Assessing Cloud Maturity: 6 Factors to Consider

With increasing interest in the cloud and the way it streamlines business operations, organizations are investing more in cloud computing. Right from scaling their storage, creating collaboration apps to outsourcing their IT services, organizations are heavily relying on the cloud to support their business goals.

The cloud plays a crucial role in driving business transformations, providing the flexibility for companies to innovate and create new ways of engaging customers and developing products. Despite this, organizations face challenges when it comes to implementing cloud technology. These obstacles often stem from a reluctance to depart from established processes that have been honed to support on-premises systems.

To successfully adopt cloud computing, it is important for companies to understand their current level of cloud maturity. Some organizations may already be fully operating on the cloud, while others may have only migrated certain systems and processes or may be in the process of evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of cloud adoption.

The face of the matter is, it is important to assess a cloud strategy to understand how ready a business is for cloud adoption before using PaaS, SaaS or IaaS or cloud-based apps to aid cloud migration.

 Assessing your organization's cloud maturity level, whether it is tactical, strategic, or transformational, can help businesses maximize their existing capabilities and making informed decisions to achieve success and increase ROI in their cloud infrastructure.

 Factors to consider when evaluating your organization's cloud maturity level include:

 

Expectations Before Adopting Cloud

To understand the level of cloud maturity in an organization, it's essential to define the goals and objectives for cloud adoption. Is the goal to undergo digital transformation? How will cloud implementation improve business operations? Are productivity and efficiency the primary focus? Will the organization shift to a cloud-based model for products or services? These are important questions that must be answered before proceeding with cloud adoption.

 

The Right Cloud Adoption Mindset

A crucial aspect of cloud infrastructure success is having the right mindset to achieve set goals. Cloud adoption is not just a technical change but also a cultural shift that affects all aspects of cloud usage, including planning, cost, execution, training, and more. It's crucial to understand if the workforce is ready to embrace the cloud, understand the benefits it brings to the organization, and adapt to new ways of working before proceeding with cloud adoption.

 

Tech Capabilities

The presence of legacy systems can be used as a measure of an organization's cloud maturity. Organizations that rely heavily on outdated systems often struggle with cloud adoption. On the other hand, organizations that use modern systems, serverless architectures, and containerized applications are better able to integrate cloud strategies into their daily operations and achieve their long-term goals. In recent years, many companies have adopted a microservices and containerized approach. Therefore, those looking to take advantage of trends such as instrumentation and observability must first modernize their legacy systems to drive cloud success.

 

Degree of Virtualization

Evaluating the level of virtualization across your business is crucial in determining your organization's cloud maturity level. Consider the degree of virtualization implemented such as hardware, operating system, library support, user application, or instruction set level. 

Support from the Leadership

Executive sponsorship and leadership support for enterprise cloud adoption is a key factor in determining cloud maturity level. Organizations that are just beginning to experiment with cloud technology may have little or no support from top-level executives and lack a comprehensive cloud adoption framework and strategy. On the other hand, organizations that have fully integrated cloud technology into their business operations typically have cloud initiatives led by senior executives who ensure all cloud decisions align with current business processes and future goals.

 

Cloud Security Best Practices

Effective security and governance practices are essential for achieving a mature cloud infrastructure. Organizations that implement strategies and measures to automatically fix, right-size, or terminate workloads that do not meet cloud security best practices or guardrails that enable the automatic implementation of security best practices and monitoring of violations, have a more defined and systematic approach to cloud infrastructure. 

In summary, organizations embarking on enterprise cloud adoption journey often assume that the benefits of cloud services will outweigh the costs and risks. However, achieving cloud success requires a deep understanding of the organization's current cloud maturity level. By being aware of existing cloud maturity, organizations can better understand their readiness for utilizing cloud computing services and make the journey to the cloud as efficient and effective as possible, all while ensuring cloud services align with business objectives.

 

Wrapping it Up

Regardless of where your organization stands on the cloud maturity spectrum, continuously evaluating, monitoring, and managing your cloud journey using a state-of-the-art Cloud Observability and Management Platform through an expert cloud technology partner can be a good start. With built-in analytics and automation, this type of platform can provide comprehensive visibility into the existing cloud maturity level and help businesses address any challenges related to people, processes, and technology. 

Xoriant, one of the most trusted cloud technology solution companies, can assist businesses like yours in expediting digital transformation efforts through proper implementation of cloud services technology. By working with Xoriant, empower, secure, and optimize your cloud infrastructure workloads for optimal performance.