Cape Town, 19 Feb 2018
When deciding if cloud is the right fit for your business, it comes down to value. Ask yourself, what value would a cloud migration bring to your organisation? This value can be tangible - accessing new technologies or reducing costs - or it can be intangible, like improving collaboration and communication.
Whenever you consider any large transformational change in your business, like migrating to the cloud, there are a number of issues to keep in mind. We've compiled a short list below.
#1 Understanding wants - As a starting point, take time to figure out what you need and what the cloud offers. But don't purchase anything yet. It's important to have a good grasp of your requirements before you approach a cloud vendor so that you avoid purchasing anything you don't really need.
#2 Exposure and loss of control - For many businesses, negating risks is the primary motivation for moving to cloud. Based on your requirements, ask yourself: Will cloud decrease your exposure? And will cloud increase your level of control?
#3 Solving the real problem - Are you solving a real business or technology problem by moving to cloud, or are you using cloud to negate organisational politics? Negating politics tends to cause white elephant technology problems, which burn the type of technology used to create the elephant in the first place. As a result, we tend to lose trust in that technology and limit any benefit we may have gained.
#4 Joint learning - Migrating to the cloud may involve significant change with iterative cycles of learning, which are usually aligned to applications or workloads. Each cycle teaches us more about how to move to cloud in the context of our own business. Use this opportunity to plug potential gaps of knowledge by launching and maintaining a cloud forum with representation across your business.
#5 Unique opportunities to learn - Moving to cloud often uncovers interesting information about your business that you may not have known before. This could include revealing useful technological or organisational data, which wasn't well documented or understood in the past. This data can be used to present clear value back to your business.
#6 Paint a clear picture - If everyone is kept in the loop, no one is caught off guard when changes are made. From aligning requirements to cloud capabilities to outlining perceived or calculated benefits, this must all be clearly aligned and presented from the get go.
#7 Here and now - Create a feedback mechanism that informs the business of the real value, or lack of value, gained by incrementally moving to cloud. This allows you to examine your reasons or perceived benefits of moving. Major technological transformations create their own kind of stress. Each win can be used to reinforce why you moved in the first place. Each loss allows you to learn and grow. This type of feedback should occur in as near real-time as possible in order to substantiate learnings and maintain momentum during your cloud journey.
So, what's in it for me? Well, when driving meaningful change or adopting something new, everyone needs to be convinced of the benefit. These benefits are far greater than being able to save documents in a new place or access larger mailboxes. Business leaders and IT teams must communicate the value of cloud to your work force. Without user buy-in, you may have a technological success, but, ultimately, you will fail in realising any real benefits.
Any major technological change will have a few hurdles. Requirements must be articulated and captured, politics negated, adoption driven. It is about so much more than just choosing to adopt a new technology. As a rule, don't make any organisation-wide changes because you've fallen in love with certain cloud features, before you've taken the time to truly realise the benefits these tools will bring.
If you need assistance on your cloud journey, we're the partner you need. Having helped countless international clients make their cloud move, we have the skills and experience to ensure your transition is smooth and hassle free. To find out more, get in touch via (021) 914 2348 or e-mail sales@nbconsult.co.za
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