9 July 2016

Does Your IT Team Understand The Cloud?

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This Softchoice report's findings about cloud strategy and the ability of IT experts to develop a viable cloud strategy leaves me flabbergasted! How is it, that in 2016, over half of IT leaders are unable to build teams that can develop an "effective" cloud strategy for their business?

IMHO, this circumstance is not only a failure of the many professional development programs that are popular within the broader IT sphere, but also a sign of a lack of effective (and there's that word again!) leadership. After all, the parameters for any adoption of the cloud need to be bold and clear before an effective strategy can be designed, leave alone implemented.

Whether it be a public cloud, a private cloud or a hybrid, your organisation needs to have a sound and effective strategy to transition away from "legacy" platforms. As with any large or significant transformation project, the quality and skill of the people driving and executing the project determines the level of success the project is likely to enjoy.

Define Your Needs, Wants & Goals

CIO magazine recommends that IT leaders "start with a strategy." In our experience of working with large IT teams who are migrating mission-critical applications environments to the cloud or undertaking digital transformation projects, the first step is not a strategy, but a terms of reference. Set the long term needs, wants and business goals. Only then can a real and implementable cloud strategy be developed.

We created the Ultimate Guide to Test Automation for CXOs to help IT decision makers understand what is required to implement an effective software testing program. If your team is struggling with developing an effective cloud strategy, the first two sections of the Ultimate Guide will help you put in place an easy-to-understand framework to develop such a strategy. It could be the best piece of content you download this year!

While your team undertakes this process, it must be kept in mind that the customer / vendor / partner / employee experience must be better with a transition to the cloud. Without a better experience, your company's brand and the user's buy-in to the transition could be significantly diminished.

Invest in Automation

To achieve the highest levels of quality, cost-effectiveness and uptake, your cloud strategy must heavily incorporate automation. Call it what you want: RPA, automation, process automation, automated QA; the business case for any transition to the cloud is completely impotent without a healthy dose of automation.

This is especially true if you want to attract the best people to help your organisation take advantage of the latest models of delivering applications and IT services at speed such as, DevOps, continuous delivery, Extreme Programming, Agile and others. Many of the activities that required teams of people to accomplish in legacy environments can now be done with a click of a few buttons, or ideally as a part of a rules-based, automated pipeline.

However,be careful because automation can become a sinkhole for your IT budget. In our field of software quality alone, almost everyone software testing service provider claims to offer test automation services. Very few can actually deliver in a meaningful manner that adds real commercial value for their customers.

By recruiting and retaining the best talent your organisation should be able to separate myths from facts, and pretenders from the real deal. Before any of this happens, you must develop a coherent and practical approach that helps all stakeholders transition to the cloud. As they say, lay a strong foundation before you start building your castle.

If you need help in understanding how to leverage the cloud to ramp up your digital transformation project, speak to us understand what you need to do. Right now, we're offering a free strategy session, worth $1,200, to help set you on the right path to achieve your goals.
Or contact us on +61 8 8312 1287 or solutions[at]qsometech.com

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