Document Your Cloud Strategy

Document Your Cloud
Strategy
Get ready for the cloudy future with a
consistent, proven strategy.
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Analyst
perspective
Any approach is better than no Moving to the cloud is a big, scary transition, like moving from gas-powered to electric cars,
or from cable to streaming, or even from the office to working from home. There are some
approach undeniable benefits, but we must reorient our lives a bit to accommodate those changes, and
the results aren’t always one-for-one.
A strategy helps you make decisions about your future direction and how you should
respond to changes and challenges. In Document Your Cloud Strategy we hope to help you
accomplish just that: clarifying your overall mission and vision (as it relates to the cloud)
and helping you develop an approach to changes in technology, people management, and, of
course, governance.
The cloud is not a panacea. Taken on its own, it will not solve your problems. But it can be
an important tool in your IT toolkit, and you should aim to make the best use of it –
whatever “best” happens to mean for you.
Jeremy Roberts
Research Director, Infrastructure and Operations
Info-Tech Research Group
Info-Tech Research Group | 2

Executive Summary
Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Approach
The cloud is multifaceted. It can be complicated. It Despite the universally agreed-upon benefit of A cloud strategy might seem like a big project, but
can be expensive. Everyone has an opinion on the formulating a coherent strategy, several obstacles it’s just a series of smaller conversations. The
best way to proceed – and in many cases has make execution difficult: methodology presented here is designed to
already begun the process without bothering to get facilitate those conversations, using a curated list
• Inconsistent understanding of what the cloud
clearance from IT. of topics, prompts, participant lists, and sample
means
outcomes. We have divided the strategy into four
The core challenge is creating a coherent strategy
• Inability to come to a consensus on key key areas:
to facilitate your overall goals while making the
decisions
best use of cloud technology, your financial 1. Vision and alignment
resources, and your people. • Ungoverned decision making
2. People
• Unclear understanding of cloud roles and
3. Governance
responsibilities
4. Technology
The answers might be different, but the questions are the same
Every organization will approach the cloud differently, but they all need to ask the same questions: When will we use the cloud? What forms will our
cloud usage take? How will we manage governance? What will we do about people? How will we incorporate new technology into our environment?
The answers to these questions are as numerous as there are people to answer them, but the questions must be asked.

Your challenge Grappling with a cloud strategy is a top
initiative:
This research is designed to help organizations that are facing these
challenges or looking to:
• Ensure that the cloud strategy is complete and accurately reflects organizational
goals and priorities.
43%
• Develop a consistent and coherent approach to adopting cloud services.
• Design an approach to mitigate risks and challenges associated with adopting cloud
services.
• Create a shared understanding of the expected benefits of cloud services and the of respondents report progressing
steps required to realize those benefits. on a cloud-first strategy as a top
cloud initiative.
Source: Flexera, 2021.
Definition: Cloud strategy

A document providing a systematic overview of cloud services, their appropriate use,
and the steps that an organization will take to maximize value and minimize risk.

Common obstacles
These barriers make this challenge difficult to
address for many organizations:
• The cloud means different things to different people,

and creating a strategy that is comprehensive enough to
cover a multitude of use cases while also being written
to be consumable by all stakeholders is difficult.
• The incentives to adopt the cloud differ based on the
expected benefit for the individual customer. User-led
decision making and historically ungoverned
deployments can make it difficult to reset expectation
and align with a formal strategy.
• Getting all the right people in a room together to agree
on the key components of the strategy and the direction
undertaken for each one is often difficult.

Info-Tech’s approach
• Monitoring
• Provisioning
• Migration
Technology
Define Your
• Architecture
Cloud Vision • Integration and
• Mission and vision interoperability
• Alignment to other • Operations management
strategic plans • Cloud portfolio management
Vision and • Guiding principles • Cloud vendor management
alignment
• Measuring success
Governance • Finance management
• Security
• Data controls
• Skills and roles

• Culture and adoption
• Governing bodies
People Info-Tech Research Group | 6

Info-Tech’s approach
Your cloud strategy will comprise the elements listed under “vision and alignment,” “technology,” “governance,” and “people.” The Info-Tech
methodology involves breaking the strategy down into subcomponents and going through a three-step process for each one. Start by reviewing a
standard set of questions and understanding the goal of the exercise: What do we need to know? What are some common considerations and best
practices? Once you’ve had a chance to review, discuss your current state and any gaps: What has been done? What still needs to be done?
Finally, outline how you plan to go forward: What are your next steps? Who needs to be involved?
Review Discuss Go forward
• What questions do we need to • What steps have we already taken to • What are the next steps?
answer to complete the discussion of address this component? • Who needs to be involved?
this strategy component? What does • Does anything still need to be done? • What questions still need to be
the decision look like? • Is there anything we’re not sure asked/answered?
• What are some key terms and best about or need further guidance on? • What should the document’s wording
practices we must understand before look like?
deciding?
Info-Tech’s methodology for documenting your cloud
strategy
1. Document your vision and 2. Record your people 3. Document governance 4. Formalize your
alignment strategy principles technology strategy
Document official organizational
positions in these governance areas:
1. Record your cloud mission and 1. Architecture

1. Outline your skills and roles 1. Formalize organizational
vision 2. Integration and interoperability
strategy approach to monitoring
2. Document your cloud strategy’s 3. Operations management
Phase Steps alignment with other strategic plans
2. Document your approach to
4. Cloud portfolio management
2. Document provisioning process
culture and adoption 3. Outline migration processes
3. Record your cloud guiding principles 5. Cloud vendor management
3. Create a cloud governing body and procedures
4. Define success 6. Finance management
7. Security
8. Data controls
Documented strategy: vision and Documented cloud governance Documented cloud technology
Phase Outcomes alignment
Documented people strategy
strategy strategy

Insight Separate strategy from tactics
summary Separate strategy from tactics! A strategy requires building out the framework for ongoing decision making. It is
meant to be high level and achieve a large goal. The outcome of a strategy is often a sense of commitment to the
goal and better communication on the topic.
The cloud does not People problems Governance is a means Technology isn’t a
exist in a vacuum needn’t preponderate to an end panacea
Your cloud strategy Governing your Technology won’t solve

The cloud doesn’t have deployment for its own all your problems.
flows from your cloud to be a great disruptor.
vision and should align sake will only frustrate Technology is a force
If you handle the your end users. multiplier, but you will
with the broader IT transition well, you can
strategy. It is also part Articulate the benefits still have to design
focus your people on users and the processes and train your
of a pantheon of doing more valuable
strategies and should organization can expect people to fully leverage
work – and this is to see and you’re more it.
exist harmoniously with generally engaging.
other strategies – data, likely to receive the
security, etc. necessary buy-in.

Key deliverable
• Record the results of the exercises undertaken as part of this blueprint in the
Cloud Strategy Document template.
Cloud Strategy Document • It is important to remember that not every cloud strategy will look exactly
template the same, but this template represents an amalgamation of best practices and
cloud strategy creation honed over several years of advisory service in the
Inconsistency and informality are the space.
enemies of efficiency. Capture the
results of the cloud strategy generation • You know your audience better than anyone. If you would prefer a strategy
exercises in the Cloud Strategy
delivered in a different way (e.g. presentation format) feel free to adapt the
Document template.
Cloud Vision Executive Presentation into a longer strategy presentation.
• Emphasis is an area where you should exercise discretion as well. A cost-
oriented cloud strategy, or one that prioritizes one type of cloud (e.g. SaaS)
at the exclusion of others, may benefit from more focus on some areas than
others, or the introduction of relevant subcategories. Include as many of
these as you think will be relevant.
• Parsimony is king – if you can distill a concept to its essence, start there.
Include additional detail only as needed. You want your cloud strategy
document to be read. If it’s too long or overly detailed, you’ll encounter
readability issues.
Blueprint benefits
IT benefits Business benefits
• A consistent, well-defined approach to the cloud • Predictable access to cloud services

• Consensus on key strategy components, including security, • A business-aligned approach to leveraging the resources available
architecture, and integration in the cloud
• A clear path forward on skill development and talent • Efficient and secure consumption of cloud resources where
acquisition/retention appropriate to do so
• A comprehensive resource for information about the • Answers to questions about the cloud and how it will be leveraged
organization’s approach to key strategy components in the environment

Measure the value of
this blueprint
Don’t take our word for it: 8.8/10
Average reported satisfaction
• Document Your Cloud Strategy has been available for several years in various forms as
both a workshop and as an analyst-led guided implementation.
13 Days
• After each engagement, we send a survey that asks members how they benefited from
the experience. Those who have worked through Info-Tech’s cloud strategy material
have given overwhelmingly positive feedback.
Average reported time savings
• Additionally, members reported saving between 10 and 20 days and an average of
$46,499.
• Measure the value by calculating the time saved as a result of using Info-Tech’s
framework vs. a home-brewed cloud strategy alternative and by comparing the overall
$46,499
cost of a guided implementation or workshop with the equivalent offering from another
firm. We’re confident you’ll come out ahead.
Average cost savings

