To the CIO: 3 reasons why your cloud journey needs simplification

To the CIO: 3 reasons why your cloud journey needs simplification

AWS (Amazon Web Services) have rapidly changed the playing field for smaller companies, who are leveraging Public Cloud to become more nimble than their larger counterparts.

Of course Enterprises the last few years have sat up and noticed that Public Cloud isn’t just a game, it’s fast becoming the best strategy for being able to compete at global scale and on a local level. Now as it moves to maturity and out of the so called “Hype stage” it is important organisations take advantage of Public Cloud in an efficient manner, removing as many barriers as possible.

The biggest advantage you have at your disposal in AWS are speed of deployment, ability to scale and increased security.

Reason 1 — Agility (Speed and working efficiently)
The first reason you need to simplify your cloud journey is purely down to speed and cost. Several organisations have moved to the cloud for this very reason: to speed up IT services delivery and reduce cost.

Have you ever met an IT team or vendor involved in project delivery who had it easy when it came to requests from the business for improved IT services?

In my 15+ years of consulting I have only ever once worked on a project that required me to sit back and soak up my free time. The rest of the time we are pressured to deliver based on customer demand, internal pressures and regulatory changes. In addition to this how many projects have you been involved in where both time and cost were blown out of proportion?

If you are agile enough in your cloud journey a higher number of projects and run-rate will be able to be achieved. To get there faster you need to leverage cloud specific skills that understand the complexities of migrating to the cloud.

Reason 2 — Scalability (Ability to scale)
The second reason, is once you have removed any barriers to speed is that your business naturally needs to scale.

Your business website, CRM, ERP, databases whatever it may be will need to scale as your business grows. But not only that: If you are taking advantage of the cloud you need to have a process for scaling the portfolio of services you offer your business internally. For example, Day 1 you may only migrate your website to the cloud, but later some part of your business will also want to realize the benefits of reduced licensing, hardware, capital etc…

You will need to have a plan in place that is concise and makes it easy for internal business units to take advantage of the cloud without the complexity of a first time migration.

Reason 3 — Security
If you find the above 2 reasons far too complex then you will find security even harder.

Security can quickly become complex depending on the industry you’re in. For example if you’re a bank you need to ensure applications and infrastructure in the cloud is PCI compliant. If you’re a Health organisation you need to ensure HIPPA compliance and how Personal Health Information is handled and secured.

You will also have an internal “tug of war” with traditional security mindsets that view Public Cloud as less secure. To get around this you need some tools at your disposal that help combat ignorance such as publicly available white papers and AWS workshops. Clarify security concerns and how they are addressed in a simplified manner so stakeholders don’t get scared off by Public Cloud security fairytales.

The reason you need to simplify for security is that you need to provide consistency in how you deliver cloud services to your business.

Summary
To start operating at speed you need expertise that understands how to design, architect, automate and manage cloud environments. Automation is often the most complex ingredient as Dev Ops transformation projects typically take months to years to deliver.

The goal is to simplify that process so you can move faster and smarter in your Enterprise Cloud Journey.

We call it “Simplifying Cloud Automation”. The outcome: Increased Business Agility.

Ben Fellows is Head of Engineering @ Teem. He leads the development of solutions for cloud automation that reduce the time it takes to provision applications on cloud infrastructure and reduce complexity with cloud automation.