74% of organizations have started a legacy system modernization project but failed to complete it. Last year, Forbes predicted that 83% of all enterprise workloads would be in the public, private, or hybrid cloud by the end of 2020. Cloud is prerequisite for sustainable and scalable future enterprise success. Equally, if not more important is unlocking cloud’s full potential and compounding ROI.

To ensure a successful transformation to the cloud you need to align cloud strategy with the larger business and organizational strategies and consider how the company will harness this technological change.

A cloud strategy may bring substantial infrastructure savings, but typically this represents only a small percentage of total IT spend ...the greater opportunities lie in operational efficiencies and business benefits that result from leveraging the cloud.

If the motivations for enduring the rigors of any cloud journey aren’t clear already, here are several key benefits that speak not only to IT decision makers, but to the business benefits of cloud modernization overall:

Eliminates redundant technology at scale.
Allows leadership to focus on strategic initiatives.
Improves customer experience for better conversion and retention.
Enables organizations to drive companywide value and savings.
Accelerates time to market for improved competitiveness & differentiation.
Empowers more accurate estimates, forecasts, and TCO estimates.
Provides clarity for risk management, compliance, regulation, and security.
Unlocks new tech adoption and reusable portfolio of products and services.

Despite an ever-accelerating mass migration to cloud—in our experience—most companies seeking to modernize are experiencing various blockers or frictions. This should come as no surprise because the journey is a marathon, not a sprint—so there will inevitably be challenges to overcome along the way.

Here are three challenges we see most frequently when asked to help get our enterprise clients back on track (or started the right way) with their cloud transformation.

Challenge #1

That brings us to the most cited challenge of time and money. Our experience shows that many cloud adoptions and transformational efforts fail because the initiatives take longer and cost more than decision makers and stakeholders anticipate.

Challenge #2

We classify this challenge as “left hand/right hand”. There are typically many cloud initiatives running at different levels of maturity across different business units within the company. This challenge is often the byproduct of capability gaps with the existing central IT function and its deliverable services.

Because the central IT model is often inflexible and entrenched over time, business units are compelled to initiate their own independent cloud journeys.

Challenge #3

In a word, this challenge is alignment. Articulating, creating, and implementing fundamental change and associated “Ways of Working” across all interactions within your company will present new and different challenges—which ties back to and perpetuates the previous two challenges.

“To ensure a successful transformation to the cloud you need to align cloud strategy with the larger business and organizational strategies.”

Overcoming these challenges

To remove these blockers and friction points, the right expectations need to be set, and the company must rethink its modernization approach across business organization and technological functionality. Enterprises cannot simply rely on existing models (built for the data center)—or investments and effort will gain little benefit, if not fail entirely.

At SoftServe, we’ve found that building top-down cloud advocacy is required to generate enthusiasm and momentum for IT change. This advocacy can also serve as a catalyst for innovation, leading to new ways of achieving improved goals that are deeply attuned to company strategy.

The resulting initiatives and pilots are more likely to evolve into endeavors that position the company for long-term success. And this new way of working aligns teams and promotes a sense of purpose and common mission.

The road to cloud modernization should begin with asking mission, vision, and purpose-driven questions, such as:

What outcomes are we looking for?
Why are we investing in the cloud?
How is technology used across our enterprise?
How can the cloud address business and organizational challenges through technology, economics, and security?
What is the critical path for achieving successful cloud adoption?
How can the business and organizational culture be aligned with technological changes?
What policies, processes, and procedures will be impacted as part of the cloud modernization journey?

As part of the discussion, you will need to evaluate the maturity of your company’s capabilities. This maturity determination enables your organization to define measurable goals for a successful transformation journey.

With these specific insights in hand, the enterprise is ready to take the next steps of de-risking the modernization process—aided by the right cloud experts to co-create from strategy to completion.

LET'S TALK about your cloud journey and how SoftServe can help you unlock your unrealized business benefits through cloud modernization.

Clive’s recent stories

How to Overcome 3 Common Cloud Modernization Challenges