and networking, allowing for customers to build anything they want on top of the providers’ infrastructure.
Info-Tech Insight
Not all workloads fit well in the cloud. Many environments will mix service models (e.g. SaaS for some workloads, some in IaaS, some on-premises), and this can be perfectly effective. It must be consistent and intentional, however.
On-prem | Co-Lo | IaaS | PaaS | SaaS |
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Application | Application | Application | Application | Application |
Database | Database | Database | Database | Database |
Runtime/ Middleware | Runtime/ Middleware | Runtime/ Middleware | Runtime/ Middleware | Runtime/ Middleware |
OS | OS | OS | OS | OS |
Hypervisor | Hypervisor | Hypervisor | Hypervisor | Hypervisor |
Server Network Storage | Server Network Storage | Server Network Storage | Server Network Storage | Server Network Storage |
Facilities | Facilities | Facilities | Facilities | Facilities |
Organization has control
Organization or vendor may control
Vendor has control
Industry: Healthcare
Source: Info-Tech workshop
A healthcare analytics provider had already moved a significant number of “non-core workloads” to the cloud, including email, HRIS, and related services.
The company CEO was satisfied with the reduced effort required by IT to manage SaaS-based workloads and sought to extend the same benefits to the core analytics platform where there was an opportunity to reduce overhead.
Many components of the health analytics service were designed to run specifically in a datacenter and were not ready to be migrated to the cloud without significant effort/refactoring. SaaS was not an option because this was a core platform – a SaaS provider would have been the competition.
That left IaaS, which was expensive and would not bring the expected benefits (reduced overhead).
The organization determined that there were no short-term gains from migrating to the cloud. Due to the nature of the application (its extensive customization, the fact that it was a core product sold by the company) any steps to reduce operational overhead were not feasible.
The CEO recognized that the analytics platform was not a good candidate for the cloud and what distinguished the analytics platform from more suitable workloads.
In a 2016 blog post, Amazon Web Services articulated a framework for cloud migration that incorporates elements of the journey as well as the destination. If workload owners do not choose to retain or retire their workloads, there are four alternatives. These alternatives all stack up differently along five key dimensions:
Not all migration paths can lead to all destinations. Rehosting generally means IaaS, while repurchasing leads to SaaS. Refactoring and replatforming have some variety of outcomes, and it becomes possible to take advantage of new IaaS architectures or migrate workloads over fully to SaaS.
As part of the workload assessment process, use the five dimensions (expanded upon on the next slide) to determine what migration path makes sense. Preferred migration paths form an important part of the overall cloud vision process.
Retain (Revisit)
Retire
Rehost
Replatform
Refactor
Repurchase
Migration path | Value | Effort | Cost | Time | Skills |
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Retain | No real change in the absolute value of the workload if it is retained. | No effort beyond ongoing workload maintenance. | No immediate hard dollar costs, but opportunity costs and technical debt abound. | No time required! (At least not right away…) | Retaining requires the same skills it has always required (which may be more difficult to acquire in the future). |
Rehire | A retired workload can provide no value, but it is not a drain! | Spinning a service down requires engaging that part of the lifecycle. | N/A | Retiring the service may be simple or complicated depending on its current role. | N/A |
Rehost | Some value comes with rehosting, but generally components stay the same (VM here vs. a VM there). | Minimal effort required, especially with automated tools. The effort will depend on the environment being migrated. | Relatively cheap compared to other options. | Rehosting infrastructure is the simplest cloud migration path and is useful for anyone in a hurry. | Rehosting is the simplest cloud migration path for most workloads, but it does require basic familiarity with cloud IaaS. |
Replatform |
Replatformed workloads can take advantage of cloud-native services (SQL vs. SQLaaS). | Replatforming is more effortful than rehosting, but less effortful than refactoring. | Moderate cost – does not require fundamental rearchitecture, just some tweaking. | Relatively more complicated than a simple rehost, but less demanding than a refactor. | Platform and workload expertise is required; more substantial than a simple rehost. |
Refactor | A fully formed, customized cloud-based workload that can take advantage of cloud-native architectures is generally quite valuable. | Significant effort required based on the requirement to engage the full SDLC. | Significant cost required to engage SDLC and rebuild the application/service. | The most complicated and time-consuming. | The most complicated and time-consuming. |
Repurchase | Repurchasing is the quickest way to achieve cloud-native value. There are compromises, however (high cost, vendor-lock-in). | Repurchasing is the quickest way to achieve cloud-native value. There are compromises, however (high cost, vendor-lock-in). | Repurchasing is the quickest way to achieve cloud-native value. There are compromises, however (high cost, vendor-lock-in). | Configuration – especially for massive projects – can be time consuming, but in general repurchasing can be quite fast. | Buying software does require knowledge of requirements and integrations, but is otherwise quite simple. |
Cloud skills are certainly top of mind right now. With the great upheaval in both work patterns and in the labor market more generally, expertise in cloud-related areas is simultaneously more valuable and more difficult to procure. According to Pluralsight’s 2021 “State of Upskilling” report, 44% of respondents report themselves under-skilled in the cloud management area, making cloud management the most significant skill gap reported on the survey.
