Adopting cloud with conviction

How will you handle two IT organizations?

To drive innovation and profitable growth, more and more companies are embracing a cloud strategy—private cloud, public cloud or hybrid. When they do, they need to make a clear-eyed assessment about how to position the cloud organization in the larger enterprise. Here are some questions you’ll want to ask:

• What’s the best way to integrate legacy IT resources with cloud resources and systems?
• Do synergies exist between the legacy operation and the new business?
• If the cloud organization is a new, standalone business unit, what’s the best way to provide core functions?

The importance of integration

Integration of your new, cloud-based capabilities is important. Otherwise, your digital platform is in danger of becoming just another box on the org chart. Instead, it needs to be a transformational engine that powers your company to digital parity with your competitors.

In part, this is an operational challenge. Companies need to reconcile their legacy, standard operating procedures with the cloud organization’s organic agility. Because cloud-based innovation projects often shift the direction of the company, leaders need effective ways to quickly gauge progress and mitigate issues as they occur.