Working together for smoother enterprise cloud transformation

Cloud transformation stands alongside AI in terms of dominating the discussion amongst organisations looking to achieve leaner, slicker operations. Demand for the cloud is driven by several factors, including the desire to be more agile, make faster decisions, and build supply chain resilience in the face of turbulence and geopolitical issues. Meanwhile as sustainability becomes a more significant focus with impending legal obligations such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the potential of a lower carbon footprint with the cloud is also evident. 

For most enterprises, it's less of a question of whether or not they shift from on-prem to cloud, but more a matter of how and when. Cloud-native businesses and applications have demonstrated how sleek modern software can be. But for enterprises with established systems of legacy, on-premise applications,migrating to the cloud is a more challenging road to tread. 

Modernising an organisation’s IT environment through cloud transformation is a complicated, high-risk, high-cost, and resource-intensive process - and typically, the bigger the enterprise, the higher the mountain to climb. It must be managed with the right methodology and tools to ensure speed, confidence, and minimal business disruption. 

Making the case for the cloud

For larger companies, cloud transformation is not just a matter of moving one single application to the cloud. Rather, it's about moving an entire business' capability, often comprised of multiple intertwined applications that logically belong together. 

This makes the process, by default, a lot more complex. It has to be fully scoped, with a business case fully identified. 

It's not enough, for example, to move to the cloud simply to get rid of a physical data centre. Replacing on-prem technology without changing business processes, which enables greater automation to enhance the performance, cost-efficiency, and reliability of cloud resources and services, will not deliver the value required for reduced costs or increased flexibility. But this means that cloud transformation cannot just be about the tech: business processes must also be updated, and teams must be equipped with the right skills and understanding for success.

The recipe for success

Four key ingredients are fundamental to cloud transformation success. The first is to have a clear strategy identifying the unique capabilities required for the business moving forward. Next comes business process analysis and design to determine how processes are operated to identify inefficiencies and map out how they need to change to ensure best practices. 

With strategy and business process changes in place, the right software solution implementation is required to harmonise the undertaking. New applications must be ramped up, brought to life, looked after, and eventually sunsetted. Troublemaker applications that might be out of maintenance and need attention to reduce the total cost of ownership and free up time for innovation have to be identified. 

Next, there needs to be a project plan for all software, including a thorough testing strategy that ensures quality through production and ongoing operational maintenance to keep the lights on after the product goes live. And, of course, this will only have the desired impact if users are trained to understand the new processes and solutions thoroughly. 

Remove risk 

Risk is often top of mind for executives embarking on cloud transformation projects. The concern that transformation could create errors that will damage the business is very real. However, it's possible to limit risk and provide transparency by ensuring that quality engineering is integrated throughout the transformation journey, building mature testing and multiple checkpoints into the process. 

If testing is left until the end, it's a case of returning to the start to fix the issues. By embedding quality at every stage, the transformation process can be made far more efficient, faster and with a higher level of confidence at the leadership level from the very beginning.  

Indeed, by building in testing from the start it's possible to establish what needs to be tested based on the identified process and architecture changes. This level of change impact analysis on an existing IT landscape means that a very targeted approach can be taken, identifying critical gaps that expose the business to risk and focusing testing efforts where they matter. 

This quality-led approach can be carried through to the end with acceptance tests and even non-functional requirements such as load speed and usability. With faster deployment cycles, including daily deployment, this approach assures quality for the future, creating test assets that manage the ripple effect of update impact.

Looking ahead

As large organisations everywhere ride the cloud wave, we expect most enterprise applications to move to the cloud in the next ten years. 

But cloud transformation demands more than just technological migration—it requires a holistic overhaul of an organisation's capabilities and processes. Success hinges on a clear strategy aligned with business goals, meticulous planning, optimised processes and robust execution that includes user training and change management for seamless adoption. Organisations must proactively integrate the right software solutions and a quality engineering approach throughout the transformation journey to mitigate risks, ensure efficiency, and instil stakeholder confidence.

Cloud transformation signifies a shift towards agility and innovation. A well-considered strategic and quality-led approach ensures success in the current transformation and prepares organisations for future growth in a dynamic digital landscape.