Executive Brief Case INDUSTRY SOURCE
Study Pharmaceuticals Info-Tech workshop
Pharmaceutical company
The unnamed pharmaceutical company that is the subject of this case study
Example output: Document your cloud strategy
was looking to make the transition to the cloud. In the absence of a coherent workshop exercise
strategy, the organization had a few cloud deployments with no easily
discernable overall approach.
Representatives of several distinct functions (legal, infrastructure, data, etc.) all
had opinions on the uses and abuses of cloud services, but it had been difficult
to round everyone up and have the necessary conversations.
As a result, the strategy exercise had not proceeded in a speedy or well-
governed way. This lack of strategic readiness presented a roadblock to moving
forward with the cloud strategy and to work with the cloud implementation
partner, tasked with execution.
Results
The company engaged Info-Tech for a four-day workshop on cloud strategy Anything in green, the team was reasonably sure they had good
documentation. Over the course of four days, participants drawn from across alignment and next steps. Those yellow flags warranted more
the organization discussed the strategic components and generated consensus discussion and were not ready for documentation.
statements and next steps. The team was able to formalize the cloud strategy
and described the experience as saving 10 days.
Info-Tech offers various levels of
support to best suit your needs
Guided Implementation
DIY Toolkit Workshop Consulting
“Our team has already made this “Our team knows that we need to “We need to hit the ground “Our team does not have the time
critical project a priority, and we fix a process, but we need running and get this project or the knowledge to take this
have the time and capability, but assistance to determine where to kicked off immediately. Our project on. We need assistance
some guidance along the way focus. Some check-ins along the team has the ability to take this through the entirety of this
would be helpful.” way would help keep us on over once we get a framework project.”
track.” and strategy in place.”
Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Guided Implementation A Guided
What does a typical GI on this topic look like? Implementation (GI) is a
series
of calls with an Info-
Tech analyst to help
Document your vision and Record your people Document governance Formalize your
alignment strategy principles technology strategy implement our best
practices in your
organization.
Call #1: Call #2: Call #3: Work Call #4:
Review Review through Discuss
existing progress on integration, challenges A typical GI is 4 to 6
vision/strategy skills, roles, architecture, with
documentation and finance monitoring,
calls over the course of
. governance management, provisioning, 1 to 3 months
bodies. etc. based on and migration
reqs. (May be as-needed.
more than one
call.)
Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research
Research Group| 15
Group | 15
Workshop Overview
Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

Answer Define the Assess the IT Bridge the gap and Next steps and
“so what?” IT target state current state create the strategy wrap-up (offsite)
3.1 Discuss cloud operations

1.1 Introduction 2.1 Discuss skills and roles management 4.1 Review and formalize data
Activities
controls
1.2 Discuss cloud mission and 2.2 Review culture and adoption 3.2 Review cloud portfolio
vision management 4.2 Design a monitoring
2.3 Discuss a cloud governing approach 5.1 Populate the Cloud Strategy
1.3 Discuss alignment with other body 3.3 Discuss cloud vendor
4.3 Document the workload Document
strategic plans management
2.4 Review architecture position provisioning process
1.4 Discuss guiding principles 3.4 Discuss cloud finance
2.5 Discuss integration and 4.4 Outline migration processes
management
1.5 Define success metrics interoperability and procedures
3.5 Discuss cloud security
Deliverables
Position statements on cloud

Formalized cloud mission and Position statement on skills and
operations management, portfolio Position statements on data
vision, along with alignment with roles, culture and adoption, Completed Cloud Strategy
management, vendor management, controls, monitoring,
strategic plans, guiding principles, governing bodies, architecture, Document
finance management, and cloud provisioning, and migration
and success metrics and integration/interoperability
security

Phase 1
Document Your Vision and Alignment
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

1.1 Document your mission 2.1 Define approach to skills 3.1 Define architecture 3.5 Define vendor 4.1 Define cloud monitoring
and vision and roles direction management direction strategy
1.2 Document alignment to 2.2 Define approach to culture 3.2 Define integration 3.6 Document finance 4.2 Define cloud provisioning
other strategic plans and adoption approach management tactics strategy
1.3 Document guiding 2.3 Define cloud governing 3.3 Define operations 3.7 Define approach to cloud 4.3 Define cloud migration
principles bodies management process security strategy
1.4 Document success metrics 3.4 Define portfolio 3.8 Define data controls in the
management direction cloud
This phase will walk you through the following This phase has the following outcome: Document Your Cloud
activities: • Documented strategy: vision and alignment Strategy
1. Record your cloud mission and vision
2. Document your cloud strategy’s alignment with
other strategic plans
3. Record your cloud guiding principles Info-Tech Research Group | 17
Record your mission and vision
Build on the work you’ve already done
Before formally documenting your cloud strategy, you should ensure that you must be involved/informed? What callouts must be involved at what point?
have a good understanding of your overall cloud vision. How do you plan to Do users have access to the appropriate strategic documentation (and would
leverage the cloud? What goals are you looking to accomplish? How will you they understand it if they did)?
distribute your workloads between different cloud service models (SaaS,
You must also capture some guiding principles. A strategy by its nature
PaaS, IaaS)? What will your preferred delivery model be (public, private,
provides direction, helping readers understand the decisions they should
hybrid)? Will you support your cloud deployment internally or use the
make and why those decisions align with organizational interests. Creating
services of various consultants or managed service providers?
some top-level principles is a useful exercise because those principles
The answers to these questions will inform the first section of your cloud facilitate comprehension and ensure the strategy’s applicability.
strategy. If you haven’t put much thought into this or think you could use a
Finally, this phase will walk you through the process of measuring success.
deep dive on the fundamentals of your cloud vision and cloud archetypes,
Once you know where you’d like to go, the principles that underpin your
consider reviewing Define Your Cloud Vision, the companion blueprint to this
direction, and how your cloud strategy figures into the broader strategic
one.
pantheon, you should record what success actually means. If you’re looking
Once you understand your cloud vision and what you’re trying to accomplish to save money, overall cost should be a metric you track. If the cloud is all
with your cloud strategy, this phase will walk you through aligning the about productivity, generate appropriate productivity metrics. If you’re
strategy with other strategic initiatives. What decisions have others made that looking to expand into new technology or close a datacenter, you will need to
will impact the cloud strategy (or that the cloud strategy will impact)? Who track output specific to those overall goals.

Review: mission and vision
The overall organizational mission is a key foundational element of the cloud strategy. If you don’t understand where you’re going, how can you begin the
journey to get there? This section of the strategy has four key parts that you should understand and incorporate into the beginning of the strategy document. If
you haven’t already, review Define Your Cloud Vision for instructions on how to generate these elements.
1. Cloud vision statement: This is a succinct encapsulation of your overall 2. Service model decision framework: Services can be provided as software
perspective on the suitability of cloud services for your environment – what as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service
you hope to accomplish. The ideal statement includes a scope (who/what (IaaS), or they can be colocated or remain on premises. Not all cloud service
does the strategy impact?), a goal (what will it accomplish?), and a key models serve the same purpose or provide equal value in all circumstances.
differentiator (what will make it happen?). This is an example: Understanding how you plan to take advantage of these distinct service
“[Organization] will leverage public cloud solutions and retire existing models is an important component of the cloud strategy. In this section of the
datacenter and colocation facilities. This transition will simplify strategy, a rubric that captures the characteristics of the ideal workload for
infrastructure administration, support and security, while modernizing legacy each of the named service models, along with some justification for the
infrastructure and reducing the need for additional capital expenditure.” You selection, is essential. This is a core component of Define Your Cloud Vision,
might also consider reviewing your overall cloud archetype (next slide) and and if you would like to analyze individual workloads, you can use the Cloud
including the output of that exercise in the document as well. Vision Workbook for that purpose.
3. Delivery model decision framework: Just as there are different cloud 4. Support model decision framework: Once you have a service model
service models that have unique value propositions, there are several unique nailed down and understand how you will execute on the delivery, the
cloud delivery models as well, distinguished by ownership, operation, and question then becomes about how you will support your cloud deployment
customer base. Public clouds are the purview of third-party providers who going forward. Broadly speaking, you can choose to manage your
make them available to paying customers. Private clouds are built for the deployment in house using internal resources (e.g. staff), to use managed
exclusive use of a designated organization or group of organizations with service providers for ongoing support, or to hire consultants to handle
internal clients to serve. Hybrid clouds involve the use of multiple, specific projects/tasks. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, and
interoperable delivery models (interoperability is the key term here), while many cloud customers will deploy multiple support models across time and
multi-cloud deployment models incorporate multiple delivery and service different workloads. A foundational perspective on the support model is a key
models into a single coherent strategy. What will your preferred delivery component of the cloud vision and should appear early in theInfo-Tech
strategy.
Research Group | 19
model be? Why?
Understand key cloud concepts: Archetype
Once you understand the value of the cloud, We can best support the organization’s goals by:
your workloads’ general suitability for the
More Cloud
cloud, and your proposed risks and
Cloud-Centric Providing all workloads through cloud delivery.
mitigations, the next step is to define your
cloud archetype. Cloud-Focused
Using the cloud as our default deployment model. For
Cloud-First
Your organization’s cloud archetype is the each workload, we should ask “why NOT cloud?”
strategic posture that IT adopts to best support
the organization’s goals. Info-Tech’s model
Enabling the ability to transition seamlessly between on-
recognizes seven archetypes, divided into Hybrid
premises and cloud resources for many workloads.
three high-level archetypes.
After consultation with your stakeholders, and Combining cloud and traditional infrastructure resources,
based on the results of the suitability and risk Cloud-Opportunistic Integrated
integrating data and applications through APIs or
assessment activities, define your archetype. middleware.
The archetype feeds into the overall cloud Using the cloud for some workloads and traditional
vision and provides simple insight into the Split
infrastructure resources for others.
Less Cloud
cloud future state for all stakeholders.

The cloud vision itself is captured in a “vision Using traditional infrastructure resources and limiting our
Cloud-Light
statement,” a short summary of the overall use of the cloud to when it is absolutely necessary.
Cloud-Averse
approach that includes the overall cloud Using traditional infrastructure resources and avoiding the
archetype. Anti-Cloud
use of cloud wherever possible.

Understand key cloud concepts: service and delivery
models
In 2011, NIST published a standard
definition of cloud computing. While
not every provider exactly exemplifies
each component, the five key cloud
characteristics and the service models
outlined here provide a good basis for
designing your vision (and, therefore,
your strategy).
If you’re not sure how the different
types of cloud should factor into your
strategy, consider analyzing a handful
of key workloads using the Cloud
Vision Workbook. You will gain an
understanding of the relative suitability
of each service/delivery model for the
cloud and can incorporate the results
into your document.