Everyone left the office. Work as we know it is fundamentally altered for a generation or more. Cloud services shot up in popularity by enabling the transition. And yet there is a gap – a prominent gap – in skilling up for this critically important future. What is the cloud manager to do?
Per the framework presented here, that manager has three essential options. They may take somewhat different forms depending on specific requirements and the quirks of the local market, but the options are:
Each model makes sense to some degree. When evaluating individual workloads for cloud suitability, it is critical to consider the support model – both immediate and long term. What makes sense from a value perspective?
A key component of the Info-Tech cloud vision model is that it is multi-layered. Not every decision must be made at every level. At the workload level, it makes sense to select service models that make sense, but each workload does not need its own defined vision. Workload-level decisions should be guided by an overall strategy but applied tactically, based on individual workload characteristics and circumstances.
Conversely, some decisions will inevitably be applied at the environment level. With some exceptions, it is unlikely that cloud customers will build an entire private/hybrid cloud environment around a single solution; instead, they will define a broader strategy and fit individual workloads into that strategy.
Some considerations exist at both the workload and environment levels. Risks and roadblocks, as well as the preferred support model, are concerns that exist at both the environment level and at the workload level.
Activities
1.3.1 Record your current state
Understand the Cloud
Generate goals and drivers
Explore cloud characteristics
Create a current state summary
Select workloads for analysis
This step involves the following participants: Core working group
Outcomes of this step
30 minutes
Activities
1.4.1 Select workloads for assessment
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
Understand the cloud
Generate goals and drivers
Explore cloud characteristics
Create a current state summary
Select workloads for analysis
30 minutes
Phase 2
Phase 1
1.1 Generate goals and drivers
1.2 Explore cloud characteristics
1.3 Create a current state summary
1.4 Select workloads for analysis
Phase 2
2.1 Conduct workload assessments
2.2 Determine workload future states
Phase 3
3.1 Generate risks and roadblocks
3.2 Mitigate risks and roadblocks
3.3 Define roadmap initiatives
Phase 4
4.1 Review and assign work items
4.2 Finalize cloud decision framework
4.3 Create cloud vision
This phase will walk you through the following activities:
This phase involves the following participants:
Define Your Cloud Vision
The concept of a cloud vision should unquestionably be informed by the nature of the workloads that IT is expected to provide for the wider organization. The overall cloud vision is no greater than the sum of its parts. You cannot migrate to the cloud in the abstract. Workloads need to go – and not all workloads are equally suitable for the transition.
It is therefore imperative to understand which workloads are a good fit for the cloud, which cloud service models make the most sense, how to execute the migration, what support should look like, and what risks and roadblocks you are likely to encounter as part of the process.
That’s where the Cloud Vision Workbook comes into play. You can use this tool to assess as many workloads as you’d like – most people get the idea after about four – and by the end of the exercise, you should have a pretty good idea about where your workloads belong, and you’ll have a tool to assess any net new or previously unconsidered workloads.
