- What do you do on a rainy day?
- Learn how to create a cloud strategy to ensure the sun is always shining!
This post is not intended to be a complete cloud strategic reference. There are many things to think about, from leveraging cloud applications to modernize your business processes, to what you can lift and shift to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), what will be your best testing strategy. In addition to all of this, how do you staff these cloud projects amid an aging workforce.
Sometimes, the pressures of “the cloud” can feel elusive. There are so many things to think about and the pathway to figuring it all out can feel uncertain. The truth is, these projects are not easy. But creating and maintaining a cloud strategy - and sticking to it - can help the transition feel a little less daunting.
Before your cloud strategy discussions begin it’s important to document what you know about your current organization. You know your business, platforms, business priorities, capacity for change, business-critical processes… But does your organization have a “cloud first” strategy? How about a cloud strategy in general? If not, developing a comprehensive and cohesive cloud strategy that takes what you know about your business, your current enterprise applications and technologies, all those other requirements you know and desire into consideration while being as forward-looking as possible is a good place to start.
Developing a comprehensive cloud strategy is easier said than done, though. Where do you start?
First and foremost, it’s important to set your own strategy versus reacting to the industry and market pressures. We have seen too many organizations jump into cloud projects without a clear strategy.
Get ahead of that by establishing clear, realistic goals and objectives that support the larger strategic plan and projects of the overall enterprise. As you consider how to graft cloud applications and technologies into your organization’s operations, focus first on the benefits to be gained.
Those goals should, of course, be measurable. Here’s an example: Decrease Average Order Cycle Times by 25% by implementing Oracle Order Management Cloud throughout the organization. What other goals? (there are many) Perhaps from an infrastructure (IaaS) perspective: “eliminate X costs of a physical datacenter”.
Ultimately, the work of developing your organization’s cloud strategy will be unique to your organization. That said, here are some key points to consider:
- Is public or private cloud computing in your organization’s future? Your mix of on-premise private cloud and public cloud categorizes your organization as having a “hybrid cloud” environment. Organizations may have more than one cloud service, such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), or Database as a Service (DBaaS). The “hybrid cloud” may be the way of the future, or present, as some organizations just don’t want to go to public cloud service models for many reasons, such as data sensitivity, cloud application features, functionality or application/module availability. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that…just make sure you have a documented cloud strategy!
- Migrating from Oracle EBS to Cloud Applications is not an upgrade – regardless of what you’re hearing from forces inside and outside of Oracle. Nor is this an easy shift to make. Moving off EBS to Cloud Applications is a reimplementation.
- Beware of the temptation to “rip and replace” your current or legacy applications. Sometimes, that may be the right approach. However it will impact your business processes, perhaps more now than ever before. Your legacy applications are aging, but they may be the glue that is holding your organization’s enterprise applications together.
- Can your organization house production data in a cloud service? If so, does the region in which the data is hosted matter? Some industries, agencies and corporations have legal, regulatory or internal policies that require tight controls over where data is housed.
- What can your talent base of today and of the future support? As you evaluate the relative merits of various cloud strategies, remember your people. When you retool the organization remember to retool the people supporting the organizations applications and technology.
If there was one right answer, cloud implementations would be easy. But when is anything in technology an easy one-size-fits-all answer? Evaluating your organization’s applications and technology position and developing a forward-looking strategy isn’t as simple as what’s written in this post, but assessing your strengths and needs can be just as rewarding to all involved.
There’s no magic in implementing a cloud solution. But when that solution is borne out of a thoughtful, well considered, well developed overarching strategy, at least you know when you’ve reached the destination that’s right for your organization.
About the Author:
Bill Dunham is principal with OATC, Inc., is an OATUG Board Member who served as president of OATUG in 2021. An Oracle Ace, Bill is passionate about helping clients develop and implement transformative application and technology strategies. To find out more about cloud strategies or OATC please visit www.oatcinc.com.