Understand key cloud concepts: support model
Support models by IT services, including cloud services, can be delivered and

managed in multiple ways depending on the nature of the
characteristic workload and the organization’s intended path forward. Three
Duration of high-level options are presented here and may be valuable based
Specialization Flexibility
engagement on the duration of the expected engagement with the service
(temporary or permanent, the skills specialization required, and
Varies based on Fixed, permanent the flexibility necessary to complete the job.
Internal Indefinite
nature of staff
IT By way of example, a highly technical, short-term project with
business
significant flexibility requirements might be a good fit for an
expensive consultant, whereas post-implementation
Managed Contractually General, some
Standard offering maintenance of a cloud email system requires relatively little
service defined specialization
specialization and flexibility and would therefore be a better fit
provider for internal management.
There is no universally applicable rule here, but there are some
Project-based Specific, Entirely
Consultan workloads that are generally a good fit for cloud and others that
domain-based negotiable
t are not as effective, with that fit being conditional on the
appropriate support model being employed.

Discuss: mission and vision
Participants Questions
• CIO • What are the overall organizational objectives and cloud drivers? Have they been
• Management recorded anywhere?
• Perspective from Applications, Infrastructure, • Is there a cloud vision statement? If so, what is it?
Data • What is our preferred cloud support model? Will we be primarily hiring or training
• Executive leadership (non-IT) internal staff, working with consultants, or hiring a managed service provider?
• Are we primarily a public cloud shop? Does a private cloud or hybrid cloud model
figure into our plans going forward?
Key decisions • Could we benefit from a multicloud approach?
• Cloud archetype • How will we determine the appropriate service model for each workload? What
• Preferred cloud support model makes a workload a good candidate for infrastructure as a service, platform as a
service, or software as a service?
• Preferred cloud delivery model
• Is there any disagreement on any of these counts?
• Preferred cloud service model
• Defined mission/vision statement

Input Output
1.1 Document your mission • Cloud decision framework • Documented consensus
and vision • Define Your Cloud Vision

output
around cloud vision
1-2 hours
1. Review the questions on the previous slide and discuss them with the group.
2. Consider any additional questions that emerge during the conversation. Are they
worth including in the strategy document?
3. Assign a scribe to capture the salient points of the discussion.
4. Record a summary of your cloud mission/vision in the Cloud Strategy Document

template. Materials Participants
Note that this is as far as many of your readers will go. Ensure that you adequately
capture your stated cloud direction, including your preferred delivery, service, and
• Cloud Strategy Document • CIO
support models. If the group cannot come to a consensus on these items, consider
template
reviewing Define Your Cloud Vision to build that consensus. • Management
• Perspective from
Applications, Infrastructure,
Data
Download the Cloud Strategy Document template • Executive leadership (non-
IT)

Review: alignment to other strategic plans
• The cloud strategy is not an island. It cannot exist effectively
independent of other strategic efforts. If transitioning to the cloud will HR/staffing Security
require additional headcount or change the nature of the staffing model,
the HR strategy will be impacted. Security and risk management must
strategy strategy
be involved if data is going to be moving off site. The cloud is often
part of a much broader digital transformation initiative.
• This section of the strategy is unique because interacting
documentation, including relevant strategies, policies, etc. should be
highlighted in general at the beginning, but it should be peppered
throughout the document as well. Cloud
• The cloud strategy should refer to other policies and strategies
strategy
throughout where relevant. For example, if you have a vendor
management strategy/process, there is no need to replicate it in full, but
linking to the document and acknowledging its existence and the
direction it provides is a good way to provide readers with consistency.
• Start by reviewing the list of strategy components (mission and vision, Digital
people, technology, governance) and identify any documents that will Data strategy transformation
impact the formation/execution of the cloud strategy document. Include
strategy
references to that documentation in a summary section and throughout.

Discuss: alignment to other strategic plans
• CIO • Is the cloud initiative part of a broader strategy or digital transformation project?
• Management • Who contributed to the creation of the cloud vision? Is there a documentation or
• Cloud strategy creation team policy/procedure that governs their respective disciplines?
• Perspective from some service owners • What needs to change to transform the cloud vision into a reality? Are there any
policies/strategies that must be updated to reflect cloud priorities?
• Are there any stakeholders with strong opinions about the cloud vision? Do they have
input into policy or strategy areas that must be addressed as part of the cloud strategy?
Key decisions
• Policies and strategies relevant to the cloud
strategy
Info-Tech Insight
• Impact the relevant policies and procedures will
Sysadmins like to use the “scream test” if they can’t figure out what a server is
have on the cloud strategy document supporting. Unplug it and see who screams! Use the same logic to incorporate other
strategic plans into your cloud strategy. If you left them out of the cloud strategy, what
stakeholders would scream? Use this information to ensure they’re included!

Input Output
1.2 Document alignment to • Existing strategic plans • Documented alignment with
other strategic plans • Group discussion

existing strategic plans
1-3 hours
1. Review the questions on the previous slide. Discuss them with the group.
2. Document any specific alignments. If, for example, a strategic goal is to be more
cost-conscious, capture how the cloud can be leveraged to accomplish this. Speak
in broad terms.
Materials Participants
3. Record a summary of the conversation in the Cloud Strategy Document template.
Keep your audience in mind – help them understand why the cloud is relevant to
them. • Cloud Strategy Document • CIO
template
• Management
• Cloud strategy creation team
• Service owners (optional)
Download the Cloud Strategy Document template

Review: guiding principles
Mission and vision
• Writing in the Harvard Business Review, Michael D. Watkins defines a
strategy as “a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted
in the organization, generates a desired pattern of decision making” (Harvard
Business Review, 2007). The cloud strategy is composed of – and must be Principles
driven by – principles.
• Per Watkins’s definition, a strategy is primarily concerned with “how” one
can execute to achieve goals outlined as part of a broader mission/vision. Tactics
• Principles are the high-level guardrails that provide consistency and structure
to the mission and vision without descending to the tactical level, captured
here by the components listed under technology, people, and governance.
Governance
Technology
• When generating principles, think about the rules that define appropriate
People
tactical responses. If, for example, the overall vision is to reduce costs, a
principle might be pursuing standardization as opposed to customization,
while a tactic would be using SSO technology to standardize the
authentication process for end users.

Discuss: guiding principles
• CIO • Are there any guiding principles in place that have been incorporated into the cloud
• Management strategy informally or into other, related strategies?
• Cloud strategy creation team • When executing on the cloud strategy, what do all actors need to keep in mind?
• Is there anything in the mission/vision component of the strategy document that can
be effectively captured as a guiding principle, focusing on the “how” of the cloud
project?
• What overarching principles will inform tactical discussions around people,
Key decisions governance, and technology? What do those making decisions in these areas need to
account for?
• Guiding principles
• What misalignment potential is there? Where could an uneven application of
• Contribution of guiding principles to underlying
standards cause disruption? Can this be rectified by instituting a formal guiding
tactics
principle?

Input Output
1.3 Document guiding • Existing strategy • Guiding principles for cloud
principles documentation
• Mission/vision discussion
1-3 hours
2. If the group identifies a set of guiding principles that apply to the cloud strategy,
record those principles.
3. Talk through how the principles would apply in practice. If one is “lower costs,”
discuss the projected impact of the cloud on spend. If another is “focus on more
valuable work,” ensure that all present understand what work is considered more
valuable.
4. Record the results in the Cloud Strategy Document template.

template
• Management

Review: measuring success
A strategy is a blueprint for achieving your goals or mission. But the goals and mission associated with the cloud strategy are often abstract,
not reducible to a single element. There is no universally effective way to capture many of the goals that will underpin your cloud vision –
only metrics, which serve as proxies for those goals and come with their own strengths and weaknesses. The metrics you choose matter
tremendously. As Hauser and Katz argue, “you are what you measure.”
“If a firm measures a, b and c, but not x, y, and z, then managers begin to pay more attention
to a, b, and c. Soon those managers who do well on a, b, and c are promoted or are given more
responsibilities. Increased pay and bonuses follow. Recognizing these rewards, managers start
asking their employees to make decisions and take actions that improve the metrics. […] Soon
the entire organization is focused on ways to improve the metrics. The firm gains core
strengths in producing a, b, and c. The firm becomes what it measures.”
– John Hauser and Gerald Katz
European Management Journal, 1998

Discuss: measuring success
• CIO • What does success look like?
• Management • What do we care about?
• Cloud strategy creation team • What is the best way to prove that the cloud initiative has met expectations?
• What information can be realistically gathered?
• What underlying phenomena are most important to the various stakeholder groups?
• What metrics have been attached to similar projects in the past?
Key decisions
• List of cloud strategy success metrics
Info-Tech Insight
Consider using “tension metrics” to prevent overemphasis on one component of the
strategy. A set of tension metrics complement each other such that attempting to game
one metric will be detectable in the other. For example, “migration speed” could be held
in tension with cost or performance to ensure efficiency and quality of service.

Input Output
1.4 Document success metrics • Cloud drivers • List of success metrics for
the cloud strategy
• Cloud vision
• Group discussion
1-3 hours
2. Ensure you discuss the story you want to tell about the cloud and that your
proposed success metrics align with that story.
3. Once you have a shortlist, go through each one and, with the group, discuss how
changes in its value would impact the story you’re trying to tell. If a sample metric
is uptime, should the proposed cloud migration increase or decrease it? What can
you expect to see if your beliefs about the cloud are true? Refer to any drivers you
have previously identified, along with the mission/vision conversation from earlier
in this section.
4. Record the list of success metrics in the Cloud Strategy Document template. template
• Management

Phase 2
Record Your People Strategy

activities: • Documented people strategy Strategy
1. Outline your skills and roles strategy
2. Document your approach to culture and adoption
3. Create a cloud governing body
The cloud changes your people strategy
Skills, roles, responsibility – the cloud changes them all
Depending on how you choose to roll it out, the cloud could represent a sea in IaaS can be tricky as well. Your cloud strategy must address these points
change in how your organization provides IT services. Managing physical and others.
infrastructure, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on equipment in
Culture and adoption
large, relatively infrequent capital outlays, and managing the entirety of the
infrastructure stack on premises are skills that can recede in importance with If you build it, they will come, right? Maybe not. No technology rollout can
a move to the public cloud. succeed without buy-in from users. This is especially true when the cloud
spells big changes for end users (more self-service, a transition to
A complete cloud strategy must address the potential disruption caused by a
Chromebooks, etc.). Managing change at the organization level is therefore a
dislocation. The templated document included with this blueprint focuses on
critical strategic dimension and must be addressed in the document.
three key areas: skills and roles, culture and adoption, and governing bodies.
Governing bodies
Skills and roles
Decision making in the cloud is important as well. When governance
There’s a reason cloud skills are among the most sought-after in the job
proceeds in a haphazard fashion, an inconsistent deployment – which makes
market today: While similar in many ways to the skills developed on
it difficult to acquire needed skills or to convince users to adopt the service –
premises, new platforms and ways of working – favored in many shops –
becomes the norm. An understanding of who is going to make decisions (a
require staff to train and pick up new skills to succeed. Managing a SaaS
cross-functional body? A cloud architect?) is a key step in completing the
environment is very different from managing locally hosted software.
strategy document.
Amazon and Microsoft add new services and features with almost alarming
regularity. Learning how to properly manage permissions in a PaaS or costs

Review: skills and roles
The cloud represents a new or expanding frontier Traditional role Cloud role Responsibilities
for many organizations. Think about how executing
• Structure cloud delivery models
on your cloud vision will impact those tasked with
• Design cloud environment
carrying the vision out and managing it on a day- Solutions or technical architect Cloud architect
to-day basis. • Determine SLAs and migration plans
• Manage vendors and cloud portfolio
Unfortunately, for many organizations, skilling up
is not a simple matter of turning on a tap and • Migrate and manage cloud workloads
watching expertise flow in. According to Network engineer or systems
Cloud/DevOps engineer
• Determine appropriate network requirements
Pluralsight’s 2021 State of Upskilling Report, 44% administrator
• Monitor performance of cloud workloads
of respondents report themselves as underskilled in • Establish system redundancy and disaster recovery
the cloud management space, among the most
• Design and develop cloud native applications
significant gaps reported in the document.
Cloud software • Migrate legacy applications
Cloud deployments can also involve management Software developer
developer
• Effectively use APIs
and orchestration tooling (cloud management
• Build automation capabilities
platforms), knowledge of multiple cloud
environments, and migration tools. Other skills, • Build and maintain cloud service dashboards
Occasional procurement/vendor
including vendor management, cost management, management
Cloud billing analyst • Design cost-related alerts and alarms
and cloud architecture are critical as well. • Identify opportunities for cloud cost optimization
Consider these examples of some cloud roles and
the associated skills/responsibilities.

Review: skills and roles
There is no “correct” way to provision skills for the cloud. But there are some common steps that cloud customers take to
ensure that the skills and abilities needed to operate in the cloud are available to be leveraged.
Lean on vendors for training: Include training and knowledge transfer as part of cloud service contracts. Cloud providers and third-
party vendors have significant experience with migrating and managing transitions to the cloud. This is how they make money. They
have valuable insight that they can share – ask questions, build this service into your contracts, and reap the benefits of the experience.
Hire a cloud architect: Go to market for an IT team member with the cloud architecture skills to provide a leadership function and help
design the environment in line with best practices. This person will also likely be involved in cloud governance, owning the strategy and
participating in the governance committee.
Acquire cloud certifications for key staff: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud all have certification paths. The
same is true for many PaaS and SaaS providers. For those staff members who own/manage specific platforms, a certification can be a
great way to facilitate access to knowledge about cloud services. Certifications can be part of development plans.
Require security awareness training for all staff on an ongoing basis: The cloud represents a shifting/changing risk landscape.
Identity becomes even more critical than it has been historically as services migrate out of the datacenter and beyond perimeter defenses.
Security is everyone’s responsibility, and the cloud represents an important change in this space.
Conduct a RACI exercise: With changes in the cloud, delineating specific responsibility for operational functions is essential for clarity.
Consider conducting a RACI exercise to document how the cloud impacts staff roles and who needs to be involved in specific types of
decision making.
Discuss: skills and roles
• IT management • Based on our preferred delivery models, service models, and support models, what
• Applications skills are going to be required to migrate to – and manage – the cloud going forward?
• Infrastructure • Are there any obvious gaps in available skills?
• Security • Must any new roles be created to accommodate additional cloud skills (e.g. billing)?
• Human resources (optional) • What is the best way to fill any skills gaps: training, hiring, outsourcing, etc.?
• Is there a chosen cloud vendor? If so, are there any relevant certifications (Azure
Fundamentals, AWS Solutions Architect, etc.) that might be prerequisites for the
Key decisions strategy to succeed?
• Strategic approach to acquiring skills necessary • Is there an organizational training function? If so, what would that group’s
to safely deploy cloud solutions involvement be in skills and roles?
• Clarification of cloud roles and changes to • Is the operating model going to shift? What are the implications for roles?
responsibilities

Input Output
2.1 Define approach to skills • HR strategy • Documented consensus
and roles • Stakeholder perspectives

• Cloud vision
around skills and roles
1-3 hours
2. Document the skills necessary to execute on the cloud vision, whether those exist
in the organization or will need to be acquired elsewhere, and the strategy for
procuring those skills (internal IT, MSPs, consultants, etc.).
3. Discuss any new roles that must be created if the skills gaps identified cannot be
properly addressed by the existing roles in the organization.
4. Summarize the results of the conversation and record them in the Cloud Strategy
Document template.
• Cloud Strategy Document • IT management
template
• Applications
• Infrastructure
• Security
Download the Cloud Strategy Document template • Human resources (optional)

Review: culture and adoption
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This quote (long misattributed to Peter Drucker but actually from an article in a trade publication
covering the paper industry written by Bill Moore and Jerry Rose) reminds the reader that any strategy swimming upstream against
culture will fail. The cloud strategy must, therefore, account for the limitations imposed by organizational culture if it is to have a chance
of succeeding.
1. Seek and incorporate feedback 2. Show, don’t (just) tell 3. Evolve and iterate
• A top-down organizational culture can be • Wherever you can, demonstrate specifically • Like all strategies, your cloud strategy
effective in some cases, but when making what the impact of any changes would be. should not be rigid. Evolve and iterate based
significant changes, it can be difficult to Use demo environments for SaaS solutions, on new requirements, market conditions, and
bring others on board. walk stakeholders through proposed updates even new technology. Let your participants
• Incorporate end users into the decision- to provisioning workflows, and present any know that the document will evolve, and be
making process – seek out and leverage information that you’ve used to make your sure to discuss what the process for
feedback. If you involve potential detractors, decisions or that you would like interested reviewing and updating the strategy is.
they will take partial ownership of the parties to consider.
eventual decision and are less likely to cause
problems down the line.
Info-Tech Insight
Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. If you’ve already decided or there’s some limiting factor that makes a particular path
nonviable, set those boundaries up-front instead of gathering feedback that you cannot action. Nothing is worse than filling out a survey or
participating in a focus group and later learning that the people running the show have blatantly ignored your feedback. Info-Tech Research Group | 40
Discuss: culture and adoption
• IT management • How much of a change do cloud services represent for the organization? Will that
• HR/change management change be difficult?
• Application/service owners • What obstacles are likely to prevent a successful cloud transition and what steps can
be taken to mitigate the challenges posed?
• For SaaS?
• For PaaS?
• For IaaS?
Key decisions • Is there a robust organizational change management process in place that has been
• Steps necessary to overcome cultural challenges effective in bringing other services over? Are there any obvious examples of
• Organizational change management strategies successful implementations that can serve a guiding function?
• Communication plan for cloud deployment • Where does responsibility for change management sit – within the PMO or
somewhere else?
• What stakeholder groups will need to be involved?

Input Output
2.2 Define approach to culture • HR strategy • Documented consensus
and adoption • OCM processes and

procedures
around culture and adoption
1-3 hours
1. Review the questions on the previous slide. Discuss with the group.
2. Discuss obstacles to a successful cloud deployment and your response to them.

What is their likely cause?
3. Record the results. Consider especially how organizational change management

will figure into the cloud strategy and the stakeholders who will need to be
considered/the actions that will need to be taken to ensure a smooth transition.

template
• HR/change management
• Application/service owners

Review: governing bodies
It is crucial to have the right people making the right decisions to drive the success of the cloud strategy. The governing bodies will
help align your strategy with the business, establish accountability, and audit value.
Alignment Accountability Value generation

Drive cloud and business strategy The creation of this group facilitates the Participants are responsible for the ongoing
alignment by having business partners involvement and commitment of the evaluation of cloud value and performance
accountable for the prioritization and business through clearly defined roles and of cloud services. The committee should
selection of cloud projects and accountabilities for cloud decisions. Who is define standards and institute remediation
investments. Incorporate stakeholders responsible for onboarding new services? plans for poor performance. This could
into your planning process and ensure Who needs to be consulted when there are include switching providers, changing
that your cloud strategy plugs into your budgetary issues? Who sets standards? architectural patterns, or even bringing on
broader organizational strategy. new staff.
Info-Tech Insight
Your IT operating model is a crucial part of your cloud governance plan. Review Optimize the IT Operating Model for advice on how to redesign
your operating model to account for the changes that come with cloud services. You can use this blueprint to create a target operating model based
on your knowledge of your users and consumers.