It’s not so much about the results of the assessment – though these are undeniably important – but about the learnings gleaned from the collaborative assessment exercise. While you can certainly fill out the assessment without any additional input, this exercise is most effective when completed as part of a group.
2.1.1 Conduct workload assessments
2.1.2 Interpret your results
Phase Title
Conduct workload assessments
Determine workload future state
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
2 hours per workload
10 minutes
Each cloud strategy will take a slightly different form, but all should contain echoes of each of these components. This process will help you define your vision and direction, but you will need to take steps to execute on that vision. The remainder of the cloud strategy, covered in the related blueprint Document Your Cloud Strategy comprises these fourteen topics divided across three categories: people, governance, and technology. The workload assessment covers these under risks and roadblocks and highlights areas that may require specific additional attention. When interpreting the results, think of these areas as comprising things that you will need to do to make your vision a reality.
People form the core of any good strategy. As part of your cloud vision, you will need to understand the implications a cloud transition will have on your staff and users, whether those users are internal or external.
Component | Description | Challenges |
---|---|---|
Skills and roles | The move to the cloud will require staff to learn how to handle new technology and new operational processes. The cloud is a different way of procuring IT resources and may require the definition of new roles to handle things like cost management and provisioning. | Staff may not have the necessary experience to migrate to a cloud environment or to effectively manage resources once the cloud transition is made. Cloud skills are difficult to hire for, and with the ever-changing nature of the platforms themselves, this shows no sign of abating. Redefining roles can also be politically challenging and should be done with due care and consideration. |
Culture and adoption | If you build it, they will come…right? It is not always the case that a new service immediately attracts users. Ensuring that organizational culture aligns with the cloud vision is a critical success factor. Equally important is ensuring that cloud resources are used as intended. | Those unfamiliar with cloud resources may be less willing to learn to use them. If alternatives exist (e.g. a legacy service that has not been shut down), or if those detractors are influential, this resistance may impede your cloud execution. Also, if the cloud transition involves significant effort or a fundamental rework (e.g. a DevOps transition) this role redefinition could cause some internal turmoil. |
Governing bodies | A large-scale cloud deployment requires formal governance. Formal governance requires a governing body that is ultimately responsible for designing the said governance. This could take the form of a “center of excellence” or may rest with a single cloud architect in a smaller, less complicated environment. | Governance is difficult. Defining responsibilities in a way that includes all relevant stakeholders without paralyzing the decision-making process is difficult. Implementing suggestions is a challenge. Navigating the changing nature of service provision (who can provision their own instances or assign licenses?) can be difficult as well. All these concerns must be addressed in a cloud strategy. |
Without guardrails, the cloud deployment will grow organically. This has strengths (people tend to adopt solutions that they select and deploy themselves), but these are more than balanced out by the drawbacks that come with inconsistency, poor administration, duplication of services, suboptimal costing, and any number of other unique challenges. The solution is to develop and deploy governance. The following list captures some of the necessary governance-related components of a cloud strategy.
