One of the most common is technical debt, he says. “Legacy systems are often a major factor, distracting from that cloud migration vision.” If workloads or the workload landscape has been neglected, components haven’t been maintained or support agreements not renewed, this can make it very difficult to migrate without a significant prior investment. Finance can then become a consideration too, as questions arise as to total cost of ownership in running systems in the cloud compared to doing so on-premises. The figures are skewed, however, says Olivier, as the on-premises scenario entails ‘babysitting’ legacy infrastructure that has not been maintained – such as old licences and outdated versions of systems.
A second barrier again involves finances, but at an organisational level. Olivier says he sees a recurring theme of hesitation to migrate due to the initial capital outlay, compounded by the consideration of the resources and staffing that will be taken away from their core responsibilities in order to execute the migration.
The third reason for hesitation also revolves around staffing – specifically the issue of a skills gap. There may be a feeling that the decision-makers know about the cloud, but don’t feel well enough informed to migrate or build out the vision and then manage it once the migration is complete.
Stakeholders
Who are the decision-makers that need to be convinced of the value of cloud migration? “Everybody,” is Olivier’s halfjoking response, but he actually means it. It’s not merely C suite buy-in that is needed, he notes. “Cloud value can be summarised in five points – security improvement, flexibility, elasticity, cost and agility,” he says. “So you can use the cloud value proposition as a stakeholder treasure map.” With this in mind, security is synonymous with chief security officers and chief information security officers. When compliance is also a consideration, particularly in the public sector, then the IT security adviser (ITSA) will also be involved.
When it comes to flexibility and elasticity, gaining trust from IT operations managers and support managers is important. And that’s not all…
“A common overlooked stakeholder category is actually the engineering and operations teams,” says Olivier, adding that many organisations will migrate to the cloud and then begin hiring new skills, when engaging the existing teams and aiding them to upskill before looking elsewhere for talent has long-term benefits and helps to maintain the critical internal operating knowledge.
The cloud’s agility and the ability it gives organisations to experiment and move quickly means that chief technology officers, enterprise architects and IT directors should also be part of the process, in order to address any concerns around the governance of the new ecosystem.
The financial side of the proposition must also be navigated, so chief financial officers and financial directors are additional stakeholders. Migration will change how budgets are allocated and require rethinking regarding CapEx and OpEx models.
The final and most important stakeholder is the CEO or managing director. “Not having the top down approval and support can be the reason for the failure of migration projects,” says Olivier.
Beneficial selling points
Once all the stakeholders are identified, it’s possible to reveal the positive impacts cloud migration will have on their operations. A key measurable factor is that the total cost of ownership will be OpEx, but studies show that this is only eight percent of the total business value gained by cloud migration. The other 92 percent can be attributed to three main selling points:
- Staff productivity – without having to wait for servers or systems to be allocated, staff can get on with doing their jobs, while also being able to get a faster start on experimental projects.
- Operational resilience – moving to the cloud provides high availability and a reduction in costs due to decreased downtime or system outages
- Business agility – with many cloud services commoditised, businesses can operate more efficiently and with greater speed, so that rather than having to worry about maintaining or building out their platforms, they can concentrate on their differentiation in the market.
Aid to resilience
While many organisations have toyed with cloud migration or begun the process, the events of the last 18 months have seen a significant spike in migration of their core services, especially contact centres and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, making them easier to manage by staff who are working remotely.
Then there is the human resources element. “An often missed and undocumented factor for organisations that still operate exclusively on-premises is that it’s becoming harder to find talent that can build and operate these environments,” says Olivier.
Related to this, staff and potential employees are increasingly seeking employers who have already migrated. They’re looking for cloud opportunities as they know this will enhance their employability in the short and medium term.
Competitiveness doesn’t solely relate to staffing issues, particularly for organisations delivering new customer facing products or developing deep data insights. “With cost-effective data storage, processing technologies and commodity type services in public cloud providers, you are able to deliver more, quicker and more efficiently, which drives the edge between you and your competition,” explains Olivier.
From aversion to evangelism?
To facilitate an organisation’s move from reluctance or uncertainty to becoming an enthusiastic cloud migrant, focus on the platform’s value proposition, rather than the migration per se. The focus should always be on the organisation, what it wants to achieve and the factors that are holding it back. Is it cost? Legacy systems? Lack of the necessary skillsets?
Cloud migration is simply the vehicle that will assist in getting the organisation to where it wants to be. Once the stakeholders understand this, it’s possible to construct a cloud strategy and define a workable business case.
A migration assessment will also aid in comprehending the strengths and weaknesses of the current environment and form the basis of a playbook for what success in the public cloud will look like.
Staying the course
With a cloud strategy, business case and migration assessment all completed and the migration achieved, it’s important to remember this is not a ‘set and forget’ procedure. But the way to ensure continued success in the arena can be summed up in five words, says Oliver. “Stay current and maintain course.”
It may not always be that simple, as some operating models don’t always fit with public cloud ecosystems, especially if there are centralised project teams producing software and day-to-day management thereof is performed by isolated operations teams. The project team may deliver a project, hand it over to the operations team and not see it again for years. But a rethink of the operating model in terms of how teams are structured within an organisation will address this issue. Decentralised teams owning one or two workloads (the applications) from end to end – building them, maintaining them and staying current with them – is key.