Why are we doing this?
Do NOT be alarmed by the lack of coherent responses, nor by the misunderstandings
and disconnections you hear in the responses. Some leaders may even look at you like
you grew a second head. We can safely say, you are not alone. Yet it is essential that
leadership have a common understanding of the definition and total value of cloud for
an organization to avoid self-inflicted pain along the way to cloud adoption.
Ok, so how do you define cloud?
If you are still reading, we can safely assume some (if not all) of these points apply to
your organization. However, the definition of what it means “to cloud” is really some-
what specific to the goals of each organization. So, rather than punting on the definition,
let us help you define what “cloud-ing” means to you and your organization. Regardless
of how detailed your definition becomes, every definition should include the following
parameters:
• People and Process
• Economics
• Technology
Remember earlier when we mentioned that most IT leaders default to technical answers?
That is why it is very common for them to overlook the single biggest challenge to the
success of the journey to cloud: PEOPLE! Yet people — and process — must be at the
heart of your definition. Here are a few questions to help determine whether or not you
actually cloud:
People and Process:
• When your Developers want to provision services on demand, can they do so
automatically – without the need to fill out a help desk ticket?
• Are your Developers capable of pushing live code into live environments without
bringing them down during a release window? If so, would your Operations team
allow them to?
• Do the offices of the CISO and Governance Risk and Compliance (GRC) not only
support your cloud transformation but advocate moving even faster?
• Do you have automated controls in place to ensure that you are not only in com-
pliance today but can also maintain compliance continually?
• Does Finance understand how to manage a world with open POs?
• Does Legal understand they will not get unlimited limits of liability from the
major cloud providers?
SUMMER 2019 | THE DOPPLER | 9