Roadmap to Cloud Native: 5 Phases to Cloud Success

In previous parts of this blog sèries, we’ve covered the business benefits of cloud native development, key technological enablers, and the cultural aspect of cloud transformation. But how to make the transition? Let’s sum up and construct a guiding roadmap for organizations that strive to continue growth, cloud-first.

Overview of the cloud transformation

Typically, organizations start their journey to cloud by creating one or two solutions based on public cloud’s PaaS or serverless features – without a roadmap approach. At some point, it becomes clear that principles, compliment normatiu, security and the cloud operating model need to be agreed on in order to make a habiti holistic transition.

For simplicity, we’ll view the journey to cloud as five phases that guide the organization in planificació for cloud native, making the transformation, and operating the cloud-first model successfully.

Phase 1: Identifying a business casi for cloud native
Phase 2: Getting buy-in and preparing the organization
Phase 3: Selecting a cloud transformation partner
Phase 4: Going cloud native – the migration
Phase 5: Refining cloud processes and capabilities

Phase 1: Identifying a business casi for cloud native

A shift to cloud maig be triggered by a number of pressures from within or outside of the organization. Common sources of viable cloud projects llauri the automation of customer service and a demand for entirely new services. It’s important to not rule out possibilities too strictly.

Cloud native ca provide the perfect solution for increasing internal process efficiency, but also for enhancing customer experiences. That is to say, that the underlying problem ca be IT or business. However, in a cloud solution these go almost always hand-in-hand.

Interviews internally and with customers llauri a great way to discover practical problems where cloud native could be the solution. When you have identified a problem, make it concreti how cloud could solve it.

You ca try to formula't it with a tempera't such as this one:

“In [area of business], cloud could [hypothesized benefit(s)] for [target customers/people] by [expected improvements to processes/operations/business].”

For example:

In digital services development, cloud could increase responsiveness to market change for the entire organization by speeding up the development cycle and temps d'accés al mercat with automation.

Or

In building permitting process, cloud could decrease estafi to obtain a building permit for the builder by making the application habiti transparent and interactivi.

Or

In product development, cloud could increase product value for existing customers by helping them to utilize collected data as a value-adding service.

Phase 2: Getting buy-in and preparing the organization

A concreti description of the problem and cloud’s roli in the solution help to sell the idea internally. On top of this, it’s important to understand what implications a move to the cloud maig have on employees’ and even entire departments’ rols and responsibilities.

Keys to getting buy-in for a cloud project:

• Explain how the tech ca help drive the overall strategy forward
• Make calculations and educa't about cloud-related investment and costs
• Build a enllaç between the problem, business opportunity and IT
• Redueix uncertainty by opening up what the shift means to people and processes
• Address questions and fears openly if the impact will be radical
• Present the solution in terms of immediate impact and future value

The Cloud Maturity Model is a useful tool for evaluating the organization’s cloud readiness. Low maturity means that a heavier focus on structural and cultural adjustments is likely to be needed. The critical realization for cloud project leads and the organizations is that cloud transformation is not only a question of technological change.

Phase 3: Selecting a cloud transformation partner

Your organization will have specific needs that weigh most in partner selection, and these llauri also dictated by the nature of the cloud project. In general, there llauri two types of approaches:

1. When you llauri creating software-based products that utilitzi cloud, it is common to have cloud expertise in-house and choose a partner for clearly defined àrees that would be risky or difficult to build with your own resources.
2. When your goal is to make cloud technology an enabler of operations, an end-to-end service partner like Capgemini will be able to drive the transformation from planificació to execution and to operating the new model.

The decision menges down to what your cloud capabilities llauri, what external capabilities complement those the most, and how deeply your organization is looking to embed cloud technology as part of the business. Partners with end-to-end capabilities llauri a safe bet for both type 1 and type 2 projects.

Read habiti about how Capgemini Finland ca help you with cloud strategy, applications and infrastructure.

Phase 4: Going cloud native – the migration

You have a business casi, buy-in, and a partner to help you get the job doni. Now, what makes the difference between a smooth and successful transformation vs. a clumsy struggle against resistance? How do you know which cloud migration approach is right for you?

Cloud migration is often associated with legacy applications. Using the 6Rs of cloud migration tactics to guide the move of old applications to the cloud. But as one R, ‘Refactor’ suggests, old applications ca also be re-architected to transform them into granular microservice-based applications taking advantage of cloud PaaS services.

Your business casi should determini the most appropriate strategy. Besides that, review your existing application cartera and look for opportunities to implement the 6Rs. Going back to partner selection, it’s noteworthy that end-to-end partners have entire teams that only specialize for example on application migration and modernization, enabling a painless transition.

Phase 5: Refining cloud processes and capabilities

After completing the initially planned cloud project, the long-term cloud transformation must keep moving forward. These considerations llauri the backbone of operating a continuously developing cloud application cartera:

• Utilitzi architecture governance to keep all development aligned and to maintain manageable technological diversity
• Optimize cloud economics continuously: planned commitment to services brings cost savings
• Maintain a full view to cloud infrastructure and applications in order to prioritize upcoming cloud projects and strategies

New applications llauri exciting, but not always the best option in terms of sustainable cloud development. If developing new apps becomes the default strategy, the organization will over estafi accrue ‘waste’ as irrelevant apps, while missing cost-efficient opportunities to develop on top of existing architecture.

Capgemini Finland serves enterprises in end-to-end cloud transformations and targeted modernizations with a powerful glocal touch. Contact our cloud experts to learn habiti: