A major roadblock to Cloud adoption efforts continues to be analysis paralysis. Organizations see external market trends, pick up bits and pieces of information here and there and realize that there are opportunities to leverage the Cloud to become more efficient, more flexible, increase delivery speed and gain competitive advantages. Then they might look at the AWS menu board and see hundreds of available Cloud technologies, become overwhelmed by the options and don’t know where to start. Often, they’ll take a posture of “let’s wait until we have this figured out” which ends up causing an indefinite delay.
Common Causes of Analysis Paralysis
• Organizations lack a clear strategy for Cloud adoption and continuously explore possibilities rather than take proactive steps.
• Efforts are stalled by seemingly endless approval processes or because nobody is confident greenlighting expensive commitments that might be hard to reverse.
• There are too many options of Cloud Types, Cloud Tools, Cloud Services, etc., that they get mired in trying to fully understand and evaluate everything that is available.
• Organizations lack the expertise to understand the myriad of Cloud options or to even know where to start.
What to do
If you’re organization is facing analysis paralysis when it comes to the Cloud, what can you do to take this giant jumble of possibilities and pare it down to find a productive path forward? A common, often costly, mistake is to start with a given technology and try to make it work for you. It can lead to improvement, but it won’t optimize your expenditure or efforts. A better approach is to start by determining your needs and then finding the Cloud options that best meet them.
• Establish expected business outcomes. Have a clear idea of what you want from Cloud technology. Do you prioritize cost savings, scalability, flexibility, speed, resilience, a combination or something else you can achieve using Cloud technology?
• Create a business case. Once you establish expected business outcomes, create a business case that includes technical and financial scope, baseline financial data, relevant constraints and comparisons of your current state with expected future outcomes.
• Leverage external Cloud expertise. External partners that understand your organization and industry can work with you to identify the Cloud technology that best meets your needs and to train and upskill your staff. Your teams can learn while doing in an applied, hands-on environment that eliminates gaps between learning skills, applying skills and delivering value.
• Create a roadmap that includes assessing your current technology and its Cloud suitability, finding the optimal solutions and implementation and migration plans.
The first step in sorting out your best Cloud options is identifying your unique needs and opportunities and then seeking solutions that are the best fit. You’ll cut through the clutter, streamline your Cloud adoption process and ensure that your organization’s efforts are driven by delivering optimal business value for your Cloud technology investments.
