Despite the universally agreed-upon benefit of formulating a coherent strategy, several obstacles make execution difficult:
A cloud strategy might seem like a big project, but it’s just a series of smaller conversations. The methodology presented here is designed to facilitate those conversations, using a curated list of topics, prompts, participant lists, and sample outcomes. We have divided the strategy into four key areas:
Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
This storyboard comprises four phases, covering mission and vision, people, governance, and technology, and how each of these areas requires forethought when migrating to the cloud.
Each section of Document Your Cloud Strategy corresponds to a section in the document template. Once you’ve completed each exercise, you can record your results in the document template, leaving you with an artifact you can share with stakeholders.
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.
Understand and document your cloud vision and its alignment with your other strategic priorities.
A complete understanding of your strategy, vision, alignment, and a list of success metrics that will help you find your way.
1.1 Record your cloud mission and vision.
1.2 Document your cloud strategy’s alignment with other strategic plans.
1.3 Record your cloud guiding principles.
Documented strategy, vision, and alignment.
Defined success metrics.
Define how people, skills, and roles will contribute to the broader cloud strategy.
Sections of the strategy that highlight skills, roles, culture, adoption, and the creation of a governance body.
2.1 Outline your skills and roles strategy.
2.2 Document your approach to culture and adoption
2.3 Create a cloud governing body.
Documented people strategy.
This section facilitates governance in the cloud, developing principles that apply to architecture, integration, finance management, and more.
Sections of the strategy that define governance principles.
3.1 Conduct discussion on architecture.
3.2 Conduct discussion on integration and interoperability.
3.3 Conduct discussion on operations management.
3.4 Conduct discussion on cloud portfolio management.
3.5 Conduct discussion on cloud vendor management.
3.6 Conduct discussion on finance management.
3.7 Conduct discussion on security.
3.8 Conduct discussion on data controls.
Documented cloud governance strategy.
Creation of a formal cloud strategy relating to technology around provisioning, monitoring, and migration.
Completed strategy sections of the document that cover technology areas.
4.1 Formalize organizational approach to monitoring.
4.2 Document provisioning process.
4.3 Outline migration processes and procedures.
Documented cloud technology strategy.
Moving to the cloud is a big, scary transition, like moving from gas-powered to electric cars, or from cable to streaming, or even from the office to working from home. There are some undeniable benefits, but we must reorient our lives a bit to accommodate those changes, and the results aren’t always one-for-one. A strategy helps you make decisions about your future direction and how you should respond to changes and challenges. In Document Your Cloud Strategy we hope to help you accomplish just that: clarifying your overall mission and vision (as it relates to the cloud) and helping you develop an approach to changes in technology, people management, and, of course, governance. The cloud is not a panacea. Taken on its own, it will not solve your problems. But it can be an important tool in your IT toolkit, and you should aim to make the best use of it – whatever “best” happens to mean for you.
Jeremy Roberts
Research Director, Infrastructure and Operations
Info-Tech Research Group
The cloud is multifaceted. It can be complicated. It can be expensive. Everyone has an opinion on the best way to proceed – and in many cases has already begun the process without bothering to get clearance from IT. The core challenge is creating a coherent strategy to facilitate your overall goals while making the best use of cloud technology, your financial resources, and your people.
Despite the universally agreed-upon benefit of formulating a coherent strategy, several obstacles make execution difficult:
A cloud strategy might seem like a big project, but it’s just a series of smaller conversations. The methodology presented here is designed to facilitate those conversations, using a curated list of topics, prompts, participant lists, and sample outcomes. We have divided the strategy into four key areas:
The answers might be different, but the questions are the same
Every organization will approach the cloud differently, but they all need to ask the same questions: When will we use the cloud? What forms will our cloud usage take? How will we manage governance? What will we do about people? How will we incorporate new technology into our environment? The answers to these questions are as numerous as there are people to answer them, but the questions must be asked.
Grappling with a cloud strategy is a top initiative: 43% of respondents report progressing on a cloud-first strategy as a top cloud initiative.
A document providing a systematic overview of cloud services, their appropriate use, and the steps that an organization will take to maximize value and minimize risk.
Define Your Cloud Vision |
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Vision and alignment
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→ | Technology
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Governance
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People
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Your cloud strategy will comprise the elements listed under “vision and alignment,” “technology,” “governance,” and “people.” The Info-Tech methodology involves breaking the strategy down into subcomponents and going through a three-step process for each one. Start by reviewing a standard set of questions and understanding the goal of the exercise: What do we need to know? What are some common considerations and best practices? Once you’ve had a chance to review, discuss your current state and any gaps: What has been done? What still needs to be done? Finally, outline how you plan to go forward: What are your next steps? Who needs to be involved?