Component | Description | Challenges |
---|---|---|
Architecture | Enterprise architecture is an important function in any environment with more than one interacting workload component (read: any environment). The cloud strategy should include an approach to defining and implementing a standard cloud architecture and should assign responsibility to an individual or group. | Sometimes the cloud transition is inspired by the desire to rearchitect. The necessary skills and knowledge may not be readily available to design and transition to a microservices-based environment, for example, vs. a traditional monolithic application architecture. The appropriateness of a serverless environment may not be well understood, and it may be the case that architects are unfamiliar with cloud best practices and reference architectures. |
Integration and interoperability | Many services are only highly functional when integrated with other services. What is a database without its front-end? What is an analytics platform without its data lake? For the cloud vision to be properly implemented, a strategy for handling integration and interoperability must be developed. It may be as simple as “all SaaS apps must be compatible with Okta” but it must be there. | Migration to the cloud may require a fundamentally new approach to integration, moving away from a point-to-point integrations and towards an ESB or data lake. In many cases, this is easier said than done. Centralization of management may be appealing, but legacy applications – or those acquired informally in a one-off fashion – might not be so easy to integrate into a central management platform. |
Operations management | Service management (ITIL processes) must be aligned with your overall cloud strategy. Migrating to the cloud (where applicable) will require refining these processes, including incident, problem, request, change, and configuration management, to make them more suitable for the cloud environment. | Operations management doesn’t go away in the cloud, but it does change in line with the transition to shared responsibility. Responding to incidents may be more difficult on the cloud when troubleshooting is a vendor’s responsibility. Change management in a SaaS environment may be more receptive than staff are used to as cloud providers push changes out that cannot be rolled back. |
Component | Description | Challenges |
---|---|---|
Cloud portfolio management | This component refers to the act of managing the portfolio of cloud services that is available to IT and to business users. What requirements must a SaaS service meet to be onboarded into the environment? How do we account for exceptions to our IaaS policy? What about services that are only available from a certain provider? | Rationalizing services offers administrative benefits, but may make some tasks more difficult for end users who have learned things a certain way or rely on niche toolsets. Managing access through a service catalog can also be challenging based on buy-in and ongoing administration. It is necessary to develop and implement policy. |
Cloud vendor management | Who owns the vendor management function, and what do their duties entail? What contract language must be standard? What does due diligence look like? How should negotiations be conducted? What does a severing of the relationship look like? | Cloud service models are generally different from traditional hosted software and even from each other (e.g. SaaS vs. PaaS). There is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to dealing with vendors. Also relevant: the skills that it takes to build and maintain a system are not necessarily the same as those required to coherently interact with a cloud vendor. |
Finance management | Cloud services are, by definition, subject to a kind of granular, operational billing that many shops might not be used to. Someone will need to accurately project and allocate costs, while ensuring that services are monitored for cost abnormalities. | Cloud cost challenges often relate to overall expense (“the cloud is more expensive than an alternative solution”), expense variability (“I don’t know what my budget needs to be this quarter”), and cost complexity (“I don’t understand what I’m paying for – what’s an Elastic Beanstalk?”). |
Security | The cloud is not inherently more or less secure than a premises-based alternative, though the risk profile can be different. Applying appropriate security governance to ensure workloads are compliant with security requirements is an essential component of the strategy. | Technical security architecture can be a challenge, as well as navigating the shared responsibility that comes with a cloud transition. There are also a plethora of cloud-specific security tools like cloud access security brokers (CASBs), cloud security posture management (CSPM) solutions, and even secure access services edge (SASE) technology. |
Data controls | Data residency, classification, quality, and protection are important considerations for any cloud strategy. With cloud providers taking on outsized responsibility, understanding and governing data is essential. | Cloud providers like to abstract away from the end user, and while some may be able to guarantee residency, others may not. Additionally, regulations may prevent some data from going to the cloud, and you may need to develop a new organizational backup strategy to account for the cloud. |
Good technology will never replace good people and effective process, but it remains important in its own right. A migration that neglects the undeniable technical components of a solid cloud strategy is doomed to mediocrity at best and failure at worst. Understanding the technical implications of the cloud vision – particularly in terms of monitoring, provisioning, and migration – makes all the difference. You can interpret the results of the cloud workload assessments by reviewing the details presented here.
