Overview
“the proof is in the pudding”
(Large scale) cloud migrations are not a walk in the park. They require preparation in terms of developing a cloud strategy that provides a comprehensive overview of the application landscape, including clarity on the optimal cloud landing zone for each workload, when and how to migrate to that landing zone, taking into account the strategic impact and estimated migration effort.
Value tracking during cloud strategy execution is needed to prevent (major) deviations from strategic objectives, business drivers and migration goals. Each cloud migration serves a certain purpose and contributes to transforming into a Digital Enterprise.
When creating a cloud strategy, initial assumptions are made regarding the expected added value and feasibility of each migration. These assumptions must be tracked and validated during cloud strategy execution. If a cloud migration does not deliver the expected results, one or both of the following might be at hand: expectations were too high, or turned out to be unfeasible, or the team responsible for the migration lost control or made choices that (severely) deviated from the initial migration strategy and plan. Therefore, insight and overview is needed of the actual contribution of migrations to the overall cloud strategy objectives, and the challenges that arise so that adjustments can be made if desired and necessary.
To perform value tracking, a set of KPIs and/or CSFs is specified. Think of the number of commodity solutions that are sourced as ‘SaaS’ or a KPI tracking business case realisation. Guarding migration progress and value this way, as a C-level responsibility (usually the CIO and CFO).
With strategic value tracking, the Cloud Leadership Team, transition managers and similar stakeholders have a (near) real-time control mechanism consisting of dashboards and reports on a set of KPIs to safeguard cloud strategy value realisation.
Activities checklist
Initial:
- Evaluating, revisiting and if needed, updating cloud strategy
- Determining a set of KPIs for tracking migrations (e.g. targets per landing zone)
- Determining a set of KPIs for tracking financial and business value (e.g. business case or benefits realisation)
- Establishing and formulating (generic) cloud exit strategy
- Creating a strategic agenda for cloud together with the stakeholders
- Establishing dashboards and reporting to pro-actively track the KPIs and CSFs
Recurring:
- Informing the teams, partners and other stakeholders involved about the expected outcomes of the (planned) cloud migration
- Interpreting dashboards and reports and discuss progress and deviations with the Cloud Leadership Team
- Keeping a record of important decisions and deviations regarding the initial cloud strategy
RASCI
| cloud consultant | supporting | transformation consultant | supporting |
| cloud architect | cloud partners | ||
| cloud security specialist | DevOps team | ||
| cloud developer | business stakeholder | informed | |
| cloud engineer | architecture | ||
| cloud analyst | supporting | security | |
| product owner CCoE | responsible | finance | consulting |
| management | accountable | procurement |