Market View 12

Leyla Varli

Practice Head Google Cloud Platform

Market View 12

Leyla Varli

Practice Head Google Cloud Platform

A great cloud strategy should be aligned directly to the company’s business goals and objectives.

What makes for a great cloud strategy?

A great cloud strategy should be aligned directly to the company’s business goals and objectives. If there is a clear vision of how the business will benefit from adopting cloud technologies, then the strategy is viable. To assess the level of benefits, it is crucial to understand the current state of your network along with how much it costs to run. Cost optimisation should not be the top priority for adopting the cloud, but it will be a frequently asked question from senior leadership.

As part of defining the strategy, businesses also need to make sure that their security and compliance needs are clearly defined first. If a potential cloud provider cannot meet these needs, then they should be quickly discounted. The strategy should also consider scalability and flexibility, both upwards and downwards. Finally, review the strategy against the business goals once more before executing - this way you can really make sure that the strategy will achieve what it needs to. Following a balanced approach to cloud strategy is the recommendation for achieving strategy.

What considerations should be made before executing a cloud strategy?

Many business leaders are keen to adopt cloud technology because of the cost saving and workflow efficiency opportunities it offers. But before embarking on a cloud journey, it’s important to accept that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to adopting the cloud and that even though the name ‘cloud’ is simple enough, there are a number of important steps to take to ensure a successful cloud adoption.

The first important step is to really understand the current state of your network along with any challenges that your customers are currently facing. This insight is crucial to understanding whether a public, private or hybrid cloud option is right for your business. From here you can also start to prioritise which applications can be moved to the cloud first. It is common for businesses to adopt a hybrid approach at the start of their cloud journeys, as it takes time to ensure that critical applications and sensitive data can be accessed securely in the cloud before migrating from an on-premise network. Finally, make sure to bring your customers on the journey with you and that they receive appropriate support throughout the change.

Before embarking on a cloud journey, it’s important to accept that there is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to adopting the cloud and that even though the name ‘cloud’ is simple enough, there are a number of important steps to take to ensure a successful cloud adoption.

Choosing the right cloud service provider is critical to the success of a cloud deployment.

What is the most important factor in choosing a cloud provider?

Choosing the right cloud service provider is critical to the success of a cloud deployment. It is of course important to assess the performance, reliability and support of any potential provider. But the area that needs the most robust assessment is security. As security is a shared responsibility, the cloud provider needs to become a partner that you can trust 100%.

Whilst cloud service providers are responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure, organisations are responsible for securing their own data and applications. This means that organisations need to implement their own security controls and policies, but also manage the Identity Access Management to ensure the protection of their data in the cloud.

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