Deliver a Cloud Strategy Engagement (2023)

The adoption of new technologies seems very exciting, and one of them is the cloud. Cloud services or solutions are leveraged by all-size organizations globally because of the number of benefits. Inevitably, the cloud is becoming part of most business facets and processes. The trend of cloud spending and migration to cloud services is not slowing down and touching higher numbers year over year.

Migrating to the cloud may sound like a seamless journey, but many find it more complicated as they progress through the migration. Cloud adoption comes with its challenges, risks, and roadblocks. Companies have various challenges during cloud adoption, from lack of skills to cost management. Businesses look to IT leaders and IT Service providers to achieve cloud benefits and desired outcomes, and to overcome these challenges. Plotting an effective and business-aligned cloud strategy is imperative to successful cloud migration and achieving organizational goals and growth.

There are plenty of opportunities for IT Services Providers with cloud expertise to help their clients in cloud adoption, but they lack an effective and repeatable cloud strategy to deliver. This storyboard will help you to get buy-in and demonstrate a step-by-step methodology to deliver a cloud vision and strategy engagement to your clients.

Brijesh Kumar
Research Specialist, Industry Practice
Info-Tech Research Group

Organizations are experiencing various cloud adoption challenges:

• Migration from legacy system to cloud is complex and time-intensive.
• Hard time delineating a value proposition.
• Inability to deliver and achieve desired benefits and mitigate the associated risks.

IT consultants have challenges in helping their clients in cloud adoption:

• Differentiate their services among competitors.
• Not sure where to start the cloud journey with clients.
• Lack a repeatable and an actionable cloud strategy.

IT consultants and their clients have various obstacles that prevent them from addressing those challenges:

• Inability to decide the cloud maturity of clients.
• Hasty decision to jump to the cloud rather than approach in a systematic fashion.
• Unable to precisely define their vision and any strategy for cloud migration.
• Inconsistent understanding of the cloud and how it can transform and benefit the business.
• Deficiency of cloud management skills or expertise within an organization.

Follow a systematic Info-Tech approach to engage your client:

• To define a cloud vision, evaluate cloud workloads’ suitability for the cloud, and understand their risks and benefits.
• Build an effective cloud strategy focusing on four key areas: vision, people, governance and technology.

In 2022, more than 50% of SMBs are spending at least $1.2M on public cloud – up from 38% in 2022. Moreover, 37% of large businesses allocated more than $12M for the cloud in their IT budget.

62% of SMBs and 55% of large enterprises will have their workloads and data on the public cloud by the end of 2022.

Businesses that are going through digital transformation are taking a cloud-first approach to selecting new applications

88% Of businesses are executing on digital transformation initiative and likely to adopt cloud-based solutions

Source: SMB Technology Direction, 2021

63% Of businesses are adopting cloud solutions; this is up 4% from 2021.

Source: Flexera, 2022

Organizations are adopting more cloud solutions and services to embark on the journey of digital transformation and capitalize on new opportunities, helping businesses to continue to thrive and stay competitive.

Opportunities abound for IT Consultants to help out

18% Of organizations are spending more money and increasing the budget for the cloud from 22% in 2020 to 26% in 2022.

Source : SWZD, 2021

69% Of businesses look at new cloud technologies for business growth and competition in the market.

Source: SMB Technology Direction, 2021

Drivers for an increase in cloud share in businesses’ IT budget are reduced hardware spending and focus on technologies that enable businesses to grow and transform in the future.

Inconsistent or inadequate methods to build and deliver a repeatable and actionable cloud strategy engagement

Using Info-Tech’s cloud research, which will assist you to create a business-aligned cloud vision and cloud strategy for your client.

Upskilling consulting staff on the delivery of a cloud strategy engagement

Using Info-Tech Advisory Services to access a Subject Matter Expert, who can guide you step-by-step to deliver an effective cloud strategy engagement to your clients and help you achieve desired outcomes.

Boring presentations, wordy and long documents, or detailed spreadsheets filled with technical details

Using Info-Tech’s pre-fabricated tools, templates, and boardroom-ready deliverables.

Download– Define Your Cloud Vision

Download – Document Your Cloud Strategy

Understand cloud services

Different cloud services and delivery models are available. Understand which service and model will be best for your organization.

Cloud vision alignment

Align cloud vision and strategy with other business and technology strategies, supporting the overall organization mission.

Assess current workloads

Leverage cloud vision workbook to evaluate workloads at various level - migration, management, and risk and roadblocks.

Document people, governance and technology strategy

Documentation helps to plan, track progress and measure success metrics. A team of multidisciplinary experts (cloud center of excellence) supports secure, efficient, cost-effective, and uniform cloud adoption.

Identify and mitigate risks and roadblocks

Various components in a cloud strategy bring several risks and roadblocks. Identifying and mitigating them is imperative.

Deliver cloud strategy

Formalized business aligned and documented cloud 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

The 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.

Save time: Info-Tech Partners report saving at least 50% of their time when incorporating Info-Tech’s tools, templates, and repeatable methodology into an IT strategy engagement.

Reduce effort: Info-Tech Partners report that the laborious effort of creating customized deliverables for each client is alleviated using standardized deliverables in this blueprint.

Inform decisions: Info-Tech Partners describe that they did not have to start from scratch to build high-quality boardroom-ready deliverables, which results in saving a lot of time and focusing on the result- or outcome-driven discussion with the stakeholders or management team.

Increase credibility: You increase your trust and credibility with your customers and prospects when you show them who is standing behind you. Leverage Info-Tech’s brand power as a research and advisory firm to bolster your customer’s confidence in you.

