Identifying Drivers

Identifying drivers is the prerequisite for cloud transformation and determines whether an organization has a justified reason to start cloud transformation. Identifying drivers is a complex process. After comprehensively considering the business strategy, service requirements, financial requirements, and technical requirements, an agreement needs to be reached among executives and stakeholders. The recommended steps are as follows:

• Respond to key business events

  Enterprise executives usually make the cloud transformation decision based on actual service requirements. Key business events are often opportunities that drive cloud transformation. Key business events that enterprises may face now and in the future must be fully considered. The following lists some common key business events:

  • Digital transformation: Enterprises need more advanced IT technologies and platforms to support digital transformation. Cloud platforms can provide a variety of digital tools and services.
  • Data center retirement: Existing data centers are about to expire or devices are aged, calling for upgrade and replacement. So, cloud migration becomes an attractive option.
  • Mergers and splits: Mergers, acquisitions, or splits of enterprises have a significant impact on the IT infrastructure. The flexibility of cloud services can help enterprises quickly adjust IT resources to adapt to new organizational structures.
  • Tight cash flow: Enterprises have tight cash flow and hope to reduce capital expenditure, including investment in the IT infrastructure, and convert Capex to Opex. Pay-per-use billing that cloud services offer can meet this requirement.
  • Termination of key technologies: The existing provider is about to stop support on existing key technologies. Upgrade or migration is required. Cloud migration can provide more modernized, reliable, and secure technical solutions.
  • Changes in regulatory compliance: New regulations or compliance requirements may require enterprises to adjust IT systems. Cloud platforms can better meet these requirements.
  • Key service system interruption: Enterprises have experienced interruption of key service systems, causing losses and reputational damage. They hope to improve the reliability of service systems. Cloud platforms can provide higher reliability and DR capabilities.
  • Failing to meet carbon emission goals: Enterprises hope to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions and enhance the brand awareness and social responsibility. Cloud data centers usually adopt advanced energy management and cooling technologies to improve energy efficiency.
  • Fast market changes: The market environment and customer requirements change rapidly. Enterprises need to speed up product launch. Cloud platforms provide more flexible and elastic IT infrastructure to support quick product and feature launch.
  • Security attacks: Enterprises have recently suffered from hacker attacks and hope to improve the service system and data security to defend against attacks and data breaches. Cloud platforms can provide more comprehensive and powerful security protection.
• Map key business events to drivers

  Associate the key business events identified with cloud transformation drivers to better understand how cloud transformation can cope with the challenges brought by these key business events.

  Table 1 Mapping between key business events and drivers

  Key Business Event	Business Drivers	Technical Drivers	Financial Drivers
  Digital transformation	Enhance service agility Accelerate service innovation Improve service continuity Expand market reach	Improve resource elasticity Improve system resilience Improve scalability Improve security	Increase revenues
  Data center retirement	-	Improve resource elasticity Improve system resilience Improve scalability Improve security Improve O&M efficiency Improve performance efficiency	Pay-per-use billing Cost-effectiveness
  Mergers and splits	Enhance service agility	Improve resource elasticity Improve scalability	-
  Tight cash flow	-	Improve resource elasticity Improve O&M efficiency Improve performance efficiency	Pay-per-use billing Cost-effectiveness
  Termination of key technologies	Improve service continuity	Improve resource elasticity Improve system resilience Improve scalability Improve security	-
  Changes in regulatory compliance	Ensure regulatory compliance	Improve security	-
  Key service system interruption	Improve service continuity	Improve system resilience Improve performance efficiency	-
  Failing to meet carbon emission goals	Foster sustainability	-	-
  Fast market changes	Enhance service agility	Improve resource elasticity Improve scalability	Increase revenues
  Security attacks	Improve service continuity	Improve security	-

• Prioritize the drivers

  Business events have different urgency and importance. You need to prioritize the identified drivers based on the business strategy and condition of the enterprise. For example, for an enterprise that is undergoing digital transformation, "enhance service agility" and "accelerating service innovation" have higher priorities. For an enterprise with tight cash flow, "pay-per-use billing" and "cost-effectiveness" have higher priorities. These priorities determine which aspects should be considered first during the future solution design. For example, if resilience, security, and cost conflict, enterprises with tight cash flow should prefer low-cost design solutions and make some compromises in terms of security and resilience.

• Align with executives and stakeholders

  After the drivers and priorities of cloud transformation are determined, record the drivers, priorities, and expected benefits of cloud transformation, communicate and align with executives and stakeholders, listen to their opinions and suggestions, and obtain their understanding and support.