Also, cyber-security and data protection need to be designed into the program from the inception, as well as leverage all available automation in these key areas to provide scalability to the solution.

In addition to key stakeholder and technology alignment across domains, a successful cloud program requires a nimble, responsive operating model. In many cases, co-location of critical resources can enable the necessary collaboration among key experts both during the migration phases and for normal operations. In fact, one of the best practices used by my organization is the notion of “cloud parties” for driving large-scale wave migrations; this model involves all critical resources from the cloud DevSecOps team and the migrating application teams sitting in the same room to enable latency-free, synchronous communication and face-to-face troubleshooting during critical events. As part of ongoing lifecycle management of the cloud environment, these teams benefit from an active engagement of the architecture, security, development, and operations resources dedicated to the cloud programs.

For the last five years, my current organization has been rehosting applications to the public cloud for IaaS workloads. We prioritize SaaS solutions for undifferentiated needs in the business and develop organic applications hosted on IaaS platforms where we can add differentiated value. Our primary priority has been a relentless pursuit of operational excellence in our IaaS structures. After optimizing the environments as far as we could for cost and performance, we chose to adopt a completely new architecture that would add enhanced business agility to support rapid growth, in addition to the aforementioned benefits. We have a multi-cloud strategy that includes rapid account provisioning, native in-cloud routing, security automation, and a developer-centric focus. In fact, many of the technology and services decisions that are enabled in our cloud environment are directly approved by a committee of key software development leaders, instead of having the infrastructure and security teams make the decisions independently. The collaborative, community approach encourages infrastructure, security, and application teams to work toward a common goal as one team.

Regardless of where your organization currently stands on its journey to—or evolution in—the cloud, some of the foundational elements of success remain unchanged. The primary contributors to releasing the business value of cloud adoption are durable and consistent across industries: designing your cloud program to best support your business strategy, identifying the right cloud operating model, and establishing a developer-centric governance model. Although emerging technologies can provide specific opportunities to enhance gross margins, accelerate innovation cycles, or improve speed to value, a successful cloud program that meets the needs of a dynamic business context is underpinned by a set of well-designed processes and structures that can absorb and respond to a rapidly evolving technology landscape. Whether your team is focused on containers, rapid data ingestion, IoT applications, or other exciting capabilities, your chances for success in the cloud increase immeasurably if you start with the right organizational foundation and promote the right collaborative, results-oriented culture at all levels of the corporate structure.

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