Discuss: Governing bodies
• IT management • What are the governing bodies for your organization? (Center of Excellence, Cloud
• Application/service owners Group, IT Steering Committee?)
• Architecture • What parts of the strategy will they be accountable for? Specifically, who is
responsible for what?
• How will they collaborate? Will the cloud governance group meet monthly? Weekly?
At a different cadence?
• Why were these groups selected?
Key decisions
• Responsibility for designing and maintaining
cloud governance

Input Output
2.3 Define cloud governing • Group discussion • Defined cloud governing
bodies • RACI exercise

bodies
1-3 hours
2. Record the key items of the conversation:

• Governing bodies
• Membership in the governing bodies
• Broad outline of responsibilities
3. Record the results in the Cloud Strategy Document template. Materials Participants

template
• Architecture

Phase 3
Document Governance Principles

This phase will walk you through the following d) Cloud portfolio management Document Your Cloud
activities: e) Cloud vendor management
f) Finance management
Strategy
1. Document official organizational positions in these
g) Security
governance areas:
h) Data controls
a) Architecture
b) Integration and interoperability This phase has the following outcome: Info-Tech Research Group | 46
c) Operations management
• Documented cloud governance strategy
Set and formalize the rules of the game
It’s not sexy, but governance is important
Without stable, consistently applied governance, the cloud strategy cannot be Organizations fall on a spectrum when it comes to strategic direction in the
effectively implemented. Governance includes defining and enforcing cloud. This can range from those that are cloud-focused or cloud-first
architectural principles, integration practices, cloud portfolio management, (prioritizing the cloud as a strategic end) to those that are cloud-averse
and the introduction of new services into the environment. Upon reading the (avoiding the cloud for whatever reason). This organizational perspective
strategy document, IT staff and users alike should understand who is making should have been captured as part of the mission and vision exercise; there
decisions, the parameters they are using, the processes they follow, and the should be a firm mission statement that offers a position on general cloud
overarching purpose of each of the components. They should, in short, direction and should inform the steps taken to institute governance even at
understand who is allowed to do what – and why. the service level.
This section is the largest, most involved component of the strategy process Each conversation in this section should result in generalizable principles that
and requires input in many areas, ranging from architecture and governance you can use to govern decision making going forward. As you’re facilitating
to security. Ensure that you have adequate representation from each group these discussions, think about how you can effectively apply standards, any
before proceeding. As an alternative, consider proceeding in a contingent key decision points, and any stakeholders that need to be consulted.
fashion until you can secure the necessary perspective. You should also have
completed the previous section on governing bodies as well; this will help
you understand the limits of your approach.

Review: architecture
Cloud architecture is defined loosely as the set of principles underlying integration and functionality within or between services hosted in
public clouds, private clouds, or on-premises/in a colocation service. Cloud architects are concerned with setting and enforcing standards
to ensure efficient and effective use of cloud resources. Some architectural principles may be exclusive to the cloud; others may extend
across cloud and premises-based resources.
Sample architectural principles
• Avoid excessive egress from cloud environments or movement between • Build redundancy into every service in-line with business requirements
cloud regions to keep costs low and the service efficient. for uptime/availability.
• Apply metadata tags in a consistent way to ensure that the ownership and • Avoid complicated point-to-point integrations and use an API library for
purpose of resources are clear. standard interconnectivity.
• Incorporate security as a design principle, not an afterthought. • Keep chatty applications together in the cloud or on premises to
minimize latency.
Info-Tech Insight
Consider reviewing existing architectural guidelines for their suitability as cloud principles. Keep the fundamental cloud characteristics in mind
(on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service), and evaluate how your existing principles
need to change or what new principles must be identified to align with these characteristics.

Discuss: architecture
• IT management • What architectural principles guide decisions around cloud deployments?
• IT architects • Are the principles the same in the cloud as they are on premises? If not, how are they
• Application/service owners (optional) different?
• Is there any appetite for new/different architectures, like microservices or serverless
computing?
• Are any applications/services set to be refactored? Which ones? Why?
Key decisions
• Documented list of architectural principles
• Statements on the architectural future state

Input Output
3.1 Define architecture • Cloud decision framework • Documented architecture
direction • Define Your Cloud Vision

output
direction and principles
1-3 hours
2. As part of the discussion, consider the following points:

a) Record any architectural principles that will guide your cloud deployment
b) Identify any major architecture changes that are implied by the cloud
strategy
3. Record the results of the discussion in the Cloud Strategy Document template. Materials Participants

template
• IT architects
(optional)

Review: integration and interoperability
Modern IT services are built on effective integration. When services exist in the cloud, in privately owned datacenters, and in colocation
services, it becomes essential to understand what can be integrated technically, any additional costs that might be associated with certain
types of integrations (e.g. egress charges for moving data out of cloud regions), and what the likely impact will be on performance and
maintenance. Consider these broad approaches to cloud integration and how they might fit into your overall cloud strategy:
Principles
• Lean on APIs: Application programming interfaces (APIs) are the core of the cloud integration experience. In a nutshell, APIs represent the rules of
engagement for integrating an application with another services. Some providers are more willing to expose public APIs for their SaaS solutions. Some
are not. If you own the applications you’re looking to integrate, you may wish to create an API library to enshrine API standards. REST APIs are
generally preferable to a point-to-point POST SOAP call, as they are more loosely coupled.
• Loose coupling: An integration is loosely coupled when it comprises a link that can be easily changed or replaced. New application architectures like
microservices incorporate this concept, and it may be worth exploring for your applications and services. (Capital One calls microservices that are
tightly coupled “distributed monoliths.” The overhead of managing a service like this would probably not be worth it!)
• Avoid middleware wherever possible: When multiple services need a software layer to communicate, this software layer is middleware. Middleware
can include more traditional enterprise service bus (ESB) solutions or integration platform as a service (iPaaS) offerings. Middleware solutions like
iPaaS are often used in conjunction with API management as part of common platforms. (Mulesoft’s is called “CloudHub,” for example.)
• Ensure compatibility with necessary software: You may have specific requirements for certain types of applications, like compatibility with a single
sign-on provider. This should be accounted for in the cloud strategy to ensure that users have a seamless, high-quality experience.

Discuss: integration and interoperability
• Application owners • What services need to be integrated? Are they properly documented?
• Enterprise/cloud architect(s) • Are there any specific standards that must be adhered to for integration purposes?
• IT management • Does the proposed architecture of cloud services have any important implications for
the integration regime?
• Are there any dependencies (internal or external) that complicate integration
standards?
• Should we maintain an API library?
Key decisions • Are API-related skills (e.g. development, where applicable) well-developed within the
• What principles should underly the standards organization?
set for integration and interoperability?

Input Output
3.2 Define integration • Architecture documents • Documented approach to
approach • Group discussion

integration and
interoperability
1-3 hours
2. Specific points of conversation should include the following:

a) Broad architectural direction (see previous section)
b) Implications for integration and interoperability
c) Specific standards that must be applied in the environment (API libraries,
integration patterns, templates, etc.) Materials Participants
d) Specific solutions that might be deployed (iPaaS, ESB, etc.)
3. Record the results of the conversation in the Cloud Strategy Document template.
• Cloud Strategy Document • Application owners
template
• Enterprise/cloud architect(s)
• IT management

Review: operations management
Migrating solutions to the cloud can involve significant
changes in operations management. The transition to the
cloud has broad implications, but especially in the following
areas:
• Service design
• Availability management
• Capacity and performance management
• Configuration management
• Release and deployment management
• Asset management
How the cloud changes these disciplines depends on the
preferred service model (SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS), the relative
maturity of the existing process, and the strategic goals that
the cloud is intended to facilitate. Asset management looks
different in a SaaS environment (licenses and allocations) vs.
an IaaS environment (components), for example.

Operations management: impacts
Operational discipline Impact
The cloud is a wide, wonderful world of additional options. There is more than one way to climb a tree, and
the cloud is endowed with many branches. When designing services, the preferred architecture (SaaS, IaaS,
Service design
PaaS, etc.), the preferred delivery model (private cloud, public cloud, etc.), and even the specific service
(Cosmos DB, MySQL, SQL Managed Instance) all come into play.
Ensuring that services remain available in the cloud is not fundamentally different from ensuring they stay up
on-premises, but depending on the nature of the cloud service being consumed, there may be challenges
Availability management
around visibility into the underlying infrastructure, an inability to architect for targeted service levels, and
reliance on the provider to achieve metrics set out in a contract.
In the cloud, this may mean managing and allocating licenses (especially in a SaaS environment), dynamically
Capacity and performance management resizing resources to account for new demand (PaaS, IaaS), and monitoring costs as they are incurred to avoid
potentially significant budget overruns.
The transition to the cloud may involve fundamental changes to the management of your infrastructure
environment. Infrastructure-as-code, for example, is often used by infrastructure practitioners to manage
Configuration management complicated and dynamic infrastructure environments in the cloud. Many organizations take the cloud
transition as an opportunity to implement DevOps practices, which may also include changes to configuration
management.
Changes to traditional release management (moving towards continuous deployment in a DevOps
Release and deployment management environment, for example) is often a key technique that cloud customers use to realize their agility goals.
Consider how your release/deployment practices might change with the cloud.
Managing hardware assets may not be the name of the game in the cloud, but it is still necessary to manage
Asset management software assets (SaaS) and components in an infrastructure environment. Consider the implications of the
transition for your asset management function and the changing roles of asset managers.
Discuss: operations management
• Asset manager • Reviewing a list of operational management processes, which are most likely to be
• Service owners impacted by the transition to the cloud?
• Operations management o Are there any processes that are particularly important or warrant specific
attention?
• IT management
• What are the expected changes that the cloud will bring to service design, release
management, etc.?
• Does the cloud offer any opportunities to streamline/improve any of these processes?
Key decisions • Do we have the skills/expertise in house to handle changes to the operational
• List of impacted operational management management processes?
processes
• Optimal operational process changes given the
desired cloud future state

Input Output
3.3 Define operations • Existing operations • Documented approach to
management process management processes
operations management in
the cloud
1-3 hours
2. Your discussion should address the following points:

a) Important changes to operations management as a result of the cloud
transition
b) Potential improvements to processes
c) Steps that must be taken to ensure that operational management processes Materials Participants
proceed as normal post-migration
• Cloud Strategy Document • Asset manager
template
• Service owners
• Operations management
• IT management

Review: cloud portfolio management
Assuming cloud services will comprise part
Inception
of your portfolio of services, it is essential to
actively monitor this portfolio to ensure that When a new service is proposed, it is added to the
service portfolio through the service intake process.
users understand and can access the tools
they need to do their jobs. Cloud portfolio
management involves ensuring management
of the complete lifecycle of new cloud The service pipeline contains services that are proposed,
services, from their introduction at the intake assessed, and in development/rejected.
stage, to their general availability as part of
the service catalog, to their retirement once
they are no longer needed or an alternative,
The service catalog tracks all active services that are
more appropriate service is procured.
deployed to the users.
Effective cloud portfolio management means
understanding who will own these
components of the lifecycle; how they will Services that are no longer valuable are taken out of
make decisions about services to be active service and may be decommissioned.
deployed, maintained, and retired; and how
this will be communicated to end users. Retirement
Discuss: cloud portfolio management
• IT management • Does the cloud necessitate any changes to existing portfolio management processes
• Service owners and procedures?
• Asset management • How are services selected for deployment?

• What steps must take place to deploy new, cloud-based services?
• What role should the asset management team play in maintaining a service catalog?
• How mature is the existing service catalog? Do users understand how and what they
have access to?
Key decisions • Are there many exceptions to existing processes? Do these need to be addressed as
• Changes to portfolio management processes and processes are updated?
procedures
• Standards for deploying, maintaining, and
retiring new cloud services
• Approach to communicating results of the
portfolio management exercise

Input Output
3.4 Define portfolio • Existing project/portfolio • Documented approach to
management direction management processes and

documentation
portfolio management in the
cloud
1-3 hours • Group discussion
2. Discuss the proposed lifecycle of cloud services. When are services instantiated?
By whom? Under what authority?
3. Describe any important changes to the cloud portfolio management process that
come as a result of the portfolio management process.
4. Record the results in the Cloud Strategy Document template. Materials Participants

template
• Service owners

Review: cloud vendor management
The public cloud means shared responsibility. Vendors have multiple
clients and, depending on the cloud service model selected, take
different levels of responsibility for the services they provide. SaaS
providers, for example, take ownership of the application or service’s
infrastructure, while infrastructure components are the responsibility of
the customer in IaaS environments. Amazon reminds its customers that
it is responsible for security “of” the cloud, while customers are
responsible for security “in” the cloud (“Shared Responsibility Model,”
Amazon, 2022).
Your cloud strategy should account for this shared responsibility and
should include statements on the ownership of relationships with
Source: Microsoft, “Shared Responsibility in the Cloud,” 2022
vendors, standard contract language that must exist for different types
of cloud services, licensing considerations, escalation paths within the
vendor’s support system, and so on.
Info-Tech Insight
Responsibility for a given service may be something you can offload to a provider, but accountability will almost always stay with you. The cloud
is a tool in your toolkit for providing services to your end users. If cloud services do not meet performance or availability requirements, you are
ultimately accountable for resolving the issue, whatever that happens to mean.

Discuss: cloud vendor management
• IT management • How does the shared responsibility model impact our organization? Broadly
• Vendor management speaking, what responsibilities will remain with us or be transitioned to a cloud
provider?
• Who is currently responsible for vendor management? Does it sit with individual
• Legal
service owners, with a central office?
• Procurement/contracting
• Are there any standards that must be applied more broadly beyond boilerplate
contract language?
• What happens when vendors fail to live up to their end of the bargain? When should
Key decisions
legal and procurement be involved in the vendor management process?
• Ownership of the vendor management process
and management of individual vendors
• Necessary components of a vendor management
framework
• Players in the vendor management space

Input Output
3.5 Define vendor • Vendor management best • Documented consensus
management direction practices (existing)
around cloud vision
1-3 hours
2. Your discussion should cover the following key areas to be included in the final
strategy document:
a) Responsibility for vendor management (centralization vs.
decentralization)
b) Principles governing vendor management
c) Changes to vendor management practices brought about as a result of the
cloud
3. Record the results of the conversation in the Cloud Strategy Document template. • Cloud Strategy Document • IT management
template
• Vendor management
• Legal
Download the Cloud Strategy Document template • Procurement/contracting

Review: finance management
Public cloud services are characterized by measured service. In practice, this
Traditional
means that cost is incurred on a consumption basis. This is different from the
traditional datacenter which has traditionally required large capital outlays for
provisioning
assets that are depreciated over several years. Different cloud service models are
billed differently:
SaaS: When purchasing SaaS licenses, you can expect to be billed on a per-seat basis, though
these agreements are not always this simple. Some have additional fees for additional
Capacity
functions/services/credits (like premium connectors in Microsoft’s Power Platform toolset,
though depending on how deep you go, this might look more like a PaaS). You should read terms
and conditions carefully to understand what is covered by your license and ensure that users
cannot incur additional costs.
PaaS: Generally billed on a transaction basis, you can expect to pay for PaaS differently
depending on the function that it serves. For example, if you’re using a serverless solution, you
may be billed only for transactions executed and for nothing else. Generally, you’re not paying
for components specifically in a PaaS environment, but sometimes pricing is based on the
underlying infrastructure (e.g. Azure SQL).
IaaS: Pricing is more granular than PaaS. Expect to provision virtual machines and pay based on
Time
their size and how long they run – often right down to the second – as well as for storage, Capacity Demand
ingress/egress, any GPU requirements, and the region the instance is running in.
Info-Tech Insight
The cloud isn’t necessarily cheaper, but the flexible pricing model can introduce cost efficiencies and allow you to free up capital that would
otherwise need to be spent on infrastructure refreshes and software licensing.
Review: finance management
Price Variability Complexity
The overall cost of cloud services can be The cloud may be more or less expensive, Cloud providers bill for everything. This
daunting, especially considering that they but unless you’ve entered into a fixed practice allows for granularity, but it can
are not capitalized. One goal of price contract with a provider, expect be challenging to interpret for those who
successful finance management in the your costs to vary somewhat from month are less familiar with IaaS or PaaS cloud
cloud is to ensure that cloud spend is kept to month. This can pose a challenge. solutions. How should this be resolved?
in check. Techniques Techniques
Techniques • Reserved instances and other fixed- • Look for specific skills in hiring,
• Use reserved instances, sustained use price deals can make sense for certain including experience managing cloud
discounts, or other provider workloads and will reduce variability. services. Consider employing a
incentives to keep prices low. • Monitoring spend as it’s incurred and billing analyst or even a “cloud
• Size services appropriately, including setting thresholds for spend in IaaS economist.”
right-sizing IaaS deployments and can be useful ways to manage • Incorporate those responsible for
ensuring that SaaS licensing aligns variability. purchasing into discussions about
with demonstrated need. • Build variability into the cloud future cloud services.
• Design applications to avoid budget. Make room for potential
excessive ingress/egress, take cost excess.
into account at the design stage.

Discuss: finance management
• IT management • How have expectations been set with stakeholders and end users around the cost of
• Procurement cloud services?
• Finance • Is there value in taking advantage of the variable cost model?
• Development/operations (optional) • Are provisions currently in place to handle cost overages? Can they be built? Who
would be responsible for building them? Is there a contingency fund in place?
• Who will be responsible for right-sizing IaaS and PaaS workloads to manage cost
overruns?
Key decisions • What monitoring solutions are in place to review costs? What thresholds (if any) must
• Acceptable cloud cost models be set? Who is responsible for acting on cost alerts?
• Approach to handling cost variability • What is architecture’s role in ensuring that cost is managed effectively? Are any
specific principles to be applied?
• Responsibility for managing cost in the cloud

Input Output
3.6 Document finance • Group discussion • Documented approach to
management tactics • Existing approach to finance

management in cloud/non-
finance management in the
cloud
1-3 hours cloud environments
2. Your conversation should touch on the service models you’ve chosen to employ as
part of the overall cloud strategy, the implication for those service models on
management of cloud finances, and responsibility for managing cloud spend.

template
• Procurement
• Finance
• Development/operations
(optional)

Review: security
Security is the cornerstone of a solid and
compliant cloud deployment.
Info-Tech’s cloud security framework (pictured
on this slide) highlights how different technical
security considerations figure into the different
cloud service models, along with traditional
premises-based infrastructure and endpoints. A
cloud strategy should reflect the steps you plan
to take to address the areas relevant to the cloud
path you choose. In addition to these
considerations:
• Training: ensuring that IT staff and end
users are familiar with cloud tools, their
features, limitations, and common threat
vectors (phishing, etc.).
• Mindset shift (security by design):
transitioning to the cloud means the death of
the traditional perimeter and shared
responsibility with the provider. Pushing a
mindset shift across the organization can be
critical to effectively securing a cloud
environment. Info-Tech Research Group | 68
Discuss: security
• IT management • How do the choices about which clouds to use impact our approach to security/risk?
• CISO • What do we understand our responsibility for different areas of security to be (e.g.
• Risk/compliance/privacy identity management, physical infrastructure, etc.)? Who internally has accountability
for each of these areas?
• What will we do to ensure that vendors maintain secure solutions?
• Do all stakeholders understand how a transition to the cloud will impact the
organizational risk profile?
Key decisions • Are there any compliance requirements that necessitate specific approaches to
• RACI for security responsibilities security (CJIS, ISO, etc.)?
• Process of security training • Is in-house expertise sufficient to meet security requirements?
• Security standards/frameworks that must be • Are there any security tools that must be integrated/compatible with all cloud
broadly applied solutions (e.g. SSO, SIEM)?