“Whenever we used Info-Tech research material to deliver on consulting engagements, our customers reported that they had a better experience and were more satisfied with our services.

Also, the ability to edit and repurpose the Info-Tech content helped us not to start from scratch and saved a lot of time and effort for us.”

- Jeff Michaud

Manager in Technology Solutions,

MNP

Benefits and risks: Modular offerings can profoundly rely on industry expertise and knowledge of ITSPs in the cloud area. These ITSPs are proficient at identifying clients’ business obstacles, which impede business growth and revenue and provide the right solutions to the clients.

Business and technology alignment: ITSPs must align cloud solutions and services with business goals and objectives. The modular cloud offerings enable ITSPs to become strategic business partners to their clients and lead cloud technology initiatives.

Value delivery: Value delivery is the key ingredient of modular cloud engagement offerings. To deliver high-quality service and experience, ITSPs must make a strong cloud business case for delivering tangible and intangible outcomes to their clients.

“For consultants, differentiating themselves among their competitors in the cloud space is critical. They should define their services and value proposition, articulating how they deliver business-aligned cloud strategy, cloud implementation, and cloud management to achieve desired outcomes for clients.

– Derek Shank, Head of Research, Stratascale

Cloud vision and strategy

• Build a business-aligned cloud vision, which will be a roadmap of initiatives for actions.
• Document people, technology, and governance as part of the framework for decision makings.

Cloud implementation

• Start with the used cloud case and pilot scale.
• Measure success and scale cloud adoption.
• Upskill and train employees with cloud culture.

Cloud management

• Assure business-aligned cloud goals and cloud benefits are achieved while mitigating the risks.
• Manage and control cloud cost and data security, including data privacy and compliance.

Cloud Vision and Strategy

Download– Define Your Cloud Vision

Download– Document Your Cloud Strategy

Cloud Implementation

Cloud Management

Download – Take Control of Cloud Costs on AWS

Download – Take Control of Cloud Costs on Azure

Download – Find Value with Cloud Asset Management

1. Generate goals and drivers
2. Explore cloud characteristics
3. Create a current state summary
4. Select workloads for analysis

1. Conduct workload assessments
2. Determine workload future state

1. Generate risks and roadblocks
2. Mitigate risks and roadblocks
3. Define roadmap initiatives

1. Review and assign work items
2. Finalize cloud decision framework
3. Create cloud vision

• List of goals and drivers
• Shared understanding of cloud terms
• Current state of cloud in the organization
• List of workloads to be assessed

• Completed workload assessments
• Defined workload future state

• List of risks and roadblocks
• List of mitigations
• Defined roadmap initiatives

• Cloud roadmap
• Cloud decision framework
• Completed Cloud Vision Executive Presentation

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

Answer
“So What?”

Define the
IT Target State

Assess the IT
Current State

Bridge the Gap and
Create the Strategy

Next Steps and
Wrap-Up (offsite)

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

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

1. Record your cloud mission and vision
2. Document your cloud strategy’s alignment with other strategic plans
3. Record your cloud guiding principles
4. Define success

1. Outline your skills and roles strategy
2. Document your approach to culture and adoption
3. Create a cloud governing body

Document official organizational positions in these governance areas:

1. Architecture
2. Integration and interoperability
3. Operations management
4. Cloud portfolio management
5. Cloud vendor management
6. Finance management
7. Security
8. Data controls

1. Formalize organizational approach to monitoring
2. Document provisioning process
3. Outline migration processes and procedures

Documented strategy: vision and alignment

Documented people strategy

Documented cloud governance strategy

Documented cloud technology strategy

Call #1: Discuss current state, challenges, etc.

Call #2: Goals, drivers, and current state.

Call #3: Conduct cloud suitability assessment for selected workloads

Call #4: Generate and categorize risks

Call #5: Begin the risk mitigation conversation.

Call #6: Complete the risk mitigation process

Call #7: Finalize vision statement and cloud decision framework.

Understand the cloud

Assess workloads

Identify and mitigate risks

Bridge the Gap and
Create the Strategy

Next Steps and
Wrap-Up (offsite)

Introduction

Generate corporate goals and cloud drivers

Identify success indicators

Explore cloud characteristics

Explore cloud service and delivery models

Define cloud support models and strategy components

Create current state summaries for the different service and delivery models

Select workloads for further analysis

Conduct workload assessments using the cloud strategy workbook tool

Discuss assessments and make preliminary determinations about workloads

Generate a list of risks and potential roadblocks associated with the cloud

Sort risks and roadblocks and define categories

Identify mitigations for each identified risk and roadblock

Generate initiatives from the mitigations

Review and assign work items

Finalize the decision framework for each of the following areas:

• Service model
• Delivery model
• Support model

Create a cloud vision statement

Build the Cloud Vision Executive Presentation

1. Corporate goals and cloud drivers
2. Success indicators
3. Current state summaries
4. List of workloads for further analysis

1. Completed workload assessments
2. Workload summary statements

1. List of risks and roadblocks, categorized
2. List of mitigations
3. List of initiatives

1. Finalized task list
2. Formal cloud decision rubric
3. Cloud vision statement

1. Completed cloud strategy executive presentation
2. Completed cloud vision workbook

Derek Shank

Head of Research

Stratascale

Bradley Bowness

Executive Advisor

Info-Tech Research Group

Jeff Michaud

Manager in Technology Solutions,

MNP

Fred Chagnon

Principal Research Director, Industry Practice

Info-Tech Research Group