Maximize the value from your cloud strategy

When enterprises develop their cloud strategies, it’s essential to take into account five key actions. Enterprises that do so will be well placed to rise above the rest and capture cloud’s potential as the base platform for digital transformation.

1. • Zero in on business value

   Ensure there’s no misalignment between IT and business goals. Optimal cloud strategies are anchored to comprehensive economic business cases to identify revenue upside and cost-efficiency opportunities while aligning goals and putting leaders across the enterprise on the same page. Bottom line? A cloud migration strategy must not be developed in isolation. Cloud is critical to business success, not simply a technology upgrade and holistic approaches will always deliver the most value.

    

   • Focus on workforce and culture change management

   Cloud changes how people work and the work they do. That’s why it’s so important to implement talent readiness programs and new operating models that evolve culture at all levels of the business and implement new ways of working.

    

   Recognizing the significant skills gap for cloud-related capabilities and developing a cloud training program in line with their cloud strategy is also important for organizations.

    

   • Embed security at the heart of cloud

   In a heightened threat environment, securing all cloud workloads used to carry out work-related asks is more important than ever. Enterprises need to be ready to respond to any cyberattack, data breach, or privacy violation that may arise as a result of the move to cloud.

    

   Delivering security in the cloud is not a “lift and shift” exercise. It demands clear strategic intent, a nimble governance model, alignment across the IT organization and the rest of the business, and implementation in line with enterprise risk tolerance.

    

   • Leverage managed services

   Skills and experience of industry-leading partners can play a key role by augmenting organizations’ own capabilities. Cloud managed services will often be an option for companies seeking to tap into the right skills while maintaining cost efficiency.

    

   These services can help in standardizing the multiple processes and tools used in cloud management, especially for hybrid clouds. They can also overcome challenges like misalignment between IT and the business, lack of cloud skills, and security and risk.

    

   • Select cloud service providers committed to the region

   Enterprises in the KSA should seek out cloud providers that are investing in the region through partnerships. A cloud provider with data-centres in the Middle East can also enable low-latency cloud services, as well as helping to address challenges linked to regulatory compliance like data residency, especially for highly regulated industries like banking, healthcare, and insurance.