1. Document your vision and alignment |
2. Record your people strategy |
3. Document governance principles |
4. Formalize your technology strategy |
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Phase Steps |
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Document official organizational positions in these governance areas:
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Phase Outcomes |
Documented strategy: vision and alignment |
Documented people strategy |
Documented cloud governance strategy |
Documented cloud technology strategy |
Separate strategy from tactics
Separate strategy from tactics! A strategy requires building out the framework for ongoing decision making. It is meant to be high level and achieve a large goal. The outcome of a strategy is often a sense of commitment to the goal and better communication on the topic.
The cloud does not exist in a vacuum
Your cloud strategy flows from your cloud vision and should align with the broader IT strategy. It is also part of a pantheon of strategies and should exist harmoniously with other strategies – data, security, etc.
People problems needn’t preponderate
The cloud doesn’t have to be a great disruptor. If you handle the transition well, you can focus your people on doing more valuable work – and this is generally engaging.
Governance is a means to an end
Governing your deployment for its own sake will only frustrate your end users. Articulate the benefits users and the organization can expect to see and you’re more likely to receive the necessary buy-in.
Technology isn’t a panacea
Technology won’t solve all your problems. Technology is a force multiplier, but you will still have to design processes and train your people to fully leverage it.
Cloud Strategy Document template
Inconsistency and informality are the enemies of efficiency. Capture the results of the cloud strategy generation exercises in the Cloud Strategy Document template.
IT benefits |
Business benefits |
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8.8/10 Average reported satisfaction
13 Days Average reported time savings
$46,499 Average cost savings
INDUSTRY: Pharmaceuticals
SOURCE: Info-Tech workshop
The unnamed pharmaceutical company that is the subject of this case study was looking to make the transition to the cloud. In the absence of a coherent strategy, the organization had a few cloud deployments with no easily discernable overall approach. Representatives of several distinct functions (legal, infrastructure, data, etc.) all had opinions on the uses and abuses of cloud services, but it had been difficult to round everyone up and have the necessary conversations. As a result, the strategy exercise had not proceeded in a speedy or well-governed way. This lack of strategic readiness presented a roadblock to moving forward with the cloud strategy and to work with the cloud implementation partner, tasked with execution.
Results
The company engaged Info-Tech for a four-day workshop on cloud strategy documentation. Over the course of four days, participants drawn from across the organization discussed the strategic components and generated consensus statements and next steps. The team was able to formalize the cloud strategy and described the experience as saving 10 days.
Example output: Document your cloud strategy workshop exercise
Anything in green, the team was reasonably sure they had good alignment and next steps. Those yellow flags warranted more discussion and were not ready for documentation.
"Our team has already made this critical 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 immediately. 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 to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."
Document your vision and alignment |
Record your people strategy |
Document governance principles |
Formalize your technology strategy |
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Call #1: Review existing vision/strategy documentation. |
Call #2: Review progress on skills, roles, and governance bodies. |
Call #3: Work through integration, architecture, finance management, etc. based on reqs. (May be more than one call.) |
Call #4: Discuss challenges with monitoring, provisioning, and migration as-needed. |
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 4 to 6 calls over the course of 1 to 3 months
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
Day 1 |
Day 2 |
Day 3 |
Day 4 |
Day 5 |
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Answer |
Define the |
Assess the IT |
Bridge the gap and |
Next steps and |
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Activities |
1.1 Introduction 1.2 Discuss cloud mission and vision 1.3 Discuss alignment with other strategic plans 1.4 Discuss guiding principles 1.5 Define success metrics |
2.1 Discuss skills and roles 2.2 Review culture and adoption 2.3 Discuss a cloud governing body 2.4 Review architecture position 2.5 Discuss integration and interoperability |
3.1 Discuss cloud operations management 3.2 Review cloud portfolio management 3.3 Discuss cloud vendor management 3.4 Discuss cloud finance management 3.5 Discuss cloud security |
4.1 Review and formalize data controls 4.2 Design a monitoring approach 4.3 Document the workload provisioning process 4.4 Outline migration processes and procedures |
5.1 Populate the Cloud Strategy Document |
Deliverables |
Formalized cloud mission and vision, along with alignment with strategic plans, guiding principles, and success metrics |
Position statement on skills and roles, culture and adoption, governing bodies, architecture, and integration/interoperability |
Position statements on cloud operations management, portfolio management, vendor management, finance management, and cloud security |
Position statements on data controls, monitoring, provisioning, and migration |
Completed Cloud Strategy Document |
Phase 1 |
Phase 2 |
Phase 3 |
Phase 4 |
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1.1 Document your mission and vision 1.2 Document alignment to other strategic plans 1.3 Document guiding principles 1.4 Document success metrics |
2.1 Define approach to skills and roles 2.2 Define approach to culture and adoption 2.3 Define cloud governing bodies |
3.1 Define architecture direction 3.2 Define integration approach 3.3 Define operations management process 3.4 Define portfolio management direction 3.5 Define vendor management direction 3.6 Document finance management tactics 3.7 Define approach to cloud security 3.8 Define data controls in the cloud |
4.1 Define cloud monitoring strategy 4.2 Define cloud provisioning strategy 4.3 Define cloud migration strategy |
This phase will walk you through the following activities:
This phase has the following outcome:
Before formally documenting your cloud strategy, you should ensure that you have a good understanding of your overall cloud vision. How do you plan to leverage the cloud? What goals are you looking to accomplish? How will you distribute your workloads between different cloud service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)? What will your preferred delivery model be (public, private, hybrid)? Will you support your cloud deployment internally or use the services of various consultants or managed service providers?
