Over the past two years, the pandemic has forever changed the dynamic of the workplace in establishing a remote workforce and reinventing how customers operate. Security threats and persistent geo-political tensions have increased the corporate priority for protecting data and ensuring security. Previously unimaginable global supply chain shortages have become a forcing function for companies seeking means to rapidly deploy new capacity. All these factors, along with the ongoing need to manage IT costs is driving an acceleration to the public cloud.
However, what are some of the most common obstacles or missteps organisation makes when adopting Cloud?
Cloud is everywhere, and it is hard for organisation not to adopt at least some of the benefits that cloud offers. Office 365, Google Docs are very common, very easy to adopt, and make perfect sense from an application standpoint. What is the real business outcome we want to achieve when adopting cloud and which cloud strategy is right for me?
Cloud is inevitable as it offers the ability to run modern applications, with the flexibility and ease of use needed to adopt technology quickly.
Cloud is inevitable as it offers the ability to run modern applications, with the flexibility and ease of use needed to adopt technology quickly. That said, they are learning that we can have from other practitioners that have gone through the journey, and the best way is to learn from others’ mistakes rather than making your own.
There are three focus areas when validating Cloud.
Applications dependencies and behaviours
While leveraging the operational expertise of hyperscalers in delivering infrastructure has obvious appeal, companies are faced with multiple scenarios when it comes to their applications and their most valuable assets, Data. How to choose from Lift and Shift, Refactoring and Re-platforming.
A complete lift and shift into the public cloud is not pragmatic given existing corporate investments in the OnPrem datacenter. However, most companies are going through a lift and shift, migrating aging applications on modern Cloud platform, as they are focusing on outputs, rather than outcomes. In fact, Lift and Shift means they don’t access the cloud natives’ services, as their applications is capable to do so, and they tend to be the most disappointed. Businesses still rely very much on legacy applications, that are simply not designed for public cloud. So, which other options they are left with, when building their cloud journey?
Refactoring is one of the most ambitious approaches, as it enables to enhance the performance and the portability of the applications. Refactoring will imply fine-tuning and changes at a code level without changing its function. Developers love refactoring as they can accelerate transition and adoption of new services while making it easier to maintain and support. Most of the modules of one code can also be leveraged for another application, which induces a much faster time to market at scale. Conversely, refactoring a monolithic app can take years. As a result, the cost of refactoring can outweigh the benefits.
Re-Platforming is the most pragmatic approach, moving from monolith to microservices, gradually. In fact, microservices are decoupled and discrete pieces of functionality. Each service can leverage different programming languages, OS, and best-of-breed technologies. The modularity of each service eliminates the need to migrate an entire application when changing or replacing each microservice. This appears to be more flexible and can sometimes achieve faster ROI.
While applications and Data are crucial in building a Cloud strategy, companies should not overlook the organisational impact of those new strategies, at the end of the day people and culture are your most valuable assets.
Managing Cloud transformation journey is as much about people as it is about technology.
Organisational Change
Managing Cloud transformation journey is as much about people as it is about technology. People have been doing things in a certain way for decades and implementing change as a severe impact. People tend to be uncomfortable; they don’t like it and they don’t want it. It is key to reinforce the why behind this transformation. A lot of companies are facing skills shortage, as they struggle defining the steps needed for their transformation. Really often, we are seeing CIO’s pushing for Cloud with no real foundations. In fact, leveraging public cloud only, implies a complete reshaping of an organisation model, where current skills need to be replaced or transitioned and this can have a severe cost.
We know that the world will be hybrid, and the success lies in deploying the same operating system between clouds, both private and public, praising more flexibility.
Flexibility, freedom of Choice
Many cloud are good at different things but they are not good at everything. You want a strategy that offers choices going forward and avoid being locked in with a specific cloud provider, especially when you need innovation they are not providing and someone else does. Cloud as an adjective stand for many things. Consumption model but also stands for relentless innovation. That is the core competence of Cloud where innovation rally at a rapid pace. Different Cloud are good at different things, hence the importance of being independent.
Many cloud are good at different things but they are not good at everything.
Be thoughtful about where you are placing your best with your cloud providers. The Technology and innovation you may need, may not be in the cloud that you are running on.