Input Output
3.7 Define approach to cloud • Security standards • Documented approach to
security • Compliance standards

cloud security
1-3 hours
2. Focus on the following areas for the strategy document:

a) Key security principles that will be applied in the cloud
b) Security/compliance standards/frameworks that must be adhered to
c) Known risks/roadblocks associated with the chosen cloud direction
d) Strategies and tactics for ensuring maximum security in the cloud from a Materials Participants
people perspective

template
• CISO
• Risk/compliance/privacy

Review: data controls
Data is essential to the modern economy. It fuels the engine of innovation. But with this great power and utility comes commensurate
responsibility – data stewardship is among the most important tasks of the modern IT shop. The cloud complicates matters somewhat.
Sharing responsibility with providers introduces considerations around data sovereignty, protection, and quality:
• Data sovereignty: You are responsible for the data entrusted to your care. Ensure that your relationships with cloud providers account for your
responsibilities to external regulators, internal stakeholders, and – most of all – the customers/clients/members/donors/users who entrust you with their
data. For all workloads, ensure that you understand how providers are going to use your data, where they will store it, and how they will respond in the
event of a breach.
• Data protection: Ensuring that your data remains secure and available no matter where it is, is a critical component of cloud strategy. How will the
data be backed up – including SaaS and PaaS deployments? What does disaster recovery look like? Consider governing your data following a best
practice framework and using data loss prevention technology to secure your data in the cloud.
• Data quality: Ensuring data quality may be the responsibility of the owners of the source systems, or it may belong to the team that manages platforms
that leverage data in the cloud. Understanding responsibility and ensuring that data is appropriately sanitized/masked before transitioning to the cloud
is important.
Info-Tech Insight
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If you’ve got a mass of ungoverned data, you should treat it as though it could contain sensitive
information and act accordingly.
Discuss: Data controls
• IT management • Do we have a solid data inventory? Do we know what data is where?
• CISO • What requirements are the various types of data subject to? Are there any specific
• Risk/compliance/privacy regulatory or contractual provisions that limit where data can go?
• Information architecture/governance • What information is required from cloud providers to ensure that they are compliant
with data sovereignty requirements?
• Are there any compliance standards that providers are expected to meet if they will be
working with sensitive data?
Key decisions • How do you expect providers to respond to a breach?
• Relevant compliance criteria • Who is responsible/accountable for data quality?
• Data quality processes and procedures
• Data protection standards, including backup and
disaster recovery

Input Output
3.8 Define data controls in the • Cloud decision framework • Documented data controls in
cloud • Define Your Cloud Vision

output
the cloud
1-3 hours
2. Use your answers to these questions to develop and validate positions in the
following areas:
a) Compliance requirements related to data
b) Data quality processes and procedures
c) Data protection, including backup in the cloud Materials Participants

template • CISO
• Risk/compliance/privacy
• Information
architecture/governance

Phase 4
Formalize Your Technology Strategy

activities: • Documented cloud technology strategy Strategy
1. Formalize organizational approach to monitoring
2. Document provisioning process
3. Outline migration processes and procedures
Cloud technology
Monitoring, provisioning, and migrating – what does the cloud mean for you?
People and process are arguably the most important cogs in the cloud success is understanding what must be monitored, how it will be monitored,
machine, but technology – the tools used to provision, monitor, and migrate and the steps that must be taken once an alert/alarm is received.
to and from cloud solutions – cannot be overlooked. While tech alone can’t
Provisioning
solve all your problems, leveraging the right technology at the right time in
the right way can be the difference between a successful, value-driving cloud With the cloud comes speed, agility, and automation – provided you take
deployment and an abject, miserable, no-good zombie project that eats up advantage, of course! Understanding how resources are provisioned, who is
resources without anything to show for it. responsible for provisioning, what the pipeline looks like – which automation
tools are used, for example – and how these processes differ based on the
How should technology figure into your cloud strategy?
service model in question.
Cloud technology encompasses significant breadth such that it is unrealistic
Migration
to include every possible permutation here, especially when considering the
multiplicity of service/delivery models available for purchase/consumption. The act of migrating to the cloud may also be a component of the broader
That said, there are several technology components that all cloud customers cloud strategy. Based on requirements and technical capabilities, migration
are going to encounter in one form or another: paths will vary and should be systematized (rehost, replatform, refactor, etc.).
Monitoring
Monitoring in the cloud can be conducted using either the native solutions
offered by providers or a third-party toolset like SolarWinds. Critical to

Review: monitoring
One of the key risks identified by current and potential cloud customers is monitoring. Migrating to a public cloud and embarking on the
journey of shared responsibility can be daunting. Figuring out how you’re going to monitor systems in the cloud – and accept those which
you cannot monitor – is going to be critical to the success of your cloud initiative. Keep in mind that the cloud is not a monolith and what
you monitor (and with what tools) will depend a great deal on the cloud service/delivery models you choose to procure and deploy. SaaS
providers are going to be less likely to expose necessary APIs or make in-depth monitoring solutions available, while entire suites of
monitoring and management solutions are available to IaaS customers. Keep the following in mind as you develop your cloud monitoring
strategy:
• Understand your requirements. What are you looking to accomplish via monitoring? You may need to monitor performance, uptime, security incidents –
ensure that you understand exactly what’s on the table and what your specific requirements are.
• You may already have a monitoring solution in mind or rolled out. It may be valuable to ensure that any cloud applications you’ve selected for deployment
are compatible with your preferred monitoring solution. This is relatively easy to implement and shouldn’t winnow down your shortlist of candidates too
much.
• Work with stakeholders to manage expectations. Going to the cloud involves trade-offs. Ensure that your stakeholders understand that, while you may not
be able to track all the details they would like, what you’re getting in return (shared responsibility with a provider for updates, security, provisioning, etc.)
means that theInsight
Info-Tech good outweighs the bad. If the good does not outweigh the bad in the case of a particular workload, reconsider deploying that workload to
the cloud.
Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. It’s fine to monitor solutions to ensure compliance with SLAs. It’s also fine to keep tabs
on application performance so you can anticipate a deluge of customer complaints. It’s not fine to spend a ton of money collecting information you
have no intention of doing anything with. When designing your monitoring program, think about how you will use the information. If you don’t
have an obvious or compelling answer, reconsider your plans.
Discuss: monitoring
• Infrastructure management • What workloads require monitoring? Are there hard and fast rules about monitoring
• Infrastructure team/system administrators and specific requirements?
• Application owners • What must be monitored? Performance? Uptime? Cost? Security? All of the above?
Something else? Ensure that you understand your monitoring requirements as part of
• Enterprise architecture
the strategy.
• Who will elicit requirements for monitoring? Who will they gather them from?
• What technology will administrators use to monitor cloud workloads? Will they use
Key decisions solution-native solutions like Azure Monitor, or third-party solutions like Datadog,
Splunk, or Dynatrace?
• Solutions that must be monitored
• Who is responsible for receiving alerts? What do they do when they receive the
• Technical solutions for monitoring
alerts? Is there a current process that can be built upon?
• Plan for actioning alerts/alarms

Input Output
4.1 Define cloud monitoring • List of cloud solutions • Defined monitoring
strategy • Cloud vision output

approach
1-3 hours
a) What is the goal of the monitoring program?
b) What services need to be monitored?
c) What solutions for this monitoring exist/need to be procured?
d) What are the gaps that still need to be addressed in providing the solution?
2. Record the results of the conversations – and the answers to these questions – in Materials Participants
the Cloud Strategy Document template.
• Cloud Strategy Document • Infrastructure management

template
• Infrastructure team/system
administrators
• Application owners

Review: provisioning
One of the key characteristics that differentiates cloud services from traditional premises-based or hosted solutions is provisioning, the
allocation of provider resources. The legacy provisioning model – negotiate a fixed price for a fixed solution – is outmoded in the cloud
era. Instead, the cloud is characterized by modern approaches to provisioning: dynamic and self-service provisioning. Your cloud
strategy should provide direction on provisioning, including preferred methods and governance around the process.
• Self-service: Cloud customers have the option to provision resources (compute, storage, etc.) at will. They can resize instances, add more resources,
and pay only for the resources that they use. This can be especially useful when the cloud transition is predicated on agility and speed. Looking to
embrace DevOps principles? Consider exploring best practices (Red Hat provides some good examples of these practices), including approved
templates, cloud-native IDEs, and cloud APIs.
• Dynamic: like self-service provisioning, dynamic provisioning provides price flexibility via a pay-as-you-go model, but it is generally automated
insofar as the customer specifies requirements and the provider provisions resources as-needed to meet those requirements. Oracle offers a good primer
on dynamic provisioning in their environment, highlighting how this model can introduce automation and reduce overhead for IT administrators,
allowing them to focus on more valuable work or manage more complicated infrastructure environments.
Info-Tech Insight
It might be tempting to implement governance restrictions like those you use on premises, but you should think twice before doing this. One of the
key drivers most organizations cite when moving to the cloud is the opportunity for dynamism and agility. Don’t let fear of change lock you into
the past.

Discuss: provisioning
• Infrastructure management • Who is responsible for provisioning cloud workloads?
• Cloud users (developers) • Are SaaS licenses managed centrally or on an application-by-application basis?
• IT management/finance • What are the architectural principles that will define the templates built into cloud
services (like Azure Resource Manager or CloudFormation on AWS)?
• Will you be using third-party cloud management platforms for infrastructure
automation like Morpheus Data, CloudBolt, or Snow Commander?
• What does governance look like in these environments? Who is ultimately
Key decisions responsible for ensuring that anyone who needs to spin up resources can do so within
• Responsibility for provisioning the guardrails defined by the platform owner?
• Tools used to provision resources in the cloud • How will provisioning differ in Dev/Test compared to production?
• Principles and best practices that must be • How will metadata tagging figure into the provisioning conversation?
applied in governing the provisioning of cloud • Who will be responsible for gathering requirements from cloud customers regarding
resources their provisioning needs?