The answers to these questions will inform the first section of your cloud strategy. If you haven’t put much thought into this or think you could use a deep dive on the fundamentals of your cloud vision and cloud archetypes, consider reviewing Define Your Cloud Vision, the companion blueprint to this one.
Once you understand your cloud vision and what you’re trying to accomplish with your cloud strategy, this phase will walk you through aligning the strategy with other strategic initiatives. What decisions have others made that will impact the cloud strategy (or that the cloud strategy will impact)? Who must be involved/informed? What callouts must be involved at what point? Do users have access to the appropriate strategic documentation (and would they understand it if they did)?
You must also capture some guiding principles. A strategy by its nature provides direction, helping readers understand the decisions they should make and why those decisions align with organizational interests. Creating some top-level principles is a useful exercise because those principles facilitate comprehension and ensure the strategy’s applicability.
Finally, this phase will walk you through the process of measuring success. Once you know where you’d like to go, the principles that underpin your direction, and how your cloud strategy figures into the broader strategic pantheon, you should record what success actually means. If you’re looking to save money, overall cost should be a metric you track. If the cloud is all about productivity, generate appropriate productivity metrics. If you’re looking to expand into new technology or close a datacenter, you will need to track output specific to those overall goals.
The overall organizational mission is a key foundational element of the cloud strategy. If you don’t understand where you’re going, how can you begin the journey to get there? This section of the strategy has four key parts that you should understand and incorporate into the beginning of the strategy document. If you haven’t already, review Define Your Cloud Vision for instructions on how to generate these elements.
1. Cloud vision statement: This is a succinct encapsulation of your overall perspective on the suitability of cloud services for your environment – what you hope to accomplish. The ideal statement includes a scope (who/what does the strategy impact?), a goal (what will it accomplish?), and a key differentiator (what will make it happen?). This is an example: “[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.” You might also consider reviewing your overall cloud archetype (next slide) and including the output of that exercise in the document |
2. Service model decision framework: Services can be provided as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), or they can be colocated or remain on premises. Not all cloud service models serve the same purpose or provide equal value in all circumstances. Understanding how you plan to take advantage of these distinct service models is an important component of the cloud strategy. In this section of the strategy, a rubric that captures the characteristics of the ideal workload for each of the named service models, along with some justification for the selection, is essential. This is a core component of Define Your Cloud Vision, and if you would like to analyze individual workloads, you can use the Cloud Vision Workbook for that purpose. |
3. Delivery model decision framework: Just as there are different cloud service models that have unique value propositions, there are several unique cloud delivery models as well, distinguished by ownership, operation, and customer base. Public clouds are the purview of third-party providers who make them available to paying customers. Private clouds are built for the exclusive use of a designated organization or group of organizations with internal clients to serve. Hybrid clouds involve the use of multiple, interoperable delivery models (interoperability is the key term here), while multi-cloud deployment models incorporate multiple delivery and service models into a single coherent strategy. What will your preferred delivery model be? Why? |
4. Support model decision framework: Once you have a service model nailed down and understand how you will execute on the delivery, the question then becomes about how you will support your cloud deployment going forward. Broadly speaking, you can choose to manage your deployment in house using internal resources (e.g. staff), to use managed service providers for ongoing support, or to hire consultants to handle specific projects/tasks. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, and many cloud customers will deploy multiple support models across time and different workloads. A foundational perspective on the support model is a key component of the cloud vision and should appear early in the strategy. |
Once you understand the value of the cloud, your workloads’ general suitability for the 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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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?” |
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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. |
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Split |
Using the cloud for some workloads and traditional infrastructure resources for others. |
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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 the use of cloud wherever possible. |