A CIO's challenge: Creating a future proof cloud strategy

Question 1: What are the typical "integration issues" when I choose a mix of "clouds"?

If you have to manage different suppliers because you have outsourced all sorts of lots in IaaS, PaaS or SaaS, you first have to make sure that everything works together and that the business gets an integrated service with the right service levels.

Today, different technologies and solutions exist to help smoothen the ride to hybrid or multi-cloud and manage orchestration better than before.

If a certain process in the business application does not run smoothly, does this relate to the financial package A or to the logistics package B? Someone must be responsible for giving an answer and directing the solution.

You can place this responsibility with your own IT department that carries out the integration and manages the various suppliers. Practice tells   us that the large majority of organizations prefer to do this themselves because they have more control and grip, but this of course also has an influence on the IT department.   In   addition to   knowledge of the business processes, knowledge of service integration, management processes, compliance dependencies, etc. is also required for good cloud management.

Because of the specific skills that are needed, it may be interesting to bring this up to a third party, like Cegeka. One option is to retain the ownership of the architectural choices, but to outsource the operational service integration. Another option is to outsource the architectural process to an external provider like Cegeka as well, in close cooperation with the local IT department.

Question 2: What are the foundations for a "cloud architecture"?

Once you have developed a cloud strategy, the next step is the selection and implementation of cloud services and integration into the existing IT landscape. Cloud architecture helps to determine the necessary preconditions for success.

The foundations of a cloud architecture are the same as those of an enterprise architecture: it is about defining architectural principles that relate to the business (the supporting processes), the information (the information supply) and the technical architecture (the IT facilities).

In many cases, the existing cloud services do not differ fundamentally from existing on premises applications, as a result of which the information and technical architecture principles in particular are applicable when deciding whether or not to work via the cloud. However, end-to-end managing the multi-cloud application   landscape   might require new tooling for deploying, securing, running and monitoring (day 1 and day 2 operations). Choosing the right flexible cloud solutions will help diminish shadow IT and support agile application development in a DevOps framework.

You better not rush the creation of your cloud strategy. Central to a cloud sourcing business case is the question: why am I doing this, and what is the added value? And which cloud strategy now fits best?

Download our e-book "Creating a future-proof cloud strategy" if you want to learn more about advantages and challenges of creating a future proof cloud strategy and different types of cloud architectures and their benefits.