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Asia Pacific at Fidelity International
How to 'Boss' your Organisation's Migration to Cloud
Richard Paddock
Most companies today have a percentage of their IT services on Cloud, whether that be the use of Microsoft 365, adoption of Software-as-a-Service applications, or where they are developing their own business applications using a Cloud Service Provider. Many organisations will go beyond this point and consider a more substantial move from traditional data centre hosting approaches to migrating significant proportions of their IT workloads to Cloud. For those that are embarking upon, or progressing such a transformation, I wanted to share some advice that combines my own and other shared experiences.
At the outset of a Cloud migration, technical teams may be tempted to focus solely on Cloud migration strategies (such as Amazon’s ‘7R’s’), but from a management perspective, it’s imperative to consider the wider organisational, operational and people implications of Cloud. Let’s use a simple 4-letter acronym, ‘BOSS’, as a set of initial considerations for CIO’s -
‘B’ is for Buy-in. If you read any related survey, one of the most common reasons for a Cloud migration failure is a lack of clear objectives or wavering support from those funding the work. It is essential therefore, that CIO’s have a business case that can be clearly communicated and revisited regularly.
There are many articles and companies offering help build a Cloud business case, but I believe as a core, it’s essential to demonstrate tangible business value. Without that you will constantly be challenged on the financials of running your IT organisation and Cloud progression, for example
The business can significantly benefit from the flexibility and agility provided by Cloud, where benefits such as time-to-market and scalability can drive accountable business results.
1. It can be clearly illustrated that costs can be avoided or removed from the current IT model to offset the costs of running on Cloud. (Dual Cloud and on-premises running costs are often the headache that awaits teams that can’t carefully consider this point).
‘O’ is for Oversight. Any migration of critical IT assets to Cloud brings a range of important considerations that require support from corporate oversight functions such as Compliance, Legal, Audit, Finance, Risk, IT Security etc.
Early engagement of these groups is essential, followed by education and assistance so that they can plan support and resource from their area. Many of these functions are unlikely to have the necessary expertise or bandwidth to support a large Cloud migration, so including that within your planning is as important as securing the necessary IT skills. If you are in a regulated industry, you will likely have additional considerations here too.
For many of these groups, in addition to supporting the migration, you will also be asking them to reconsider how Cloud will impact their future work. For example, auditing IT or calculating IT running costs can be very different on Cloud versus a traditional IT environment.
For ‘S’, I group Setup, Structure & Standards, recommending that you establish early views of how you will move to, and operate in the Cloud. You don’t need detail on all points initially, but there are several important areas that will benefit from forming views, including -
1. A set of high-level Cloud usage standards, including your key Cloud providers (One or many), considerations on regions/locations/resiliency, IT security and architectural guardrails, and a view on the levels and types of Cloud native service adoption vs. Cloud agnostic and portability needs.
2. A vision for your Cloud IT operating setup. How you will build, maintain, and run in the Cloud, and the transformation required by your existing teams to get there. This will include key questions on centralisation vs. decentralisation of activities - balancing efficiency and consistency of core, reusable Cloud assets and teams versus the agility and flexibility of more autonomous IT engineering teams.
3. The setup of your Cloud migration program or office and being prepared to flex and balance that structure as the work progresses. Many organisations are challenged when treating this as an isolated project when ultimately you may be redefining your entire IT operating model. Larger-scale Cloud migrations often require more focus on people and operating model transformation, than technical elements. Consider too how you will deliver the migration alongside other ongoing business change.
The final ‘S’ is for Skills. Building upon all the points above to form a view of the new and changing skillsets that your organisation will require. Three areas to highlight -
1. Consider foundational knowledge of Cloud for your entire organisation, presented in non-technical terms to aid general corporate understanding and to reinforce and embed the business case.
2. Plan the technical subject matter expertise required to help define and then deliver upon the Setup, Structure and Standards views above. Sourcing Cloud experience from the market can be costly and challenging, whilst training your internal teams takes time and is unlikely to completely fill the skills gap. A hybrid of the two can work well, allowing you to bring existing teams up-to-speed through hands-on migration work with a plan to ready them for ongoing support provision in the Cloud.
3. Building upon the Oversight points above, consider the other essential, peripheral skills required. Ask how roles and skills need to evolve, especially in areas such as IT Infrastructure, IT Security and Technology Risk. Consider roadmaps and learning paths to help impacted employees progress into the new IT model. This can be a very fulfilling development opportunity for those that are up for the challenge.
There is already a lot to consider in the points above, but in closing, it’s worth noting that we are obviously scratching-the-surface in this brief article. A primary message is that for those leading such a transformation, it is essential to have the right focus on these wider business, operational, organisational and people considerations, avoiding the temptation of focusing only on technical elements.