Component | Description | Challenges |
---|---|---|
Monitoring | The cloud must be monitored in line with performance requirements. Staff must ensure that appropriate tools are in place to properly monitor cloud workloads and that they are capturing adequate and relevant data. | Defining requirements for monitoring a potentially unfamiliar environment can be difficult, as can consolidating on a monitoring solution that both meets requirements and covers all relevant areas. There may be some upskilling and integration work required to ensure that monitoring works as required. |
Provisioning | How will provisioning be done? Who will be responsible for ensuring the right people have access to the right resources? What tooling must be deployed to support provisioning goals? What technical steps must be taken to ensure that the provisioning is as seamless as possible? | There is the inevitable challenge of assigning responsibility and accountability in a changing infrastructure and operations environment, especially if the changes are substantial (e.g. a fundamental operating model shift, reoriented around the cloud). Staff may also need to familiarize themselves with cloud-based provisioning tools like Ansible, Terraform, or even CloudFormation. |
Migration | The act of migrating is important as well. In some cases, the migration is as simple as configuring the new environment and turning it up (e.g. with a net new SaaS service). In other cases, the migration itself can be a substantial undertaking, involving large amounts of data, a complicated replatforming/refactoring, and/or a significant configuration exercise. | Not all migration journeys are created equal, and challenges include a general lack of understanding of the requirements of a migration, the techniques that might be necessary to migrate to a particular cloud (there are many) and the disruption/risk associated with moving large amounts of data. All of these challenges must be considered as part of the overall cloud strategy, whether in terms of architectural principles or skill acquisition (or both!). |
Activities
2.2.1 Determine workload future state
Conduct workload assessments
Determine workload future state
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
1-3 hours
Info-Tech Insight
Keep your audience in mind. You may want to include some additional context in the presentation if the results are going to be presented to non-technical stakeholders or those who are not familiar with the terms or how to interpret the outputs.
PHASE 3
1.1 Generate goals and drivers
1.2 Explore cloud characteristics
1.3 Create a current state summary
1.4 Select workloads for analysis
2.1 Conduct workload assessments
2.2 Determine workload future states
Phase 3
3.1 Generate risks and roadblocks
3.2 Mitigate risks and roadblocks
3.3 Define roadmap initiatives
Phase 4
4.1 Review and assign work items
4.2 Finalize cloud decision framework
4.3 Create cloud vision
This phase will walk you through the following activities:
This phase involves the following participants:
There are workload-level risks and roadblocks, and there are environment-level risks. This phase is focused primarily on environment-level risks and roadblocks, or those that are likely to span multiple workloads (but this is not hard and fast rule – anything that you deem worth discussing is worth discussing). The framework here calls for an open forum where all stakeholders – technical and non-technical, pro-cloud and anti-cloud, management and individual contributor – have an opportunity to articulate their concerns, however specific or general, and receive feedback and possible mitigation.
Start by soliciting feedback. You can do this over time or in a single session. Encourage anyone with an opinion to share it. Focus on those who are likely to have a perspective that will become relevant at some point during the creation of the cloud strategy and the execution of any migration. Explain the preliminary direction; highlight any major changes that you foresee. Remind participants that you are not looking for solutions (yet), but that you want to make sure you hear any and every concern as early as possible. You will get feedback and it will all be valuable.
Before cutting your participants loose, remind them that, as with all business decisions, the cloud comes with trade-offs. Not everyone will have every wish fulfilled, and in some cases, significant effort may be needed to get around a roadblock, risks may need to be accepted, and workloads that looked like promising candidates for one service model or another may not be able to realize that potential. This is a normal and expected part of the cloud vision process.
Once the risks and roadblocks conversation is complete, it is the core working group’s job to propose and validate mitigations. Not every risk can be completely resolved, but the cloud has been around for decades – chances are someone else has faced a similar challenge and made it through relatively unscathed. That work will inevitably result in initiatives for immediate execution. Those initiatives will form the core of the initiative roadmap that accompanies the completed Cloud Vision Executive Presentation.
3.1.1 Generate risks and roadblocks
3.1.2 Generate mitigations
Generate risks and roadblocks
Mitigate risks and roadblocks
Define roadmap initiatives
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
Risk
Roadblock
1.5 hours
3.2.1 Generate mitigations
Identify and mitigate risks
Generate risks and roadblocks
Mitigate risks and roadblocks
Define roadmap initiatives
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
This is the key risk-related question that most cloud customers will have to answer at some point: does migrating to the cloud for some services increase their exposure and create a security problem?
