of “server A here is cheaper than server B there” places the focus on comparing
widgets instead of looking at the true promise of cloud, which is agility, inno-
vation and the ability to deliver value faster.
12. You submit a ticket to ServiceNow to request IT to launch
you a cloud instance
One of the essential cloud characteristics is on-demand self-service. Should
you not be able to just do it yourself? Nothing else needs to be said here.
13. You ask your auditors to check compliance every six months
You might be fully aware of the shared responsibility model and have already
implemented the necessary controls. You might have your internal and even
external auditors conduct periodic assessments of your cloud environment,
but that is still a point-in-time exercise. If you have not implemented a process
to continuously monitor your security and compliance in the cloud, you have
some work to do. Cloud is dynamic, and checking your compliance posture just
once in a while is simply not good enough.
14. You send a few people to training and think your enter-
prise is ready for cloud
Operating in the cloud requires different skills. The most common mistake
companies make is to not give enough attention to what is necessary to truly
operate production environments in the cloud. Your people will need to be
upskilled, retrained and possibly repositioned in order to support your busi-
ness with cloud as the enabler. This goes far beyond just IT operations and
should include other groups, such as developers, project management, finance,
vendor management, legal/compliance, audit and even the most senior man-
agement. Sending Jim, John and Jackie to AWS class does not cut it. Putting in
place a comprehensive cloud talent enablement program does.
15. You get your bill and cannot figure out where the costs come from
Oops, we did it again—got lost in the cloud spend. This happens more than you
think. Cloud makes it easy to launch and use resources, therefore potentially
surprising you at the end of the month. However, that is not the cloud provid-
er’s fault, and it is not the reason to yell that cloud is a fake and costs more than
what was expected. You probably did not do a good job setting up your envi-
ronment from the start. Initially, you should conduct a high level total cost of
ownership assessment to understand the rough magnitude of your spend.
After that, you should ensure that you have appropriate fiscal governance in
place (resource tagging, reporting, cross-charging, budget notifications, etc.)
to be in full control of your cloud spend, instead of just hoping for savings.
Did any of the above hit close to home? If it did, do not worry, you are not alone.
The observations above are just some of the struggles we have seen our clients
go through in their cloud journeys. If you are hitting similar roadblocks in your
organization, give Cloud Technology Partners a call. We can definitely help.
FALL 2018 | THE DOPPLER | 15