Input Output
4.2 Define cloud provisioning • Cloud decision framework • Cloud provisioning strategy
strategy • Define Your Cloud Vision

output
1-3 hours
Specifically, the goal is to understand how the cloud changes provisioning, if at all,
and what the future state looks like.
a) Review existing solutions
b) Discuss roles and responsibilities in the cloud

• Cloud Strategy Document • Infrastructure management

template
• Cloud users (developers)
• IT management/finance

Review: migration
In a 2016 blog post, Amazon introduced a framework for understanding cloud Migration paths
migration strategies. The framework presented here is slightly modified – including a Retain (Revisit)
“relocate” component rather than a “retire” component – but otherwise hews close to • Keep the application in its current form, at least for now.
the standard. This doesn’t preclude revisiting it in the future .
These migration paths reflect organizational capabilities and desired outcomes in Relocate
terms of service models – cloud or otherwise. Retention means keeping the workload • Move the workload between datacenters or to a hosted
where it is, in a datacenter or a colocation service, or relocating to a colocation or software/colocation provider.
hosted software environment. These represent the “non-cloud” migration paths. Rehost
In the graphic on the right, the paths within the red box lead to the cloud. Rehosting • Move the application to the cloud (IaaS) and continue to run
it in more or less the same form as it currently runs.
means lifting and shifting to an infrastructure environment. Migrating a virtual
machine from your VMware environment on premises to Azure Virtual machines is a Replatform
quick way to realize some benefits from the cloud. Migrating from SQL Server on • Move the application to the cloud and perform a few changes
premises to a cloud-based SQL solution looks a bit more like changing platforms for cloud optimizations.
(replatforming). It involves basic infrastructure modification without a substantial
Refactor
architectural component. • Rewrite the application, taking advantage of cloud-native
Refactoring is the most expensive of the options and involves engaging the software architectures.
development lifecycle to build a custom solution, fundamentally rewriting the
Repurchase
solution to be cloud native and take advantage of cloud-native architectures. This can
• Replace with an alternative, cloud-native application and
result in a PaaS or an IaaS solution.
migrate the data.
Finally, repurchasing means simply going to market and procuring a new solution. Info-Tech Research Group | 82
This may involve migrating data, but it does not require the migration of
Discuss: migration
• IT management • Which of the four cloud-focused Rs (rehost, replatform, repurchase, and refactor) are
• Infrastructure leadership relevant for your cloud migration?
• System administrators • How will you decide what workloads fall into which category? Who ultimately makes
the decision?
• Are the skills/resources available to ensure that the preferred migration path can
proceed successfully? Do you have the engineering talent in house required for a
successful refactor, for example?
• Are any destinations temporary? If, for example, the goal is to rehost in the short term
Key decisions
and refactor in the long term, this should be captured in the strategy.
• Acceptable migration paths
• Is there an appetite for using third-party resources like contractors or vendors with
• Responsibility for the cloud migration
specific knowledge of cloud migration techniques?
• Involvement of third parties in the migration
process

Input Output
4.3 Define cloud migration • Defined cloud vision • Cloud migration strategy
strategy • Group discussion

• “6Rs” framework
1-3 hours
2. Use the 6Rs framework and align workloads and workload categories with
different migration paths (e.g. “communications and collaboration software
services belong in SaaS”).
3. Create a table with each acceptable migration path, include a description of when
you will take advantage of it, along with examples of when you will use each
service.

template
• Infrastructure leadership
• System administrators
Download the Cloud Strategy Document template • Enterprise architecture

Summary of If you would like additional
Accomplishment support, have our analysts
guide you through other
Problem Solved phases as part of an Info-
Tech workshop.
Knowledge Gained
• Info-Tech’s approach to cloud strategy
• The components of a complete cloud strategy Contact your account representative for
more information.
• Tools for clarifying/justifying cloud spend
workshops@infotech.com
Process Optimized Deliverables Completed 1-888-670-8889
• Cloud workload selection • Cloud Strategy Document
• Cloud migration
• Cloud provisioning
• Skill/role definition in the cloud

Additional Support Contact your account representative for more information.
workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889
If you would like additional support, have our
analysts guide you through other phases as
part of an Info-Tech workshop.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech

analysts with your team:
To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech

workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or
welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate
in an innovative onsite workshop.
Skills/roles discussion Architecture discussion
Work with Info-Tech analysts to define Define key architectural principles
roles and responsibilities that will that will be used to govern your cloud
inevitably become critical to the success environment, ensuring consistency,
of your cloud migration initiative. quality, and portability.

Related Define Your Cloud Vision
Info-Tech
Define your goals, drivers, cloud mission, and desired future state before jumping
headlong into a strategy conversation you’re not ready to have. Analyze some
workloads for their cloud suitability, while you’re at it.
Research
Manage Cloud Costs: Tips and Tricks
The cloud can be a wonderfully valuable tool in your toolkit, but you may want to
explore some of the implications of the transition from an overall cost perspective, a
cost variability perspective, and a cost complexity perspective. This set will help you do
that.
Take Control of Cloud Costs on

Microsoft Azure
If you’ve decided to move to the cloud – Microsoft Azure, specifically – you may want
to review some of the specific steps, including tagging, monitoring, alerting, and right-
sizing.

Bibliography
Apple, Pete. “Microsoft Uses a Scream Test to Silence its Unused Servers.” Microsoft “Enterprise Manager Cloud Administration Guide.” Oracle. Accessed. Jan. 2022.
Inside Track, October 20, 2021. Accessed Jan. 2022.
Flexera. “State of the Cloud Report.” Flexera. 2021. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“AWS CloudFormation.” Amazon Web Services. Accessed Jan. 2022.
Hauser, John and Gerald Katz, “Metrics: You Are What You Measure!” European
“AWS Lambda Pricing.” Amazon Web Services. Accessed Jan. 2022. Management Journal, 16 no. 5 (1998): 517-528.
“Azure Monitor.” Microsoft. Accessed Jan. 2022. Henderson, Chloe. “4 Types of System Integration – Pros vs. Cons of Each Method.”
AnyConnector. 24 July 2020. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Azure Resource Manager.” Microsoft, 4 Feb. 2022. Accessed Feb. 2022.
“List of All Premium Tier Connectors.” Microsoft. 3 Feb. 2022. Accessed Feb. 2022.
“Azure SQL Database Pricing.” Microsoft. Accessed Jan. 2022.
Mell, Peter, and Timothy Grance. “The NIST Definition of Cloud Computing.” National
Buchanan, Ian. “Infrastructure as Code: How Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Manages Institute of Standards and Technology. Sept. 2011. Web.
Complex Infrastructures.” Atlassian. Accessed Jan. 2022.
Montgomery, James. “Cloud Provisioning.” TechTarget. Accessed Jan. 2022.
Churchville, Fred. “What Is iPaaS? Guide to Integration Platform as a Service.”
TechTarget. June 2021. Accessed Jan. 2022. “Morpheus Data.” Morpheus Data. N.d. Web. Jan. 2022.
“CloudHub.” Mulesoft. Accessed Jan. 2022. Orban, Stephen. “6 Strategies for Migrating Applications to the Cloud.” Amazon Web
Services. 2016. Web.
“Datadog.” Datadog. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Peter Drucker,” Wikiquote. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Dynatrace.” Dynatrace. Accessed Jan. 2022.

Bibliography
“Power Platform.” Microsoft. Accessed Jan. 2022. Swanepol, John et al. “Cloud Architecture: 4 Steps to Design Self-Service Access to Shared
Resources.” Red Hat. 29 Apr. 2021. Accessed Jan. 2022.
Rajabi, Mariam. “How to Avoid Coupling in Microservices Design.” Capital One. 2 Dec.
2020. Accessed Jan. 2022. “The Power of CloudBolt Explained.” CloudBolt Software. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Shared Responsibility in the Cloud.” Microsoft. 2 Jan. 2022. Accessed Jan. 2022. “Types of Databases on Azure.” Microsoft. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Shared Responsibility Model.” Amazon Web Services. Accessed Jan. 2022. Watkins, Michael D. “Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why.” Harvard
Business Review, 10 Sept. 2007. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Snow Commander.” Snow. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“What is Cost Management + Billing?” Microsoft, 13 Feb. 2022. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“Splunk.” Splunk. Accessed Jan. 2022.
“What is Self-Service Provisioning in Cloud Computing?” CloudBolt. Accessed Jan. 2022.

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Document Your Cloud

Info-Tech Research Group Inc. is a global leader in providing IT research and

Info-Tech Research Group | 2

Info-Tech Research Group | 3

Definition: Cloud strategy

Info-Tech Research Group | 4

• The cloud means different things to different people,

Info-Tech Research Group | 5

• Skills and roles

People Info-Tech Research Group | 6

Review Discuss Go forward

1. Record your cloud mission and 1. Architecture

Info-Tech Research Group | 8

Your cloud strategy Governing your Technology won’t solve

Info-Tech Research Group | 9

IT benefits Business benefits

• A consistent, well-defined approach to the cloud • Predictable access to cloud services

Info-Tech Research Group | 11

Info-Tech Research Group | 12

Study Pharmaceuticals Info-Tech workshop

Info-Tech Research Group | 14

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

3.1 Discuss cloud operations

Position statements on cloud

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Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

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cloud future state for all stakeholders.

Info-Tech Research Group | 20

Info-Tech Research Group | 21

Support models by IT services, including cloud services, can be delivered and

Info-Tech Research Group | 22

Info-Tech Research Group | 23

1.1 Document your mission • Cloud decision framework • Documented consensus

and vision • Define Your Cloud Vision

3. Assign a scribe to capture the salient points of the discussion.

4. Record a summary of your cloud mission/vision in the Cloud Strategy Document

Info-Tech Research Group | 24

Info-Tech Research Group | 25

Info-Tech Research Group | 26

1.2 Document alignment to • Existing strategic plans • Documented alignment with

other strategic plans • Group discussion

Download the Cloud Strategy Document template

Info-Tech Research Group | 27

Info-Tech Research Group | 28

Info-Tech Research Group | 29

1.3 Document guiding • Existing strategy • Guiding principles for cloud

4. Record the results in the Cloud Strategy Document template.

Download the Cloud Strategy Document template

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Info-Tech Research Group | 31

Info-Tech Research Group | 32

Download the Cloud Strategy Document template

Info-Tech Research Group | 33

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

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• Infrastructure • Are there any obvious gaps in available skills?

Info-Tech Research Group | 38

2.1 Define approach to skills • HR strategy • Documented consensus

and roles • Stakeholder perspectives

Download the Cloud Strategy Document template • Human resources (optional)

Info-Tech Research Group | 39