As with all good questions, the answer is “it depends.” But what does it depend on? Consider these cloud risks and potential mitigations:
“The cloud is definitely more secure in that you have much more control, you have much more security tooling, much more visibility, and much more automation. So it is more secure. The caveat is that there is more risk. It is easier to accidentally expose data in the cloud than it is on-premises, but, especially for security, the amount of tooling and visibility you get in cloud is much more than anything we’ve had in our careers on-premises, and that’s why I think cloud in general is more secure.” –Abdul Kittana, Founder, ASecureCloud
Industry: Finance
Source: The New York Times, CNET
Capital One is a major Amazon Web Services customer and is even featured on Amazon’s site as a case study. That case study emphasizes the bank’s commitment to the cloud and highlights how central security and compliance were. From the CTO: “Before we moved a single workload, we engaged groups from across the company to build a risk framework for the cloud that met the same high bar for security and compliance that we meet in our on-premises environments. AWS worked with us every step of the way.”
The cloud migration was humming along until July 2019, when the bank suffered a serious breach at the hands of a hacker. That hacker was able to steal millions of credit card applications and hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers, bank account numbers, and Canadian social insurance numbers.
According to investigators and to AWS, the breach was caused by an open reverse proxy attack against a misconfigured web app firewall, not by an underlying vulnerability in the cloud infrastructure.
Capital One reported that the breach was expected to cost it $150 million, and AWS fervently denied any blame. The US Senate got involved, as did national media, and Capital One’s CEO issued a public apology, writing, “I sincerely apologize for the understandable worry this incident must be causing those affected, and I am committed to making it right.”
It was a bad few months for IT at Capital One.
3-4.5 hours
3.3.1 Generate roadmap initiatives
Identify and mitigate risks
Generate risks and roadblocks
Mitigate risks and roadblocks
Define roadmap initiatives
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
1 hour
1.1 Generate goals and drivers
1.2 Explore cloud characteristics
1.3 Create a current state summary
1.4 Select workloads for analysis
2.1 Conduct workload assessments
2.2 Determine workload future states
Phase 3
3.1 Generate risks and roadblocks
3.2 Mitigate risks and roadblocks
3.3 Define roadmap initiatives
Phase 4
4.1 Review and assign work items
4.2 Finalize cloud decision framework
4.3 Create cloud vision
This phase will walk you through the following activities:
This phase involves the following participants:
4.1.1 Assign initiatives and propose timelines
Bridge the gap and create the vision
Review and assign work items
Finalize cloud decision framework
Create cloud vision
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
1 hour
4.2.1 Build a delivery model rubric
4.2.2 Build a service model rubric
4.2.3 Build a support model rubric
Bridge the gap and create the vision
Review and assign work items
Finalize cloud decision framework
Create cloud vision
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
1 hour
Delivery model | Decision criteria |
---|---|
Public cloud |
|
Legacy datacenter |
|
Summary statement: Everything must go! Public cloud is a top priority. Anything that is not compatible (for whatever reason) with a public cloud deployment will be retained in a premises-based server closet (downgraded from a full datacenter). The private cloud does not align with the overall organizational vision, nor does a hybrid solution.
1 hour
Service model | Decision criteria |
---|---|
SaaS | SaaS first; opt for SaaS when:
|
PaaS |
|
IaaS |
|
On-premises | Anything that does not fit in the cloud for performance or other reasons (e.g. licensing key) |
Summary statement: SaaS will be the primary service model. All workloads will migrate to the public cloud where possible. Anything that cannot be migrated to SaaS will be migrated to PaaS. IaaS is a transitory step.
1 hour
Support model | Decision criteria |
---|---|
Internal IT | The primary support model will be internal IT going forward
|
Consultant |
|
MSP |
|
Summary statement: Most workloads will be managed in house. A consultant will be employed to facilitate the transition to micro-services in a cloud container environment, but this will be transitioned to in-house staff. An MSP will continue to manage backups and telephony.
4.3.1 Create a cloud vision statement
4.3.2 Map cloud workloads
4.3.3 Complete the Cloud Vision Presentation
Review and assign work items
Finalize cloud decision framework
Create cloud vision
This step involves the following participants:
Outcomes of this step
Completed Cloud Vision Executive Presentation
1 hour
“IT at ACME Corp. hereby commits to providing clients and end users with an unparalleled, productivity-enabling technology experience, leveraging, insofar as it is possible and practical, cloud-based services.”
