Developing a Cloud Strategy

Summary

I have met with a lot of customers through my work to provide an overview of Cloud Computing and also discuss with them a cloud strategy.  For all customers, getting to the cloud takes a different path depending on lots of factors including but not limited to things like the industry they are in, the demands on the industry from new innovations and emerging markets, the growth of devices and data available for them to harness, where they are as an organization, and how willing and possible it is for the leadership and people within the organization to adopt and lead this change.   I do believe every organization will eventually be in the cloud at some point but all will move at different a different pace and approach their strategy and roadmap to the cloud differently.   What doesn't really change as companies think about the cloud is building that strategy and plan.

The Stages of Planning

Recently, I moved into a Product Planning role where we develop roadmaps for our technologies and strategies around some of our Cloud services and offerings.  Being in Product Planning is not that much different than most of the roles I have held over the years because whether you are planning the next release of a software product or the next big business strategy for your organization, the overall process is the same. 

Planning starts with a vision.  From that vision, you develop strategies that align to that vision.  These strategies outline the big bucket initiatives to get to the vision.  Then from the strategies, the more tactical steps to get to the vision are developed and these describe the how.    

Planning isn't a one person process.  It starts at the top with the vision which provides the overall goal.  This is typically some business goal or outcome the company wants to achieve. 

Once the vision is determined, next comes the strategy development (or the What) which provides the next level of detail around how the business or organization will start to achieve the vision and its business outcomes.   The strategy or combination of strategies is more around what are the big rocks or broad initiatives that will help you achieve your vision. 

Once the strategies and initiatives are defined, it is then time to define the more tactical steps (or the How) of achieving the strategy or combination of strategies that have been outlined.   This is where it is useful to put together scenarios and or storyboards to map out how the business would like to use this new technology, innovation, and data to help expand into a market or define the customer experience they want to achieve or describe the outcomes.   When mapping out the tasks or how, it is also helpful to define the milestones and key measures of what should be completed within what timeframes. 

Cloud Strategy

Developing a cloud vision and strategies is not that much different than any other business and technology planning activity.  It starts with a vision, then initiatives/strategies to achieve the vision, and then the tasks to make it all happen.  Some customers seem overwhelmed and unsure with this new computing paradigm.    Customers have often asked me where do we start or what are the biggest hurdles.  I tell them there are some key fairly broad planning activities they can start with to put together their Cloud Strategy:

• Define and understand your business strategy and outcomes.  What new markets are you wanting to enter, what new innovations are you trying to take to your customers, etc.  Your cloud strategy or any IT strategy should support your business.  Your company is in business to provide products or services and the cloud strategy and IT organization supports that business so planning should be about how Cloud and IT can support that business outcome you want to achieve.
• Hire and/or Train the right people to help you get there.  There are experts in Cloud architecture, cloud engineering, and support.  These types of resources help define the roadmap for your Cloud applications, infrastructure, and support.  Having the right people in these roles is key to planning and execution.  You should also invest in training.  A lot of roles within IT are needed to support cloud, but they will need some new skills to support the networking, security, development, and management of cloud apps and infrastructure. 
• Reorganize your IT people and processes.  Going to the cloud could save money and time and enable a business to enter markets or do more faster because you can now get applications and application changes into the cloud much faster.  That speed at which you are able to deliver new application functionality however typically requires a change in how you plan, develop, and deliver applications.  It requires a more agile approach to planning and delivering applications and that often requires some restructurting to more of a DevOps type environment. 
• Think about your Network and Security.  Network and Security are needed for any cloud access or application.  Understanding and developing plans for how you will connect to the cloud, the networking within the cloud, and how you will do Authentication and Authorization will be needed no matter how you approach your Cloud applications and data.  
• Management of the Cloud is also key.  Whether you move to a Service Provider or a Public cloud having a set of Management tools that allow you to manage from on premise to Cloud to Service Provider enables a better management story.   Pick Management tools that allow you to move between on premise and cloud so you can manage physical and virtual environments.
• Your development platform is also something to plan for as you make the move to cloud.   Today in Azure, you can create applications using a number of languages, OS's, and tools.  Having development tools that allow you to target a variety of devices or use a variety of languages depending on the application needs is also key.  In Azure we have made it possible to develop and target a number of languages, devices, OS's as well as use tools like Git and GitHub as well as other open source code.
• Hybrid is the way to go today.  Cloud technologies are still maturing and there is still some requirements to have some things on premise.  Think about the apps and technologies you could move to the cloud and what make sense to leave on premise. 
• Maybe begin with Software as a Service like O365.  Exchange and mail is a critical workload that customers can't function without.   However, managing the Exchange environment is not a small undertaking.  Today, customers are moving to O365 and other similar platforms to get out of the Exchange IT management.  They are doing the same with collaboration.  SharePoint is another workload that can take up a significant footprint in a datacenter.   Moving these workloads to cloud offloads the hardware and maintenance of those solutions so that customers can focus on the business.

These are the key activities any company entering the Cloud platform today has to think about and have in place in order to make the shift from traditional on premise development to a cloud platform.    Moving to the cloud is not an overnight or easy activity and it takes time to shift apps, processes, and data, but with the right people, plans, and processes in place, it is a little bit easier to manage and start making the shift.