Before you start migrating to the cloud, the first thing to do is to define clear business goals and what you want to achieve. Many organisations rush into cloud transformations without aligning on the "why". This lack of strategic clarity causes problems down the road.
Take time upfront to decide exactly why you want to migrate systems and workloads to the cloud. Challenge business and technology leaders to make you ask tough questions to discover why the move is occurring. Common goals of cloud migration services and solutions include reducing IT costs, gaining more flexibility to scale computing needs up or down, speeding product or service development, supporting overall business growth, improving system reliability and performance, and strengthening security.
But don't just identify vague aspirations. Drill down to define tangible, measurable targets that clearly mark migration success, such as:
These objectives create accountability. They guide tradeoff decisions through the migration process and implementation phases. Concrete goals also help secure buy-in and funding from executives and business leaders.
The exercise of aligning on "why cloud and why now" sets the stage for an outcome-focused migration. It brings clarity of vision and commitment across the organisation - two fundamental ingredients for any technology transformation to propel business growth.