“At ACME Corp. our employees and customers are our first priority. Using new, agile cloud services, IT is devoted to eliminating inefficiency, providing cutting-edge solutions for a fast-paced world, and making a positive difference in the lives of our colleagues and the people we serve.”
“As a global leader in technology, ACME Corp. is committed to taking full advantage of new cloud services, looking first to agile cloud options to optimize internal processes wherever efficiency gaps exist. Improved efficiency will allow associates to spend more time on ACME’s core mission: providing an unrivalled customer experience.”
Scope
Goal
Key differentiator
1 hour
Repurchase | Replatform | Rehost | Retain | |
---|---|---|---|---|
SaaS | Office suite AD |
|||
PaaS | SQL Database | |||
IaaS | File Storage | DR environment | ||
Other | CCTV Door access |
1 hour
Cloud Vision Statement
[Organization] will leverage public cloud solutions and retire existing datacenter and colocation facilities. This transition will simplify infrastructure administration, support, and security, while modernizing legacy infrastructure and reducing the need for additional capital expenditure.
Cloud Drivers | Retire the datacenter | Do more valuable work |
Right-size the environment | Reduce CapEx | |
Facilitate ease of mgmt. | Work from anywhere | |
Reduce capital expenditure | Take advantage of elasticity | |
Performance and availability | Governance | Risks and roadblocks |
Security | Rationalization | |
Cost | Skills | |
Migration | Remaining premises resources | |
BC, backup, and DR | Control |
Initiatives and next steps
Congratulations! If you’ve made it this far, you’ve successfully articulated a cloud vision, assessed workloads, developed an understanding (shared with your team and stakeholders) of cloud concepts, and mitigated risks and roadblocks that you may encounter along your cloud journey. From this exercise, you should understand your mission and vision, how your cloud plans will interact with any other relevant strategic plans, and what successful execution looks like, as well as developing a good understanding of overall guiding principles. These are several components of your overall strategy, but they do not comprise the strategy in its entirety.
How do you fix this?
First, validate the results of the vision exercise with your stakeholders. Socialize it and collect feedback. Make changes where you think changes should be made. This will become a key foundational piece. The next step is to formally document your cloud strategy. This is a separate project and is covered in the Info-Tech blueprint Document Your Cloud Strategy.
The vision exercise tells you where you want to go and offers some clues as to how to get there. The formal strategy exercise is a formal documentation of the target state, but also captures in detail the steps you’ll need to take, the processes you’ll need to refine, and the people you’ll need to hire.
A cloud strategy should comprise your organizational stance on how the cloud will change your approach to people and human resources, technology, and governance. Once you are confident that you can make and enforce decisions in these areas, you should consider moving on to Document Your Cloud Strategy. This blueprint, Define Your Cloud Vision, often serves as a prerequisite for the strategy documentation conversation(s).
Summary of Accomplishment
Additional Support
Research Contributors
Related Info-Tech Research
Vendor Resources
Bibliography
You have now documented what you want from the cloud, what you mean when you say “cloud,” and some preliminary steps you can take to make your vision a reality.
You now have at your disposal a framework for identifying and evaluating candidates for their cloud suitability, as well as a series of techniques for generating risks and mitigations associated with your cloud journey. The next step is to formalize your cloud strategy using the takeaways from this exercise. You’re well on your way to a completed cloud strategy!
If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through other phases as part of an Info-Tech workshop.
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com
1-888-670-8889
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
Generate drivers for cloud adoption
Work with stakeholders to understand the expected benefits of the cloud migration and how these drivers will impact the overall vision.
Conduct workload assessments
Assess your individual cloud workloads for their suitability as candidates for the cloud migration.
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Mell, Peter, and Timothy Grance. “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing.” National Institute of Standards and Technology, Sept. 2011. Web.
Ng, Alfred. “Amazon Tells Senators it Isn't to Blame for Capital One Breach.” CNET, 2019. Web.
Orban, Stephen. “6 Strategies for Migrating Applications to the Cloud.” Amazon Web Services, 2016. Web.
Sullivan, Dan. “Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB).” TechTarget, 2021. Web.
“What Is Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)?” Cisco, n.d. Web.