How to Build a Cloud Enablement Strategy (And Why You Need One)

Moving to the cloud: It’s a topic you’ve surely heard about plenty over the past several years as it’s grown in popularity. However, the reason organizations migrate has changed over the years as the cloud’s role has evolved.

Tactical ➡️ Strategic

Five-some years ago, we saw many organizations choosing to move to the cloud to achieve specific business outcomes. For example, if an organization was concerned about its documents’ security in the face of a disaster, it might have migrated primarily to achieve better disaster recovery.

But with time, it’s become clear that with the right approach, the cloud has the potential to impact far more than a single business goal.

Flash forward to today, the cloud has taken on a more all-encompassing strategic role. It’s not all about tactics anymore. Instead, it’s a strategic process that organizations design with their entire organization’s benefit in mind.

So naturally, this massive perspective shift has called for a more strategic approach. The name of the game: adding cloud enablement to your cloud strategy.

What is Cloud Enablement?

Cloud enablement refers to the process of:

• Evaluating your organization’s existing on-premises IT infrastructure, applications, and data to identify what elements can and should be migrated to the cloud. (Emphasis on should because the cloud isn’t the answer in every scenario, as much as we love it. For more on this, see our blog on adopting a cloud-first approach to the cloud.)
• Outlining the cultural shifts necessary to achieve high adoption rates and a smooth transition from on-premises to cloud.
• Architecting and deploying an effective cloud environment where organizations to deploy IT resources.
• Implementing a governance model to manage the cloud environment efficiently.

By covering all this ground in the planning phase, you’ll pave the way for a successful cloud adoption journey that will have an impact across your organization – not just in select areas.

Why You Need a Cloud Enablement Strategy

As we’ve already explored, having a cloud enablement strategy lets you achieve broad-reaching success with your cloud migration, giving you benefits you’ll enjoy during and after your migration:

During Implementation:

• Identify and tackle challenges proactively instead of letting them sneak up on you later in the migration process.
• Enjoy a smoother implementation thanks to your extensive planning (it truly pays off!)

Post Implementation:

• Create a better experience for customers and employees.
• Save money by optimizing resource utilization and saying goodbye to pricey on-premises infrastructure.
• Enhance innovation since the cloud is a platform that enables organizations to easily experiment with new technologies and business models that can drive growth and scalability.
• Improve business agility, given the cloud’s ability to let organizations adapt quickly to market demands and customer needs.
• Enjoy stronger security than you had on-premises.
• Unlock better operational efficiency, as cloud services streamlines operations, automates tasks, and boosts collaboration so you can get more done faster.

Cloud Enablement: Your Checklist to Get Started

As you start building your cloud enablement strategy, here are some key considerations you’ll want to explore to ensure you’re covering all your bases:

☑️ Investigate your organization’s goals. To ensure that your cloud implementation is strategic (and not just tactical,) you’ll need to ensure that your cloud enablement strategy aligns with your business’s overarching goals.

☑️ Assess your IT infrastructure’s current state, including both customer and employee-facing platforms, hardware, and software. It’s also important to determine how all your legacy systems will be affected by your migration and plan how you will manage any resulting modernization projects.

☑️ Find the right cloud-based solution for you. It’ll involve reviewing various platform and application options. At this time, you’ll want to determine how they’ll integrate with each other and your current setup.

☑️ Establish what your security and compliance requirements are. The details surrounding these needs will vary from one industry to the next, and as a result, some cloud providers will be a better fit for some over others based on their experience and expertise. Your answer will also be helpful in determining whether you’re best fit for a public, private, or hybrid cloud environment.

☑️ Find the right cloud partner for you. A cloud services provider is a third-party company that provides cloud services for organizations. Their experience and expertise help make cloud migration far more manageable and successful for organizations. The right choice will vary based on your unique goals, needs, and company size, so take your time researching your options.

☑️ Determine your projected ROI. These numbers will be easier to come up with after you’ve checked the boxes above, and it’ll be critical in the next step. Here, you’ll also want to consider the impact the cloud will have on your budget. It’ll no doubt change your capital expenditures into routine operational expenses, which will require some planning.

☑️ Get your leaders on board. Your cloud partner will be able to help you get actionable data and other helpful information that’ll counter your executives’ objectives and answer their questions.

Broaden Your Efforts’ Impact

A cloud enablement strategy is more than just a technical roadmap. It’s a comprehensive approach that considers every facet of your organization to broaden your efforts’ impact. And from a high level, it’s about making a strategic investment in the future, one that will empower your business to navigate the complexities of digital transformation with confidence.

Want guidance on your journey or have a burning question? Drop a question or comment in the chat below. We’d love to hear from you.

Want More Content Like This? 

Subscribe to the Naviant Blog. Each Thursday, we’ll send you a recap of our latest info-packed blog so you can be among the first to access the latest trends and expert tips on workflow, intelligent automation, the cloud, and more.